05/11/23 SAVIOR AND LORD...BOTH

05/11/23 SAVIOR AND LORD...BOTH

SAVIOR AND LORD
The Lordship of Christ is to confess that Jesus Christ is God and to profess a total submission to Him.

Though the Christian's heart can be purified from the sinful nature, subsequent to our salvation (justification, regeneration, conversion), our initial salvation makes it possible for the believer to live in obedience to the commandments of God and therefore, not sin.
1 John 3:9 NKJV
9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

1 John 5:4 NKJV
4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.

1 John 5:18 NKJV
18 We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.

This is because salvation is not simply forgiveness of our sins in the past, but deliverance from the power of sin now. 

Romans 10:8-11 NKJV
8 But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."

We must confess that Jesus is Lord (our God) and believe in our hearts that God has raised Him from the dead. From the beginning of our relationship with God, we acknowledge Jesus as God, and therefore we obey Him.

Unlike the New Birth and the Death of our Old Man, this is not a Two-Step experience. Jesus becomes both our Savior and Lord when we are converted, when we are born again. If He is not our Lord, He is not our Savior. We are not saved if Jesus is not Lord. This is clearly and redundantly taught in the Bible.

Not only does the Bible state that God expects Christians to quit sinning, the Bible instructs believers in living victoriously over sin.