One basic definition of a Christian is someone who knows Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Christ is a term that means anointed one. Jesus was sent with an anointing, a calling, a purpose. He was to be our Lord and Savior.

Jesus is our savior because He took on our sins and received in Himself the punishment for them, and by faith we receive forgiveness for our sins. Jesus came not just so our sins could be forgiven, but to take away our sins so that we no longer sin. We become the righteousness of God. I have already shared verses about these several times, so I won’t repeat them again here. You can find them in the lessons of Sin and the Sacrificial Lamb.

It’s that righteousness that allows us to live in eternal life. We learn to do what is right and are helped to do what is right and we do what is right and the end of it is eternal life with God now and in heaven.

Romans 6:22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

We are saved in every way. When we need help, we can call on God and know we will be helped. That’s saving too. We talked about that in the lesson called God, our Savior.

The other part of this phrase is that Jesus is Lord. You can’t just “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord” and be saved. You can’t say “the magic words” and then you’re saved. To say “Jesus is Lord,” is to say Jesus is YOUR Lord. What does that mean?

Can you imagine a medieval lord? He calls his servant to come, and he comes, saying “Yes, my lord.” He tells his servant to go and do something, and he responds, “Right away, my lord.” He takes away what he has given to his servant, “Whatever you require, my lord.” And so on. Jesus must be your Lord if you want to be saved. It means you honor and obey Him with devotion.

When we have the life of Christ in our hearts by faith, we are saved and are being saved. Jesus must be resurrected in our lives. His righteousness needs to be made visible in our lives. His life needs to be made visible in our lives. That means Jesus needs to shine through us by our obeying God’s Word, which looks like loving God and doing of good works showing love to others. If we are living in these things, we’ve made Jesus our Lord and know Him as Savior.

The life of Christ must be seen in your life. It should impact how you live each day in noticeable ways.

Jesus must be both your Lord and Savior, today and always.

Acts 2:36 (NIV) “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah [Savior]!”

Lesson Point: In order for Jesus to be our Savior, He must also be our Lord whom we submit to.

Challenge Question: Do you live with Jesus as your Lord? What does that look like practically each day?