Why Do You Call Me LORD?

I received the gift of salvation a good number of years ago while living in the Reformed Theology capitol of our nation, Grand Rapids Michigan.  At the time Reformed Churches appeared to be on every corner, and the famous reformed institution, Calvin College, still represented the truths of the Bible.

Unfortunately, those who discipled me my first few years as a Christian 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) (Job 42:2), but that ultimately, we do. This false gospel teaches that through our faith filled confession of the promises in God’s word, we control the circumstances of our life, command God’s blessings upon our lives, and with our words overcome or encourage the devil.

There was little if any emphasis on the holiness of God or the righteousness of God (Isaiah 6:1-3), nor on our obedience to and dependence upon God to live our lives in a manner that pleases and honors and glorifies Him (Luke 1:74-75).  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 call us to confess Jesus as LORD as a condition of our salvation from the just judgment of God for our sin (Romans 10:9-10), it is calling us to acknowledge that it is a salvation unto willing submission and obedience to His purpose for and rule over our lives, which we had rejected up to that point (Psalm 2:1-3) (Romans 3:23).   Thus, it is ultimately calling us to acknowledge and relate to Jesus Christ as the eternal God, God the Son, the second member of the divine trinity, co-equal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, who has supreme authority and ultimate control over all that exists in His creation, wherein He is subject to nothing nor anyone within His creation (Romans 11:33-36) (Psalm 115:3) (Psalm 135:5-6).  As LORD, he governs our living, our dying and everything in between (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 7:13-23, Jesus is concluding what has been referred to as the “Sermon on The Mount”, which began in Matthew 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 in Luke 6:46-49, when 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, the supreme authority in their life; 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 their 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 apart from above all else in our hearts as the one who in His perfect wisdom, infinite power and unimpeachable 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 mind and thoughts (Philippians 4:8-9) (Philippians 2:5), our wills (John 6:29) (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18), our emotions (Philippians 4:4-6), our affections (Matthew 22:36-40) our attitudes (Philippians 2:3-4), 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), creating and working in us the desire and ability to do so (Ezekiel 36:26-27) (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 the most trying of the circumstances we may face in this life, knowing that He is working all things for our ultimate and eternal good (Romans 8:28).  He alone 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).

At the end of this age and the beginning of the next, all men and women, both those in Heaven and those in Hell, will acknowledge Jesus Christ is LORD, LORD over the eternal joy and ever-increasing pleasures that those in Heaven will experience with Him, and LORD over the eternal and unmitigated suffering of those confined to Hell for their lifelong defiance of Him; all to the glory of God the Father with whom Jesus sits on the throne Heaven, as both God and man, forever (Philippians 2:11) (Daniel 7:13-14).

Thus, for those who call Him LORD now, let us continually pray, Come soon LORD Jesus (Revelation 22:20).

Grace and Peace ×