You CAN Receive Jesus As Your Savior, But Not Lord

1st Timothy 4:10, “For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.”

One of the great truths that I have learned in my Christian life is that receiving Jesus as the “Lord” of your life has nothing to do with getting saved. My favorite Bible preacher, Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001), eloquently drives this truth home in this beautiful sermon excerpt. You don't take Jesus as your Lord to get saved, you take Him as your personal Savior!

Pastor M.R. DeHaan (1891-1965) made this tremendous statement:

"There is a vast difference between coming to Jesus for salvation and coming after Jesus for service. Coming to Christ makes one a believer, while coming after Christ makes one a disciple. All believers are not disciples. To become a believer one accepts the invitation of the Gospel, to be a disciple one obeys the challenge to a life of dedicated service and separation. Salvation comes through the sacrifice of Christ; discipleship comes only by sacrifice of self and surrender to His call for devoted service. Salvation is free, but discipleship involves paying the price of a separated walk. Salvation can't be lost because it depends upon God's faithfulness, but discipleship can be lost because it depends upon our faithfulness." —Pastor M.R. DeHaan, “Hebrews”; Zondervan Publishing House; 1959 (p. 117)

Amen and amen! Anybody who associates a change of behavior with the new birth is preaching another gospel. Sadly, the official doctrinal position of Pensacola Christian College (PCC) is, quote:

"Repentance is a change of mind resulting in a change of behavior."

That is another gospel. PCC is preaching a counterfeit plan of salvation. The Gospel does not teach partial faith in Christ plus works; but rather, childlike faith in Jesus' death on the cross, burial and bodily resurrection from the dead three days later (1 Corinthians 15;1-4).

➜ Roman Catholicism errantly says to be saved a person 𝗠𝗨𝗦𝗧 do good works.
➜ Calvinism errantly says a saved person 𝗪𝗜𝗟𝗟 do good works.
➜ The Holy Bible says a saved person 𝗦𝗛𝗢𝗨𝗟𝗗 do good works (Titus 2;12)

Faith is the only righteous thing that I can do.

I have heard preachers say during an invitation after a sermon, that you should trust Jesus as your “Lord and Savior.” Although I dislike and choose not to use such terminology myself, since it is inaccurate theologically, using this expression doesn't necessarily mean that a preacher is teaching Lordship Salvation. It depends on what he means by the word “Lord.” If you mean that we must by faith receive the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved, then I wholeheartedly agree. Acts 16:30-31, “And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” But if you mean what Satan's modern corrupt Bible revisions say in Romans 10:9, that you must “declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord'” to be saved, then I totally 100% disagree! My humble opinion is that we should try to avoid using words and clichés that are not found in the Bible, when teaching the Bible.

Dr. Jack Hyles exposes the heresy of Lordship Salvation in his helpful book titled, “Blue Denim And Lace.” Chapter 11 is titled, “Lordship Salvation: An Enemy Of Soulwinning.” Our text verse says that Jesus is the SAVIOUR of all men, not the LORD of all men. ...

1st Timothy 4:10, “For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.”

Notice that Jesus is the Saviour of all men, especially of THEM THAT BELIEVE. What does that mean? It means that Jesus is also the Savior of Christ-rejecters! This is why we read in the following Scripture passage that Jesus even bought false prophets with His precious blood. 2nd Peter 2:1, “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” Amen and amen.

Jesus died on the cross of Calvary with the ultimate goal of being the LORD of all mankind, but He only requires that you receive Him as your SAVIOR to get to Heaven. ...

Romans 14:9, “For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.”

Jesus died for you so that you can escape the fires of Hell and be with Him in eternity, but He desires earnestly that you will also take Him as your Lord. To clarify, if you are a born-again child of God Jesus is your Lord, but that doesn't mean you have received Him as Lord. Jesus wants every saint to follow Him, committing our life to serve Him faithfully. However, receiving Jesus as the “Lord” of your life has absolutely NOTHING to do with receiving God's free gift of eternal life, which is by faith alone in Jesus Christ the “Savior.” You take Jesus as your SAVIOR, not your LORD, to be saved. The former is SALVATION (Romans 10:13), the latter is SERVICE (Romans 12:1). The former is SONSHIP (John 1:12), the latter is DISCIPLESHIP (Luke 14:33).

In closing, Jesus wants every born-again believer to surrender to His Lordship, to follow and serve God faithfully; however, this is NOT required or even allowed to be saved. Jesus died on a cross to pay down our massive debt of sin, which we simply could not pay. JESUS PAID IT ALL!!! So, if you want to go to Heaven, you simply need to CEASE from your own works and REST completely in Christ's finished work of redemption. And then once you are saved, at no risk of ever going to Hell again, God wants you to follow His only begotten Son, obeying His commandments. John 14:15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”