Saturday, June 27, 2015

WHY JESUS MUST BE YOUR LORD

That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 
(Romans 10:9-10)
There is a HUGE and severely important reason why the majority of western (and mostly North American) Christians do not live in victory, but fear and trembling. The reason actually revolves around the Lordship of Jesus Christ. To fully flesh out this in thesis form, it could take a couple volumes of books but the matter really boils down to some simple truths. 

For a century or more, a church service or sermon would end by the preacher asking variations of the following: "would you like to ask Jesus into your....fill in the blank (heart, life, mind, soul)". Another modus operandi is to say ask folks to come forward "if you feel the Lord tugging you". That one is a two edged sword. A long time ago in my early walk, I did go forward - not to be saved, but to give a man a piece of paper with my sins written down, so he could nail it to the Cross in an act of repentance. All of these methods revolve around one thing - "ASKING JESUS TO BE YOUR SAVIOR"...or pick your words: "trusting Him" or "giving your life to Christ as Savior".

Very rarely you will see, hear or know a preacher/evangelist tell you that Jesus MUST be the LORD of one's life. In my opinion, and those of us who are maligned as "Lordship" people, their approach is severely lacking in doctrinal authenticity and could lead to many a false conversion. Nowhere in Scripture does the Bible prescribe that a sinner ask "Jesus to be His Savior". Everywhere, we see the word "LORD"...and the verse above from Romans 10:9 is absolute proof!

In fact that first phrase of Romans 10:9 is proof of His Lordship! It underlines what Christ Himself says in Mark 1:15 - "Repent and believe the Gospel". In Romans 10:9, there is no "as" in the original so the text really is "of you confess with your mouth Jesus Lord" - that is acknowledging, agreeing, confession and proclamation that Jesus is Lord...and the belief comes from this declaration of Faith.

What really sealed the deal for me is this is Romans 14: "
For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living." Now, this is not a future event we shall bow the knew to Christ as Lord THEN. This has already happened! He is LORD NOW! Thus, He MUST be LORD of your life and mine NOW, not then. This all comes down to commitment, obedience and surrender.

What am I saying - that a person who does not accept Christ as Lord of their lives is unsaved? First of all, that is only going part of the way. To be fully a child of God, in the realm of the eternal and to have received the blessings of eternal life, one's sins have to be forgiven. It is not works to ask forgiveness for your sins and THEN accept the free Grace that cometh our way to enable the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord AND Savior of the world and us. The desire to change, have a change of heart when we come to the end of ourselves and the choice is stark before us THAT is the point where He will enable us to seek Him out, make peace through Him and use that Godly sorrow which Holy Spirit has put there in our spiritual heart, to leadeth us to repentance.


Here is where the full measure of Grace begins as we see the unpleasant and unsavory people we are... in the Nostrils of God... the kind of sinner we are and cry out "God, Father, Jesus, please forgive me!" When I was called by the Lord unto salvation, no one witnessed to me or had me repeat a mindless prayer. I knew fully what I was doing and made a conscious choice. Even so, it was only when I wrote my current (at the time) sins down and made an effort to have then nailed to a Cross that I really felt FREE and under the Lordship of Christ. Since that day, Catie bar the door. I am a seminary dropout with only a Bible diploma, via mail study, from Liberty University. It is the Lordship of Jesus Christ, total surrender to the leading and teaching of His Powerful Holy Spirit, my best Friend and the Father's Grace and love, which keepeth me daily.

Friends, this is the only way to have the peace that passeth all understanding. Is Jesus Christ the Savior, Messiah and the Anointed One? Yes, He is. But for that to truly mean something, He MUST be Lord of your life and mine, after rejuvenation and the washing away of all iniquity. Think on these things, obey Him and He shall lead thee unto the path of all truth! Amen.

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