When Jesus is the Lord of His Church: Truth

Why Jesus Can't Just Be Your Savior—He Has to Be Your Lord

When Truth Becomes Personal

We live in a world that's allergic to absolute truth. Everyone's truth is "their truth." What's right for you might not be right for me. Love is love. You do you. And somewhere in the middle of all this relativism, the church has started whispering when it should be speaking clearly—afraid to offend, desperate to be liked, trying so hard to be "relevant" that we've forgotten to be truthful.

But here's what keeps me up at night: What if, in our attempt to make Christianity more palatable, we've watered down the very thing that makes it powerful?

Jesus didn't come to be one option among many. He came as THE way, THE truth, and THE life (John 14:6, CSB). And when we make Him Lord of our lives—truly Lord—everything changes. Not just our Sunday mornings. Everything.

Let's figure out together what it really means to let Truth himself be the driving force of our lives.

The Sword That Cuts Through Everything We're Hiding

Listen to how the writer of Hebrews describes God's truth:

"For the word of God is living and effective and sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating as far as the separation of soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. No creature is hidden from him, but all things are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account." (Hebrews 4:12-13, CSB)

That's not exactly a warm, fuzzy description, is it? God's Word is a sword. It penetrates. It exposes. Nothing is hidden.

And honestly? That can feel terrifying. Because we all have things we'd rather keep hidden—thoughts we're ashamed of, motivations we don't want examined, secret corners of our hearts we've labeled "off-limits" even to God.

The sword of God's truth isn't meant to destroy us—it's meant to free us. It cuts away the lies we tell ourselves. It exposes the infections we've been ignoring. It separates what's truly us from what we've allowed to attach itself to us.

Think about it like this: A surgeon's scalpel cuts, yes. But it cuts with precision and purpose—removing what will kill you if it stays, exposing what needs to heal. That's what God's truth does. It's not cruelty. It's love with a sharp edge.

The question is: Are we willing to let it do its work? Or are we still holding areas of our lives away from His examining eyes, still insisting on our own version of truth when it conflicts with His?

The Standard We're Too Afraid to Stand On

Here's where things get uncomfortable in our current culture: Absolute truth exists. And we know who He is.

Jesus didn't say, "I'm a truth among many truths." He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6, CSB). That's an exclusive claim. It's not trendy. It's not inclusive by modern standards. But it's true.

And can I tell you what I notice? The people who struggle most with absolute truth aren't usually the ones outside the church—they're inside it. We've become so afraid of being labeled judgmental or narrow-minded that we've started treating truth like it's negotiable.

But morality isn't a personal preference. Right and wrong aren't determined by a vote. Truth doesn't become false just because it's unpopular.

Paul reminds us: "But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ" (Ephesians 4:15, CSB).

Notice that phrase carefully: "speaking the truth IN LOVE." Not truth without love—that's just cruelty wearing a religious mask. But also, not love without truth—that's just enabling people to stay lost while making them comfortable.

Either extreme is wrong. Truth without love wounds people. Love without truth abandons them.

So we stand on absolute truth, but we don't stand on it arrogantly. We stand on it the way a lighthouse stands on a rock—not to show off how high it is, but to show people the way home through the darkness.

Getting ON the Way Instead of IN the Way

We know the truth, but we're not doing anything with it. We've memorized verses. We've attended Bible studies. We can debate theology. But we're standing IN the way instead of getting ON the way.

What does that mean?

Getting IN the way means we become obstacles—arguing about secondary issues while people are dying to hear the primary message. Majoring in minors. Creating more rules than relationships. Building walls instead of bridges.

Getting ON the way means we actually do what God says. We don't just admire the truth; we walk in it.

The writer of Hebrews had just finished reminding his readers: "For we who have believed enter the rest" (Hebrews 4:3, CSB). Did you catch that? Only those who believe can enter His place of rest. Not those who just know about Him. Not those who wear the label. Those who actually trust Him enough to do what He says.

James puts it even more bluntly: "But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" (James 1:22, CSB).

Here's my question for both of us: What truth from God have we been admiring but not applying? What has He shown us clearly in His Word that we've been mentally agreeing with but practically ignoring?

Because the truth of Jesus isn't just meant to inform us—it's meant to transform us. And transformation requires more than nodding along. It requires obedience.

Grace for People Who Don't Have It All Together

Now, before this starts sounding like a performance-based religion where we better get it all right or else, let me remind you of something beautiful:

"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14, CSB).

Did you catch both of those words? Grace AND truth. Not grace OR truth. Both. Always both.

Here's what that means: Jesus doesn't lower the standard of truth to accommodate our failures. He meets the standard FOR us and then covers us with grace while we learn to walk in it.

Grace isn't for people who have their lives together. It's not a reward for the polished and put-together. Grace is specifically, beautifully, wonderfully designed for the cracked and broken. For people like you and me who try and fail and try again.

Do you know what Jesus wants from you? Child-like faith that He has forgiven your sins. Not complicated theology. Not perfect performance. Just simple trust that when He said "It is finished" on the cross, He meant it.

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9, CSB).

All. Not some. Not the small ones. Not just the ones that aren't too embarrassing. All unrighteousness.

And here's the lyric that keeps playing in my head: His grace is greater than all my sin. Not equal to it. Greater. Bigger. More powerful. More persistent.

So yes, we stand on truth. But we stand on it as people who have been saved by grace, not as people who've earned the right to stand there. That changes everything about how we hold truth and how we share it with others.

When Jesus Becomes Lord, Not Just Savior

Here's the tension we've been dancing around: Most of us want Jesus as Savior, but we're not so sure about Jesus as Lord.

We love the idea of forgiveness. We're thrilled about heaven. We'll take the grace and the security and the peace. But Lordship? That word means He gets to tell us what to do. He gets final say. He gets to rearrange our priorities, redirect our ambitions, and challenge our comfort.

And that's hard.

Jesus can't be Lord of His church if He's not Lord of our individual lives first. We can't have a church where Jesus calls the shots if we're all showing up with our own agendas, our own definitions of truth, our own carefully protected areas where we won't let Him speak.

"Therefore, God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow—in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:9-11, CSB).

Eventually, everyone will acknowledge Jesus as Lord. The only question is whether we'll do it now willingly or later unwillingly.

And here's what makes the difference: When Jesus is truly Lord, Truth becomes the main driving force of our lives—not our feelings, not our circumstances, not cultural pressure, not even our own understanding.

We stop asking "What do I want to do?" and start asking "What does He say?" We stop filtering Scripture through our preferences and start filtering our preferences through Scripture.

That's what it means for Jesus to be Lord. He doesn't just get a vote in our decisions—He gets THE vote.

Living in the Tension

So where does this leave us? Right in the middle of a beautiful, challenging tension.

We hold tightly to absolute truth in a relativistic world. We speak that truth, but we speak it in love. We maintain standards, but we extend grace. We stand on the rock, but we reach out our hands to pull others up with us.

We refuse to water down truth to make it more palatable, but we also refuse to weaponize it to make ourselves feel superior. We remember that we're not the standard—Jesus is. And we're all works in progress, learning to walk in His way.

"Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth" (John 17:17, CSB).

That's Jesus praying for us—that we would be set apart by truth. Not just informed by it. Not just familiar with it. Actually, transformed and sanctified by it.

And that only happens when we stop holding truth at arm's length and start letting it get close enough to do its surgical work in our hearts.

Your Action Plan: Making Truth Personal

Okay, let's get practical. Here's how we actually live this out:

1. Do a Truth Inventory (This Week) Ask yourself honestly: What areas of my life have I kept off-limits to God's truth? Where am I still operating by my own standards instead of His? Write them down. Don't edit yourself—just be honest.

2. Read Hebrews 4:12-13 Daily (Next 7 Days) Let these verses do their work. Ask God to let His Word penetrate the areas you've been protecting. Pray: "Lord, I don't want to hide from You. Show me what needs to be exposed so it can be healed."

3. Practice Speaking Truth in Love (This Month) Identify one relationship where you've been all truth (harsh, critical) or all "love" (enabling, avoiding hard conversations). Ask God for wisdom to find the balance Ephesians 4:15 describes. Then have that conversation.

4. Study Jesus' Example (Ongoing) Read through one of the Gospels watching specifically for how Jesus balanced truth and grace. Notice how He spoke to religious hypocrites versus broken sinners. Learn from His example.

5. Surrender One Specific Area to His Lordship (This Week) Stop saying "Jesus is Lord" in general and make it specific. What's one area you've been keeping under your own control? Your finances? Your schedule? Your relationships? Your career plans? Pray specifically: "Jesus, I make You Lord of [this specific area]. What do You want me to do here?"

6. Find an Accountability Partner (This Month) You can't walk in truth alone. Find one person you trust who will ask you the hard questions and speak truth in love to you when you need it.

7. Memorize John 1:14 (This Week) Let this verse become your anchor: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth" (CSB). When you're tempted to swing too far toward harsh truth or cheap grace, come back to this balance.

Here's my final thought for you: Truth isn't meant to be a weapon we use to win arguments. It's meant to be the foundation we build our lives on.

And when we build on Jesus—who IS the Truth—we discover something amazing: The foundation is solid enough to stand on, but it's also alive. It speaks. It transforms. It heals. It convicts. It comforts. It challenges. It changes us.

That's what happens when Jesus isn't just our Savior but our Lord. When Truth himself becomes the main driving force of our lives.

So, let's stop trying to make truth more comfortable and start letting it make us more like Christ. Let's get ON the way instead of staying IN the way. Let's speak truth in love, extend grace to the broken, and trust that His grace really is greater than all our sin.

Because at the end of the day, we don't need a user-friendly version of Jesus. We need the real one—full of grace and truth—calling us to follow Him completely.

Are you ready to make Him Lord, not just Savior?

Blessings,

Donna