Receiving Jesus just as a savior is different from receiving him as the lord of your life. If you have received born-again experience, then Jesus Christ is not only your Savior but also he is the Lord of your life. You may receive Jesus as the savior of your life but that does not mean you obey him in your daily life. To make Jesus the lord of your life means handing over the ownership of your life to him. There is nothing wrong to know Jesus as the savior. But unless you make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life and obey him daily, your new life is meaningless.
Matthew 1:21 “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Acts 4:12 “and there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
Scripture says Jesus came to save His people. He is a saviour to his people. In fact, he is the only one in history who came and gave his life as an atoning sacrifice to save his people from their sins. He saved you from your rebellion, bondages, from yourself and this present perverse generation. He saved you from Satan’s kingdom and transferred you to the kingdom of God (1 Colossian 1:13). Unless he saved you, you would have perished.
Understanding that “Jesus is your savior” is one of the amazing revelations of the Gospel. It gives us joy knowing that when we are powerless when we are in our sins our savior gave his life as a substitute sacrifice for us. It is the love of God and justice of God that worked together to save us from our fallen state. But knowing and receiving Jesus as savior is not enough for us.
Let us think this way. You are in the sea beach area. You are trying to swim in the water. All of a sudden, you found yourself sinking, caught in the tide. You started shouting out and yelling for help. A beach lifeguard who is seeing you from the beach, jumped into the water to rescue you from the water. And finally, he saves your life. Now you are so grateful to the lifeguard because he saved your life. You probably invite him to your house and give him a very costly gift and thank him for saving your life. You may show your gratitude towards him and probably you are keeping in touch with him. But you are not going to give him the first place in your life. You are not going to accept him as the master (Lord) of your life. You are not going to obey the lifeguard throughout your life. The lifeguard is not the lord of your life, but he just saved your life from drowning. He saved your life once that does not mean that, he will be the owner, of your life.
Your relationship with Jesus also starts from knowing him as your saviour. But you go into another dimension of a deeper relationship with Him as you know him the Lord of your life. Now knowing Jesus as the Lord of your life makes you obedient to him and helps you to live a life in a daily relationship with Him. Knowing him as a saviour is not enough to live a life of daily obedience.
If you received Him as your savior only, then you may be relating with him in a very different way. You may be going back to him regularly to save you from certain problems that you are facing in your day to day life. You may call out to Jesus daily for your help, healing, deliverance etc. These are good but you have not started obeying him yet. That means you are always in seeking mode or asking for help mode. You are not in obedience mode. God wants us to obey Him wholeheartedly. If you only want Jesus to help you with your problem then you are always in salvation mode. New life is not about that.
Colossians 2:6 as you, therefore, have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
As you received Jesus as Lord of your life, you need to continue walking with him. God wants to save you through Jesus and also he wants to be the Lord of your lives. So just receiving born again experience is not enough but we need to obey Jesus and walk continuously in his obedience. He is not only your savior but the Lord of your life. As you accept His lordship over your lives you surrender everything to him and start obeying Him whole-heatedly. Lordship means he is the owner of your lives. You can obey Him on a daily basis when you understand him as the lord of your life. He is your lord means you are his servant. Lordship means 100% ownership of your life; you cannot hold back anything for yourself. As you walk with him you will be more like him.
Jesus Christ is not only your savior but he is the lord of your life. Accepting him just as your savior is not enough, you need to obey him daily. Believing Jesus Christ as Lord means to obey him daily. The lordship of your life has to be handed over to Jesus. As the lord of your life, he wants to lead you (John 10:27). Unless you accept Jesus as the lord of your new life your new life is meaningless.
