Here’s something I’ve noticed: we would rather have a Savior than a Lord.

Here’s what I mean by that.

Everyone wants a Savior to come along and rescue them. These are sometimes referred to as “foxhole prayers.” You know the kind. It’s the “Please get me out of here, Lord, and I promise I’ll read my Bible every day for the rest of my life and never miss a day of church,” prayer. We pray those prayers when we want God to intervene and fix our problems. We want a Savior to take away our guilt and our shame. Most everybody wants that.

But a Lord? Well, that’s a little different. We’re usually not interested in having someone who would rule over us, someone who would presume to tell us what to do. We’re not keen on someone else being in charge. We like to be in control. I want to be the one calling the shots when it comes to my life.

So everybody wants a Savior but nobody really wants a Lord. We want to be the lord of our own lives, thank you very much.

But what we often fail to realize is that we’re not really doing a great job at running our lives on our own. Trying to be the lord of my own life is exhausting. What’s more, that’s what gets me in trouble in the first place. The irony is that I need a savior precisely because of my hard-headed desire to be the lord of my own life!

It’s funny how those two are connected: Lord and Savior.

When it comes to Jesus, the Scriptures paint a clear picture: He is both Lord AND Savior. It’s a package deal. You can’t pick and choose. You can’t have Jesus as your Savior without having Him as your Lord. He came to rescue but He also came to rule.

The Bible is clear that you and I were never supposed to be the lords of our own lives. We are created beings and our lives are meant to be lived in submission to the Creator. But Satan comes along and fills our ears with all of these lies. He says, You can call the shots. You’re in control. He convinces us that we are actually capable of charting our own course. He tells us that true freedom is found in breaking away from God and being the captain of our own ship. He says, You do you. Don’t let anybody tell you what you can and can’t do. Don’t let anybody tell you who you are and how you ought to live.

And we like the sound of all of this, so we believe these lies. And by doing so, we cultivate an obsession with freedom and being in control — an obsession that has led us into willful rebellion against God.

And we will cling to this false idea of “freedom” to our own detriment — all the way to hell itself. Because when we believe this lie — hell’s idea of “freedom” — we’re actually becoming enslaved to sin.

This is how Satan ensnares us. It’s a trap and we fall right into it time and time again.

God’s Word lets you in on the secret, though: you’re not as autonomous as you think you are. Everyone has a lord, whether they want to admit it or not. By getting us to believe that we’re capable of being in charge, Satan has actually duped us into slavery. When we believe this lie, he becomes our lord, our master.

But there is a direct correlation between truth and freedom. You’ll never experience true freedom when your life is built upon a lie. This is so important it bears repeating: you will never experience freedom when your life is full of lies. Because there is an essential relationship between truth and freedom. Lies enslave — that’s why Satan spins these lies. He manipulates the truth in order to manipulate us. He does not seek our well being; he seeks our destruction. His intent is malicious. He seeks to sow chaos and pain — so he lies to us about freedom. And this obsession with freedom and being in charge is the very thing that Satan uses to enslave us.

That’s why Jesus says the truth will set you free.

Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:31-32 (NLT)

The truth that sets us free is the truth that we were never meant to be the lord of our own lives.

The truth that sets us free is acknowledging that our foolish pursuit of Satan’s idea of “freedom” is actually the very thing that is wrecking our lives.

The truth that sets us free is repenting of all of this and living as we were always supposed to live: with Jesus as our Lord!