JESUS IS LORD!

If Christ is your Savior, then He is also your Lord, because that is who He is! The identity of Jesus was announced by the angel of the Lord to lowly shepherds attending their flocks. He said, "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord" (Lk. 2:11). Who is this Savior? He is Christ the Lord!

Jesus is called "Lord" over seven hundred times in the New Testament, and of those, over two hundred appear in the four Gospels. In contrast, Jesus is only called "Savior" twenty-four times in the entire New Testament. And yet, there are many who say something like, "I accepted Jesus as my Savior when I was (age), but I accepted Him as my Lord when I was much older." In my opinion, for what it is worth, those individuals became born again Christians when they accepted Him for who He is: Jesus is Lord!

When a person is saved, who is the Person that he trusts? Luke wrote, "And they said, Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house" (Acts 16:31). When you put your trust in Jesus, who is Lord, you are saved. You become a new creature (2 Cor. 5:17). The thief on the cross next to Jesus said to Him, "LORD, remember me when Thou comest into thy kingdom" (Lk. 23:42). Following the Resurrection of Jesus, the Apostle Thomas, upon seeing Jesus, said, "My LORD and my God" (Jn. 20:28). The Apostle Paul's response to Jesus was, "LORD, what wilt Thou have me to do?" (Acts 9:6).

In addition to the use of the term in the Gospels, Jesus is called "Lord" over one hundred times in the Book of Acts. In the Apostle Paul's epistles, Jesus is identified as "Lord" more than one hundred fifty times. The writer of the Book of Hebrews describes Jesus as "Lord" sixteen times, and in the small epistle written by James, he calls Jesus "Lord" thirteen times. In his two epistles, Peter calls Jesus "Lord" twenty-three times, while tiny Book of Jude identifies Jesus as "Lord" six times. In his three epistles, and the Book of Revelation, John calls Jesus "Lord" twenty-four times.

The title "Savior," on the other hand, appears three times in the Gospels, twice in Acts, twelve times in the epistles of Paul (six of those are in the Book of Titus), five times in Peter's epistles, once in the epistles of John, and once in the Book of Jude. Based upon how the writers of the New Testament present Jesus, I have to come to the conclusion that He is LORD, and being the Savior is the role He played in God's plan to redeem mankind.

So, the bottom line is: Jesus is either your Lord, or He is not your Savior!