Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."John 6:32-33
He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.John 3:31
These few verses verify that Jesus is Lord of all. Jesus tells us that He came from above in John 6. Then in John 3 He tells us that He is above all. To say that Jesus is not Lord of all is to deny that He is God.
Lordship salvation teaches that we must "make Jesus Lord of our life." What surprises me is that this teaching comes from a Calvinist camp. Some, not all Calvinists, tell you you must make Jesus your Lord after you are saved. How is this any different from the non-Calvinists who tell you that you must decide and ask Jesus into your heart? It is a teaching that turns Calvinists into non-Calvinists, denying the sovereignty of God.
that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.John 5:23
I am the LORD, and there is no other,Isaiah 45:5-6
besides me there is no God;
I equip you, though you do not know me,
that people may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is none besides me;
I am the LORD, and there is no other.
Thus says the LORD, the King of IsraelIsaiah 44:6
and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts:
"I am the first and I am the last;
besides me there is no god.
These three sections of scripture tell us that if we deny Jesus, we deny the Father, that there is no other God, that God is the Redeemer. Jesus is indeed Lord of all. Amen.
It is foreign to my ears to hear Calvinists denying God's sovereignty in salvation. Writing this is almost the same arguments used against those who deny Jesus' deity. I reject Lordship salvation as non-Christian teaching. Is it a result of having faith in their faith, rather than knowing that faith is properly placed in Jesus? Or a result of needing to look at works for assurance? Or a result of the limited atonement that puts Calvinists in the awful position of having to look at creation rather than the Creator dying for us? In any case, Lordship Salvation is problematic.
If Jesus is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all.
4 comments:
When one denies Jesus dying for all then one must focus on self to determine salvation. Then the challenge is to determine if Jesus is Lord enough or am I holding something back? It is a never ending spiral away from Christ and some have fallen from the faith out of frustration and terror. Tragic.
Great post!
As I was writing it, with errors and all, I felt like I was arguing for Jesus' deity. It was a revelation to me how wrong that teaching is.
If Lordship Salvation is taken to its extreme, the result is sheer legalism. If it is totally abandoned in favor of Free Grace or "carnal Christianity," we have antinomianism. Both are grave error.
The correct formulation is this: It is impossible for anyone to acknowledge Jesus as a personal savior and NOT acknowledge that He is Lord of all.
What is the consequence of this? Progressive sanctification. Because Jesus is Lord of all, and your personal savior, your desire to obey His commandments, and your brokenness over your sin will grow. This growth, most times, looks like a stock-market graph, with ups and downs, but a general upward trend.
I suggest that Lordship Salvation in its extreme form, and Free Grace in its extreme form, are equally dangerous, but there are tenets of either that can not be ignored.
Steve,
Progressive sanctification is a religious idea. God comes to us; we don't climb a ladder up to Him, if you will. That is what makes Christianity different from all other religions. It is God that sanctifies us.
Fearing free grace reveals a fear that we will run amok and be completely out of control. We don't need to fear that we are left on our own. Free grace means we have imputed righteousness and forgiveness, like the woman who was forgiven much. We respond to free grace the same way she did.
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