Jesus Is Lord

This week, Michael writes that there are basics of our ministry. Five basics are first, that Jesus Christ is both Lord and Savior. The second is that the Bible is the final authority for faith and practice. The third is that we are men and women of prayer. Fourth, we link together with likeminded Christians. Fifth, we give it away.

People have asked: “Can you be saved without making Jesus Lord of your life?” Many say, “I thought that I was saved before I made Jesus lord. This was because of poor biblical teaching of the Gospel. But, when I was taught correctly about the lordship of Christ, I dedicated my life to serve Him as Savior and Lord.”

Franklin Graham wrote a book many years ago titled “The Name”. The name of Jesus Christ shouts out a choice: Whom will you serve? His terms are unilateral ... there is no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved. Jesus is not a negotiator, He delivers God’s non-negotiable terms ... He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the father except by me.”

The name Jesus means “savior”. Savior is the One who brings salvation ... the One who saves us and delivers us from sin and the consequences of sin. He’s our rescuer and our Redeemer, who has paid for our sin and the penalty of sin. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through His Son Jesus Christ.2 Corinthians says, You are not your own. You were bought with a price. The payment was the price of His innocent blood in exchange for our guilty blood. For He who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him.

The spiritual battle raging around us is not about political correctness; instead it’s about power and control. Evil dictators do the devil’s bidding ... to take men and women captive against their will. The devil’s purpose is to steal, kill and to destroy. Those he takes captive are not atheists, they believe in “the god of this world”, the devil, who has blinded their eyes lest the glorious light of the gospel of truth should shine unto them.

To live for the praise and the glory of God’s grace. Without a test you cannot have a testimony. A lord is the supreme owner, the commander in chief over the life of a disciple who has confessed Jesus is lord. This means that I subjugate my will to His will. God will help himself to our lives whether we allow Him to or not. The Lord’s bond servant’s prerogative is to bow in submission to his Lord. Then all things will work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

Without making Jesus Christ Lord, life will be an exercise in frustration. However, when we choose to abide with Him and within Him, He will work in us and through us to will and to do of His good pleasure. When God calls missionaries, they often worry about their safety in dangerous foreign lands. Those called to foreign missions, “the safest place is where God calls you to be.” A bond servant’s heart says, “thy wish is my command.”

Jesus said in John 15, if you belonged to the world, the world would welcome you as its own and treat you with affection. A servant is not greater than his master... the world will not keep my word... they will persecute you because they persecuted me. The adversary, the devil, will do anything to entice us to acquiesce to his power. He and his minions strive for control over hearts and minds. The battle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness from on high.

God is sovereign overall. God only is omnipotent. One plus God is a majority. As Abraham Lincoln said, the question is not whether God is on our side, but whether we are on God’s side. If God be for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation or famine or nakedness or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

A bond slave says to his master the words Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “not my will but thine be done.” As Bonhoeffer said, “When Jesus bids a man come, He bids him, “come and die.” For I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me, and the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me ... that we may ever live for our Lord Jesus Christ ... to the praise of the glory of His grace!

Your brother in Christ, Michael