Pattern and Principles: Savior and Lord – What Is the Difference?

Pattern and Principles: Savior and Lord – what is the difference?

Rom. 10: 9 – “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”

Trusting in Jesus Christ as your Savior makes you a Christian. It’s your access to God and your entrance into the Christian life. But it’s no place to stop. When Jesus Christ becomes your Savior, He also becomes your Lord.

Trusting Christ as Savior means you understand that you’re a sinner and deserve death as a result. It means accepting that Jesus made the unique and ultimate sacrifice by dying on the cross to take away your sins.

Receiving Christ as Lord means you surrender your will, your desires, your plans, and possessions, everything you have to Him. He gets all of you to do with as He sees fit. It means you hold nothing back from Him. You don’t give Him part of you and horde the rest to do with as you choose.

It means you surrender your life to the One who purchased it with His own blood and in so doing, receive a new life in Christ. True surrender means admitting you can’t handle life without God. You stop pretending to be God, get off the throne of your life, and let God assume His rightful place there.

• Steve Arterburn