Personal Relationship with a Personal Lord and Savior

[deb1]

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I don’t think that any Catholic who is serious about his faith should be in anyway threatened by the question of personal relationship, because the answer would certainly be “YES!”.

I agree.

Are there some people who misuse the phrase to justify bad behavior? Yes. But their actions do not make the term itself bad.

 

[thomasf]

I look at this phrase in two ways. In the literal form, do I have a personal relationship with Jesus? Yes. I’m catholic, I go to church, I participate in the sacraments, I pray and speak to God and Jesus throughout the day, I make Jesus and my catholic faith part of my life every day, I try to live as a christian. You can’t make Christ a center of your life without having a personal relationship with Him.

However, I don’t think that is what most protestants are asking when they ask this question. IMO that phrase is a code phrase for “Are you saved?” or “Are you just like me?”

For the longest time I didn’t understand this question when asked, and I didn’t understand the protestant concept of being saved. I was away from the church for a long time, and because many of my wife’s family are evangelical I’d hear this question all the time. I never understood what it meant, what being saved meant. And when I finally did figure it out, my initial thought was “That’s it? All you have to do is believe?” And that was the start of me coming back to the catholic church.

The point being, this question really puzzled me for a long time. Coming from a catholic upbringing, where faith is very deep and involved, I assumed that because it was a question of faith it was also very deep and involved. And it was a big stumbling block for me for a long time. I honestly believed the evangelicals had some kind of secret or that they knew something that I didn’t. And when I finally figured out what the question really asked, and that the answer was simple and not at all deep, and that the evangelical religions also weren’t hiding some deep, mystical secret, it was a great relief. And it was also when I realized the catholic faith was the true, full christianity.

So when I’m asked, I always answer ‘yes’ and leave it at that. Because I have accepted Jesus as my personal lord and savior, and He is the center of my faith, and I have a church and a faith that is full and deep and founded by Jesus Himself. But the ‘accepting’ part is just the beginning, and I’ve got a wonderful asset in the catholic church and all of her fullness to use to keep exploring my faith beyond just ‘accepting’ Jesus.

 

[Legal_Eagle]

I suppose the central question I was trying to pose was whether or not we are told anywhere in Scripture that to inherit enternal life, or enter the Kingdom of God, or to be “saved” that we must "accept Jesus as our ‘personal Lord and Saviour,’ or that in order to have a meaningful Christian life we must “have a ‘personal relationship’ with Jesus.”

I don’t disagree with what many of the posters have said. I love Jesus deeply, my prayer certianly feels “personal” to me, and yes, in addition to being the Savior of the world, he is also mine “personally.” So I don’t disagree with the concept.

My problem is that it gets really tiresome having Sola Scriptura believers adamently attack the Catholic Church because some of our doctrines (e.g the Immaculate Conception) aren’t explicitly spelled out in Scripture, and then telling me that all I need to do to be a Christian is to “accept Jesus as my ‘personal Lord and Savior’” when that concept, while legitimate, as far as I can tell is simply not Biblical at all.

Does anyone know whether either of those phrases or something similar appears in Scripture. I claim to know Scripture fairly well, and I can’t seem to find it.

 

[St_Violet]

It really annoys me when Protestants believe I do not have a relationship with Christ just because I am an active Catholic, and when I speak of the importance of seeking Christ, they accuse me of Promoting the Catholic Church or denomination and not Christ.

 

[Semper_Fi_1]

He suffered and died for us all, but are lives in Jesus could be similar or completely different to one anothers.

Jesus is not a personal Lord and Savior. He is the Savior of the world, period. I, as a Catholic have a problem with Evangelical Protestant terminology of “personal Lord and Savior” and other buzzwords and catchphrase slogans Protestants use in order to feel like they have completed their Christian life and that their salvation is guaranteed in Heaven simply because they “believe” (especially when the definition of the
words such as salvation and believe vary from Protestant sect to sect). I am a Catholic and as such I believe in a living faith, not one that was completed because of a single utterance of “accepting Jesus into your heart as your personal Lord and Savior”. Our relationship with God is life-long, and salvation is not guaranteed because you utter a few words to Him. To say otherwise in my eyes would be blasphemous.

We must work on our salvation with fear and trembling as St. Paul says. We must not just believe, because even the devils believe and they tremble as St. James says. We must always remember that everyday of our life is to be upheld to the standard He set for us – we need to carry our cross with Him daily.

Protestants must realize that Catholics have a strong belief (dogma) in the communion of saints that we will not back down from.

As such, faithful Catholics will object to oversimplified Protestant terminology such as “personal Lord and Savior” and simply because He is everyone’s – not mine, and not yours alone.

The Communion of Saints comprises of the Church Militant (the Saints on Earth), Church Triumphant (the Saints in Heaven) and Church Suffering (the Saints in Purgatory).

 

[QuietTimes]

I think the word personal is just that its different for everyone and I personally dont like the use of it when I talk about my relationship with God. I think he is for everyone at every stage of peoples lives and we cant use a snazzy phrase and deduce that relationship with our Lord to a phrase. He is everything to me but I like to share Him!!

 

[lak611]

As a convert to Catholicism from the Evangelical community, I just want to clarify your misunderstanding of these phrases.

To say that you have a personal relationship with Christ, does not negate your corporate relationship, it actually means you have taken it a step further and have gotten very serious about knowing Christ, emmulating Him and allowing Him to do His will in your life. It’s like the difference between knowing about someone and being loyal and faithful to him, and getting to know that same someone intimately, personally.

And of course, this all happens through the reading of Scripture, through prayer, and is all accomplished through the workings of the Holy Spirit. The one advantage that the Catholic has is the addition of the Sacraments in this process. It’s just very unfortunate that many Catholics do not take advantage of the Grace that is available to them to come to a more committed, intimate relationship with Christ through all the above means.

I don’t think that any Catholic who is serious about his faith should be in anyway threatened by the question of personal relationship, because the answer would certainly be “YES!”.

Great post. That sums up how I feel better than I am able to put into words.