Why do you call me Lord?

I received salvation a good number of years ago while living in the Reformed Theology capitol of our nation, Grand Rapids Michigan.  Reformed Churches were on every corner and Calvin College still represented the truth of the Bible.

Unfortunately, those who discipled me were not of the Reformed persuasion, but Pentecostal.  And they were themselves disciples of what was and is referred to as the Word of Faith movement, better known as the “prosperity gospel”.  The most influential teacher in this movement at that time was a man named Kenneth Copeland. Copeland had a daily radio and weekly TV show, wrote many books and conducted “Believers Voice of Victory” conventions nationally; frequently in the Detroit area, of which I was an enthusiastic attendee. On his TV shows and in his conventions, he typically had a huge banner behind him proclaiming JESUS IS LORD.  I believe he signed off his radio and TV sermons with that same phrase.

By the grace of God, I came to understand that in the prosperity gospel, Jesus really is not Lord, that He does not have sovereign rule and absolute control over His world and our lives as the Bible teaches (Daniel 4:34-35), but that ultimately, we do. This false gospel teaches that through our faith filled confession of promises in God’s word, we control the circumstances of our life, command God’s blessings upon our lives, and with our words defeat the devil.

There was little if any emphasis on the holiness of God or the righteousness of God, nor on our obedience to and dependence upon God to live our lives in a manner that pleases and honors and glorifies Him.  Emphasis was on our developing and expressing enough faith to achieve our best life now, which is what made and continues to make this blasphemous movement so attractive.

When the Bible refers to and we confess Jesus as Lord or LORD, we are referring to His deity (John 20:26-29), and as deity, His supreme authority, His ultimate control over all of His creation, wherein He is subject to nothing nor anyone outside of Himself.  As LORD he governs our living and our dying (Psalm 139:16).  He holds every breath we take in His hand, owns and orders and numbers our days in this world (Daniel 5:23), and requires at the end of those days we give an account to Him for how we lived those days in relationship to Him and one another, with our eternal destiny hanging in the balance (2 Corinthians 5:10).

 In Matthew chapter 7, Jesus is concluding what has been referred to as the “Sermon on The Mount”, which began in Chapter 5.  In Matthew 7:21-23, he makes this somewhat ominous statement, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day (Hebrews 9:27), ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

In Luke chapter 6, we have what appears to be a condensed version of that sermon, and a more succinct statement from Jesus, although with the same inference when in Luke 6:46, He says to his audience of questionable disciples “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you?”

In each of these statements above, Jesus is expressing that there are and will be many whom, despite their confession of Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9-10); despite their self-professed good works, give no evidence of a relationship of willing submission and glad obedience to Him (Psalm 40:8), nor of love for Him and trust in His love motivating their obedience (John 14:15-17) (Psalm 42:8) (1 Corinthians 16:22).

Throughout the New Testament, the acknowledgement of Jesus as both Savior and Lord (Acts 2:36) is presented as essential to our living in right relationship with God.  In the book of Acts, chapter 16, the Apostle Paul receives a heartfelt inquiry from a Philippian jailer as to what he must do to be saved, to be rescued from the judgement of God and restored to right relationship with God. Paul answers him succinctly, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved…”. (Acts 16:31)

The Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 3:15, instructs the Christians of his day and ours, who are under great duress for their faith, to sanctify Christ as Lord in their heart.  To sanctify Christ as Lord means to set Jesus above all else in our hearts as the one who in His wisdom and love has the right to command the totality of our life and person, (Proverbs 3:5-6), as well as the ability to work all of the circumstances of our life for our ultimate and eternal good (Romans 8:28-30).

As Lord, He commands our minds (Philippians 4:8-9) (Philippians 2:5), our wills (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18), our emotions (Matthew 22:36-40) (Philippians 4:4-6), our behavior (Matthew 7:12), and the motivations behind our behavior (Philippians 2:3) (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Jesus, in commanding these aspects of our life, acknowledges our need for Him to enable us to obey (John 15:1-5), even working in us the ability to do what He commands (Philippians 2:12-13), so that we may be Holy as He is Holy (1 Peter 1:16) (Hebrews 12:14).

It is Jesus’ Lordship over our lives, and our willing submission to it, that will allow us to rest in, even rejoice in all of the circumstances of this life, knowing that He is able to keep us from falling away from Him (Jude 24-25), so that on that day, the day we stand before Jesus for judgement, we will not hear from His lips, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!”, but will instead hear “…Well done, good and faithful servant ….. Enter into the (eternal) joy of your LORD” (Matthew 25:23).

Grace and Peace ×