2/17/19 Lance
A
young aspiring filmmaker named Lance touched on a lot of reasons why he
wasn't too concerned about eternity during our short conversation on a
snowy sidewalk, but none troubled me as much as his belief that
Christianity says all he has to do is “accept Jesus as your Savior and
that will pretty much get you in” – something he said he had done during
his involvement at various churches.
I’m pretty sure that
Lance’s understanding of what it means to “accept Jesus as your Savior”,
however, is quite different from the biblical view. Not to mention
that this particular phrase isn’t even found in the Bible, in the entire
New Testament Jesus is referred to as “Lord” over six hundred times and
mentioned as being “Savior” only fifteen times, with many of those
references being paired with the word “Lord” or “God”, as in “…you will
receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:11)
Would it be helpful to understand
that when Jesus becomes our Savior, it is already understood that He is
our Lord? In other words, it is only Jesus the Lord who can be Jesus
our Savior. Any other version of “Jesus” that we put our trust in
doesn’t have the capacity to be anyone’s savior.
Then again,
maybe our understanding of the term “Lord” is flawed. Do we really
understand Him to be Lord God of our lives? Or what does it mean to
truly “believe” or “trust” Jesus? It has to be more than lip service.
This is why, I think, Jesus said “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord,
Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the
will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)
Yet, for all
its importance, this focus on Jesus truly being our “Lord” puts a works
requirement on salvation that no sinner can fulfill. None of us can
perfectly be “the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
Really, we don’t even come close. Even if we were able to perfectly
repent and live without sin the rest of our life, we are already guilty
of the sins we have already committed despite the moral conscience each
of us have been given.
We need a savior because of our sins,
but only the Lord can save. So how can we be saved through faith in the
Lord Jesus when we have no ability to follow Him as Lord?
I
believe this is why Jesus said we must be “born again”. We enter that
saving relationship with a childlike faith in Jesus, maybe only as big
as a mustard seed, and it grows as we trust Him more and more, which
Paul described as “…being transformed into his image with
ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
(2 Cor. 3:18)
It’s a trust that is more than the lip service that
Lance described, but not requiring the maturity of a seasoned believer.
It comes from trusting not in our own efforts or goodness, but in
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, our Lord and our Savior.
Thanks for the conversation Lance! It can be seen at https://youtu.be/-ONRdh6_Y2g on my YouTube channel.
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