CommonChristianity: Jesus Saves

5:24 PM | Posted by Bob Walters | | Edit Post

Spirituality Column #390
May 6, 2014
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville

Lord and Savior: A Package Deal

By Bob Walters

Accepting Jesus Christ as Savior is easy. Accepting Him as Lord is hard.

I mean, who wouldn’t want salvation? Jesus did all the work, undertook all the risk, endured all the pain, did it without being asked, and did it for love. And, He is, after all, God – the Son of Man, the Son of God, God incarnate, fully God, fully man, fully worthy and powerful to be our savior. With no effort on our part, we receive divine, eternal love, forgiveness, mercy, grace, hope and joy in exchange for simple, childlike faith. It’s a pretty good deal.

Even if we don’t quite understand salvation, aren’t sure why we want or need it, think heaven is a longshot, and at any rate figure “I am a good person,” salvation still is the ultimate free lunch. Jesus on the Cross, dead then resurrected, presents mankind with a never-ending, glorious fellowship with God Almighty in heaven.

“Jesus saves!” Hallelujah! All we have to do is get in line.

But as truly as “Jesus is savior” describes how Jesus treats us, believing “Jesus is Lord” implies a monumental and frequently frightening responsibility for how we are supposed to treat God. God is serious about it. Often we are not.

Our faith in Jesus as savior is one thing, a good thing. But faith in Jesus as Lord isn’t about God giving us something like salvation which we haven’t and couldn’t possibly earn; it’s about trusting God to be who He says He is, and then trusting Him with our lives not only in heaven, but here on earth. Saying “Jesus is Lord” demands our obedience, confession, humility, surrender, perseverance, suffering and the ceding of all authority. These are abdications few can bear.

For sinful humans – and that’s everybody – worldly things (money, lust, power, comfort, etc.) typically “lord” over our lives. We want God’s saving gifts, but we also want carnal control. Selfishly we proclaim, “Jesus is my savior!” but insist, “I’m in the best position to decide what and who are going to lord over my life.”

Naming Jesus as Lord implies an uncomfortable debt on our part, even though our debts were erased by Jesus on the cross. Our salvation is not a transaction – technically I suppose it’s not even a “deal" – it’s a miracle, a mystery, a promise, and God’s love. We all know that saying “Lord, Lord,” (Matthew 7:2, Luke 6:46) does not open heaven; but following Jesus’s command to love God and love others, does.

“Lord and Savior” is the whole truth. We don’t get one without the other.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) cautions against seeing our salvation in Christ as the Good News and his Lordship as the bad news.

332 - If I'm 'No. 1,' What's Jesus?

12:29 PM | Posted by Bob Walters | | Edit Post

Spirituality Column #332
March 26, 2013
Current in Carmel – Westfield – Noblesville – Fishers – Zionsville

If I’m ‘No. 1,’ What’s Jesus?

By Bob Walters

Most people in our culture know the basics of the Christian story.

Jesus was born peacefully in a manger, died violently on a cross, came back unexpectedly from the dead, and somehow because of all that our sins are graciously forgiven and we can go eternally to heaven. And, oh yeah: Jesus Saves, Jesus is the Son of God, and Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so.

Not everyone believes it, but almost everyone knows the story and understands they are a sinner in need of redeeming help. Thanks to Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter, the majority of folks have at least a visceral attachment to Christian faith. That’s one of the great gifts of our culture: that people generally accept and understand there is room for improvement in their moral being and they’d sincerely like to “be a better person.” The problem is that the outlandishness of the whole “Jesus Story” – being a humble servant dedicated to glorifying God – doesn’t pass the secular sanity test of “Looking out for No. 1.”

Most people see “No. 1” in the mirror, not in their faith. To paraphrase Rick Blaine in Casablanca, “Here’s looking at me, kid.” After all, who can be more important than “me”? Whose priorities can supersede mine? We are coached by popular society to “find ourselves” and “define ourselves” and to organize our activities around the pursuit of “being as good as I can be.” So we ask, “Who or what can help me achieve that goal?” People might answer with “Jesus” or “church” or some other religious, spiritual, or self-help term, but too often the small and mistaken goal is “me.”

Turning toward church only works when we turn toward the Cross with the goal of discovering something about Jesus. And that only works if we approach Jesus with our entire life: our heart, mind, soul, strength, personality, treasure … everything. We cannot define one part of our life in Jesus, and another part in something else.

That’s because Jesus is bigger than anything else. He is “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus totally defines himself and anyone who truly follows Him. In His life, His ministry, His trial, His torture, His death and His resurrection, Jesus submitted to the will and glory of God.

If I want to be like Jesus, to get to know Jesus, that’s what I have to do.

Because the real story and basic truth of Christianity is that Jesus Christ is No. 1, and I’m not.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) recommends an Easter Sunday trip to church focused on God’s love, not on one’s personal sins. Try it, you’ll like it.

390 - Lord and Savior: A Package Deal

332 - If I'm 'No. 1,' What's Jesus?

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