Jesus, LORD and Savior-Part Three
Why Do People Only Make Him Savior?
If the Bible makes it very clear that Jesus is to be our LORD and Savior,
then it would be fair to ask the following question:
Why Do People Only Make Him Savior?
There are several reasons for this. Maybe they had a foxhole salvation.
Others were never taught about making Jesus Lord. Some have chosen to ignore
what scripture teaches. Others are wolves in sheep clothing.
Foxhole Salvation
We all have heard of people, who were in a
situation where it seemed the only answer was to call out to God for help. God
answered their cry and so they decide there is a God that loves them, they have
heard about Jesus, so they ask Him to be their Savior. Maybe they were in jail,
they had a terrible sickness, they were living on the street, they went through
a divorce, they truly were “under fire” and needed the
protection of God.
The problem with many Foxhole Salvations is that once the ‘heat is off’ the person forgets about God and Jesus. Or they live carnal, wordly lives, and only call out to God when they need some help. They may go to church when they ‘need to’.
Never Taught
Some people made a sincere commitment to make
Jesus as their Savior, but they never were taught that He is to also be their
Lord. Maybe they came to Jesus because of a foxhole experience and they know
their need for Him as their Savior throughout their life. The problem is they
were never taught that He is to be Lord of everything in their life.
What happens is the person is never discipled. A prime example of this is a jailhouse conversion. A person in jail is given a Bible and a Bible tract. Because they are in tough times they decide to read the Bible tract and it touches their heart. They now have a Bible for the first time in their life and so they start reading it. It gives them encouragement so they decide to be a Christian. They then get out of jail and may try for awhile to live as a Christian. But they were never taught about spiritual warfare, ‘bad company corrupts good morals’, the fellowship of believers, the renewing of the mind, accountability, etc. So they start taking on the world and the things of the world become their Lord, not Jesus.
Ignore Scripture
Some people chose to ignore what the Bible
teaches. Or they try to find all the verses on love, grace, mercy, forgiveness,
to try and defend their behavior. Maybe they have gone to a church that all it
preaches is love, love, love-nothing but love. Whenever they are confronted
about their ungodly behavior, they say ‘grace abounds’. What they don’t understand
is that if grace abounds, they would not be sinning because grace gives them
the ability to not sin.
Yes, God is a good of love. But He is a holy God and He calls us to be holy. And the only way we can walk in holiness is by making Him be the Lord of our life by the power of the Holy Spirit.
The reality is that some people want to not go to hell, but they want to keep their hellish behavior. They make statements like: “Yes, I want Jesus as my Savior, but I will not give up my smoking, boozing, fornicating.” The problem is that then some unknowledgeable Christian comes along and says, “That is ok, just accept Jesus as your Savior and He will take care of the rest.” Yes, it is true that He will take care of the rest, but He must be given permission to take care of the rest. That only happens when we make Him Lord of our lives.
Wolves in Sheep Clothing
We must also acknowledge that there are those who
are pretending to be Christians. They are pawns of the enemy. They are
willfully being deceptive. Or they are very deceived and think they are
Christians, even though there is no evidence of salvation in their life. Or
their motives for doing good works were for personal gain. We all have heard
the following verses from Matthew 7:21-22:
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter
the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. "Many will say to Me on that
day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out
demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’
The final nugget in this series is titled, “Ok, be my LORD and Savior”.
Copyright Ó 2001
Richard D.
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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations used are from the New American Standard Version (NAS).