Savior? Lord? Neither? Both?

Last week a pastor I know asked this question on Facebook: “In one sentence, who is Jesus to you?”

I must have seen the question almost as soon as it was posted, because my reply was the second comment: “My Savior and Lord.”

The first comment was the opposite of mine, “My Lord and Savior.” I did look back once to see what some other answers were. I didn’t see any clues as to why he asked the question in the first place.

I did think a bit more about my answer and the one before mine. Does the order of those two roles for Jesus matter? Can Jesus be one of those things without also being the other?

For Christians, the order matters, if only slightly. Jesus is both Lord and Savior, but he needs to be my Savior first, before I live with him as my Lord. If I am still living lost in my sin, oblivious to my peril and need for his salvation, I will not really care, or even desire, for him to be my Lord. I can get along quite well as the lord of my own life, thank you. At least that is what I thought before Jesus became my Savior, at which point the folly of that line of reasoning became clear to me.

But what about the non-Christian? Is Jesus Lord? Is he Savior? Yes, and no.

Jesus is not the savior of the non-Christian. He does not save anyone who does not call on him to do so. The Buddhist, the Hindu, the Muslim, the atheist, the person claiming a generic Christian identity without personally trusting in Jesus…none of them are saved. He would very gladly and readily save any and all of them, as is made clear a number of places in the Bible, such as what Paul writes in Romans 10:9:

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Is Jesus the Lord of the non-Christian? Yes, he is. Perhaps not in the personal sense, as conveyed through the words “my Lord,” but certainly in the sense that He is, and always has been, Lord of all creation.

John 1:3 says:

“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

And in a post-resurrection appearance to his disciples, in Matthew 28:18 he said:

“All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.”

The Christian understands that at the end of the day there is no one who is not accountable to the Lord Jesus.

Who is Jesus to you? It is a good question. My hope and prayer is that he is Savior and Lord, or Lord and Savior. The order is not nearly as important as that he is both of those things, to you, in a very personal sense. May Jesus be your Savior, you Lord, now and forever. Amen.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.