# 4 Where Am I Heading?
Savior and Lord
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him.
(Colossians 2:6)
When we talk about receiving Christ in our modern setting, we often think in
terms of "asking Jesus into our
heart.@ Too often the concern is
merely to get people to respond with the heart rather than the mind.
I suspect that when Paul talked about receiving Christ Jesus as Lord, he
expected those he was evangelizing first of all to receive the truth of Christ.
And when you look at how Paul writes to new believers, you cannot escape one
thing: New believers in Paul's day
were well taught in Christian theology.
He also says that they received Christ Jesus as Lord. Not infrequently you'll hear people say things like,
"I
received Jesus as my Savior at such-and-such a time, but it wasn't until x number of years later that I received him as my Lord.@
I understand what people mean by that. They mean that they started off on
their pilgrimage and only later had a deeper experience. I don't have any problems with that. But I do have problems with their terminology.
I don't know how you can receive
Jesus without receiving Jesus Christ the Lord. You cannot separate them. Paul is
crystal clear at this point. "You
receive Christ Jesus as Lord.@
Look at it this way: You want Jesus to save you from death, hell, and the
devil, but how can he save you from what he hasn't conquered? But if he has mastered these things in order to save you from them,
it's because he is Lord of them.
Therefore, the idea of him saving you presupposes his lordship.
If the one I am receiving into my life is the Lord, and I recognize that it
is only his Lordship that qualifies him to be my Savior, how can I receive him
without acknowledging his mastery of my life? I can't.
I'm not saying you have to
understand all the ramifications of lordship or that you've got to be "totally surrendered@
(whatever that is). But people who casually bow their heads and say a little
prayer without any deeper understanding of Christ or any readiness to submit
their lives to him are people who have not adequately seen Christ Jesus as Lord.
What does it mean to receive Jesus Christ as Lord?
Father, please help to more clearly understand what it means to have a Savior
who is Lord of all he saves me from, and also Lord of me, Amen.
~Stuart Briscoe~