I use to preach Jesus as Savior.
While I think that is true, it turns out it is not enough. That makes Christianity little more than fire insurance, and it totally discounts the life of Jesus, because it teaches that Jesus simply came to die.
Next I started preaching that Jesus was Lord. That made his life and the cross simply a pattern or template to which I must conform. Jesus beccomes simply an example of good morality and ethics. Christianity becomes just another religion of rules, regulation, rituals, and requirements.
Now I preach Jesus as my life source and resource. His LIFE redefines what it means to identify Jesus as Savior and Lord.
He is Savior because his life and resurrection unites and connects me to the blessed Trinity. He is Lord because through my union with Him, it is his life that is being expressed through me by faith. Even when it might not look that way, this process of santification is all happening by the work of the Holy Spirit in and through me, not by religion being imposed on me.
Who is Jesus to me? He is my LIFE and resource…and because he is my LIFE, I trust his grace to save me and his life to be expressed through me.
“I am cruficied in Christ, yet I live – but it is not me, but Christ in me. The life I now live is by the faith of Christ in me.” – Paul the Apostle, Letter to the Galatians
