Lordship Salvation: What is salvation? Part I

Lordship Salvation

    I feel led to address a current topic in Christian circles. It is the apparent controversy over what is required for a person to be “saved”, to possess eternal life. The traditional theological position in fundamental evangelical circles has been that Christ is both Lord and Saviour to the genuine Christian. But in recent times, another view has gained popularity, and indeed, it now seems to dominate most of the evangelical Christianity that we see in the media, read in Christian bookstores, and hear on Christian radio. This view is difficult to truly define, but the main idea is that a person can accept the gift of salvation; they can ‘receive Jesus’ as Saviour and be forgiven of their sins without necessarily making Him Lord of their life, and in many cases without demonstrating any change of life at all. The general consensus in this view is that eventually Christians will reach a point where they are ready/able to submit to His Lordship. In effect, there are two levels of Christianity: the saved but uncommitted, and then the saved and fully committed Christians.
    It seems logical to me that the best way to resolve the matter is search God’s Word and define salvation itself. In so doing, we should come to a conclusion on this issue of Lordship Salvation versus what we will call “Easy Believism”. This is, I suppose, a good followup to the ‘Sin and Salvation’ series. I will spend some time in Romans 10, and then in the Gospel of John.
    For us to reach an understanding of this critical matter, it must be accepted that the Bible as we know it, all 66 books, is the complete self-revelation of God to man, and that the autographa (original text) is inerrant and inspired by God. The translations we have today are reliable and though occasionally contain minor grammatical/spelling errors, God has powerfully preserved His Word through the translation work all over the world. If you doubt this, please spend the time necessary and get the resources you need to understand why we can absolutely submit to the Word of God. I can point you in the right direction and answer questions you may have.

    There are so many texts of Scripture we could dig into. We will get our minds in gear by reading Romans 10:1-21. So get your Bible and read it, twice if you have time...
    Ok, quite a chunk, with enough truth to occupy our study for years. But a few things must be brought out to set us on the right track. Then we will look at the direct teaching of Christ in the Gospels.
    This passage must be taken in context. Verse 10 speaks of the confession of Jesus as Lord, or confessing the Lord Jesus, and believing in the heart that God raised Jesus from the dead. This verse is the one most often used by those in support of Lordship Salvation to show what is required for salvation. However, when you read Romans and come to chapters 9,10, and 11, it is very clear that Paul is specifically addressing the unbelief, rejection, and restoration of the Jews. The nation had officially rejected Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah. Paul witnessed that the Jews had a zeal for God, but it was not based in truth. (Rom. 10:2) Then verse 3 tells us that the Jews did not know or understand the righteousness of God, and so they believed that through the Law, they could establish their own righteousness, that their observance of the moral and ceremonial law granted them national favor in the eyes of God. But, it was Moses who wrote (vs. 5) that the one who lives by the Law is held to that perfect standard of absolute legal righteousness. In other words, it only takes one violation of the Law, no matter how small, to violate the entire Law and render the lawbreaker guilty and worthy of destruction. But, (vs.6) the righteousness which is by faith does not try to create its own standard and it does not substitute man’s attempt at righteous living for God’s actual righteousness, personified in Christ who is the Living Word.
    Instead, the true righteousness of Christ is very near to us. We don’t have to ascend to heaven to get it, or go down into the grave. Christ has descended, Christ has died, Christ has risen, and purchased for us a redemption with His innocent blood. “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”-that is the word of faith which we are preaching...” (vs.8)
    It should be noted here that in the context of Paul’s dealings with his own people, the Jews, we can be sure that this word of faith would bring instant persecution if a Jew believed and openly confessed Jesus Christ as Lord. A Jew who converted and confessed it showed powerful evidence of genuine salvation by that confession. (vs.9)...that “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.”
    (vs.10) Paul explains the human response to the word of faith: “For with the heart man believes...” It is the deep, inner part of man which must believe, the essential part of his nature, the thing which must be remade; it must die, be buried, and a new nature be raised with Christ; this inner person must believe. The next question is: believe what? -answer: that God raised Him from the dead, and all which is inherent in that statement, which is: that Jesus Christ is the eternally begotten Son of God, that He was sent forth from the Father, He was born of woman, conceived of the Holy Spirit; that in Him "all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form," (Col. 2:9) that He obeyed the Father in living a sinless human life, that He "humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Phil 2:8); that He was buried, that He rose the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:4); that God exalted Him and "seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion..." (Eph. 1:20)
     Believing this is what results in 'righteousness', the gift of grace we receive from God upon the change of our nature, which is completely His work (Eph. 2:1-10). This new nature is the actual righteousness of Jesus Christ, the Righteous One (1 John 2:1), imputed or transferred to our account.
      Then (v.10), with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. What does he confess? (vs.9) He confesses Jesus as Lord. And this prompts the question: Is it really enough to simply believe all of the facts about Jesus? Why does Paul include confession? (Confession=saying the same thing; so confessing Jesus as Lord means to agree with God that His Son is Lord. This is an acknowledgment of an established truth.)
      What makes a Christian a Christian? He/she is a follower of Christ, a little Christ. They recognize the supremacy, the Lordship of Christ. There have always been believers, even people that follow along for a while, say the right words, experience emotional connections to Christ based on experiences. In fact, there are many believers, but those who continue to follow are few; those who give all in the recognition that everything we have should be counted as loss in "view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." (Phil. 3:8) Jesus' conversation with the rich young ruler immediately comes to mind. This young man was a believer. He had kept the Law, according to His own account. He even came to Jesus and asked the right question: "what must i do to be saved?" This was the perfect open door, right? Jesus saw his heart right away, though, and pinpoints the thing the man was not willing to give up, his wealth. The young man saw himself as having many things of value. He saw himself as righteous and blessed, and he wanted to add eternal life to his list of accomplishments. He had not yet come to the place of understanding that knowing Christ was the only thing of value, and when Jesus told him to sell all he had and give the money to the poor, he walked away in grief, not seeing his possessions as rubbish in comparison to the glorious treasure of knowing Christ as his Lord. Also, his grief wasn't a mourning over his sin. It was self-pity.
    The epistle of James brings out this crucial point regarding true, saving faith. Look at ch.2:14-26 "What use is it, my brethren, if man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him...even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself...You believe that there is one God. You do well. the demons also believe and shudder."
        Side note: Faith and belief are synonyms.
    So, apparently, the demons have a type of faith, but it is not saving faith. They know theology and accept it as truth. They fear judgment and do not want to be punished (remember Legion not wanting to be banished and asking to be sent into the pigs). They know exactly who Jesus is (the Gospels are full of accounts of Jesus approaching a demon-possessed person and the demon crying out that He was the Son of God) and believe every word He has said, but they will NEVER say to Him, "You are my Lord." They may even want to be saved from judgment, but they do not submit. There is sorrow, but not a godly sorrow leading to repentance. (2. Cor. 7:10)
    We, too, can have a sorrow, a knowledge of the truth, a faith in all the facts about God, but the thing that saves is to "confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord..." A belief which never shows itself in actions is not a saving faith; in other words, faith without works is not saving faith.
      So, here in Romans 10:10, we see the work which evidences saving faith; this is the confession of Jesus as Lord. THINK: would it not be logical to state that if you will not submit to the Lordship of Christ openly, then you are not His disciple? The very claim, "I am a Christian" implies that you follow Christ, that you have counted the cost, not just that you are saved from hell. We are not just saved from eternal punishment; we are saved TO something. Also, along with this point, we need to understand that man does not possess FREE will, as we assume he does. His will is never free in the sense of "I can choose to do whatever I want to do". Scripture is consistently clear that mankind is either a slave to sin or a slave to Christ. There is no time or sense in which we are 'free agents', capable of making our own destiny. We either serve the prince of the power of this world, or we serve the true King. Christian liberty is fulfilled when a person is set free from the enslavement of sin, to finally have the law of God written on their heart. When this happens, a Christian is finally free to obey God, to do that which he was made to do.


    Ok, let's back up a second. I gave you the beginning context of Jewish unbelief and self-styled righteousness, and we saw that verses 9 and 10 can directly apply to the Jews in that, open confession of Christ was strong evidence of genuine faith because of the fierce persecution that would accompany such a confession. And it is true that we are in a context of Paul dealing with the status of the Jewish nation.
    However, it should be observed that our larger context is the whole book of Romans. It is most likely the greatest treatise on salvation in the entire New Testament, and when Paul speaks of the Jews, he is placing them in their part of the larger story of redemption. He is talking about them, not only to them. And remember, the recipients of the letter were in Rome. It was a mixed congregation, but most likely would have had a predominately Gentile makeup.
    Also, the preface to Paul's statement in vs.9 is vs.8: "the Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart-that is, the word of faith which we are preaching." This is a quote from Deut. 30:14 and it stands in sharp contrast to the legal system the Jews had constructed around the Mosaic Law. Then we have a qualifying statement: "the word of faith which we are preaching..." This must include the Gentiles, since Paul is widely understood to be the Apostle to the Gentiles, and he made it absolutely clear in Eph. 3:1-10 that the Gentiles are fellow heirs of the Gospel, which is the word of faith!
    Essentially, we are faced with a passage which includes the Jews but is not specific to them. This is made even clearer in the following verses. Vs.11, "Whoever believes in Him..." Whoever is definitely not only referring to the Jews.  And then Vs.12 clinches it, "...there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him."
    So, we have a clear statement from the Apostle Paul, who received the Gospel message directly from God by revelation (Galatians 1:11-17), laying out the facts of saving faith.
1. A genuine heart belief in everything involved in Christ and His redemptive work.
2. Evidence of submission to Christ's authority, His Lordship
          Saving faith is faith and confession, or faith and works.
    Now, we haven't yet dealt with the authorship of our great salvation. In spending time with God's Word, the doctrine of election has made itself strikingly clear. (Romans 8:26-30, Romans 9:6-33, 1 Cor. 1:4-9, John 3:1-8, Ephesians 1-2, John 17:1,2) All prideful objections to it are silenced, and I am thankful, thankful that I was in God's mind to be redeemed before the foundation of the world, thankful that the Lord defines what is just by His nature and that my standard of fairness isn't applied to the world. I won't dwell on this, but it is crucial to understand who Jesus Christ is from the beginning to the end. He is the Author and Perfecter of faith, and your faith and mine are given to us. The Father has purposed to redeem a body of people to give to the Son. Jesus isn't some whimsical, hopeful Savior, wishing we would accept Him as He stands gently knocking on the door of our hearts.
     A submission to His Lordship is necessary for salvation because it shows that you have come to know, believe, and follow the real Jesus. To say that you are a self-seeking Christian, an uncommitted follower of Christ is a contradiction. The nature of salvation itself demands that Christ be glorified as Lord. It is not our place to try to define Christ. The Father has authoritatively defined His Son and if your heart is awakened to spiritual realities, then seek to know the Son, that in submission to Him, you would find freedom from sin, rest for your soul, and assurance that you have eternal life.

It's been a while

I know it's been a while since I've posted. I'm working on a huge topic and it's consuming me. It's going to be intense and the things I'm studying are very necessary to understand as a Christian. It will be up soon. God bless you all, and I pray that you are remaining in the truth and seeking to please the Lord.