Dwight Fletcher | Lordship demands a response

C.S. LEWIS is famously known for giving us three options as to the identity of Jesus – Lord, liar or lunatic. In his book Mere Christianity, Lewis explains that Jesus makes blatant claims about Himself in the Gospels, because He wanted people to acknowledge Him, not merely as a good teacher or wise prophet, but as God. He makes Himself equal with God in many of the things He says, which is why the Pharisees sought to kill Him (John 5:18).

So, if He is not Lord as He said, then Jesus was either deliberately trying to deceive the people – a liar – or He was deranged and wholeheartedly believed an untruth – a lunatic. He leaves us no other option, because Lordship demands a response.

Being Lord is different from being good or wise or even kind. It is a title that comes with the right to dictate your life. Knowing that Jesus is Lord must have a profound impact on the way we relate to Him; it is a highly relational position.

Regardless of where you are in your relationship with Jesus, you can be sure that no one — not even those who deny His existence — can live outside His sphere of authority. I’ll say it again: the fact that Jesus is Lord demands a response from all of mankind. The truth is, we can bow now to His Lordship or bow later. There is a coming day when Jesus will return, and He will establish His Kingdom. How you and I handled the truth of His Lordship will be judged.

2 Timothy 4:1 says, “I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom… .”

On that day, His Lordship will be enforced on all, and as Philippians 2:10-11 tells us, everyone will bow before Him and declare that He is Lord. No one is exempt. Even His enemies, like Satan and his demons, will bow before Him. Even the dead will bow. In the end, no opposition against Him will stand. This is not universal salvation, but it is a universal confession. Not all will be saved, but all will confess that Jesus is Lord.

In our modern day, we can be in jeopardy of having watered-down the magnitude of what Jesus is Lord means. It means Jesus has full reign over our lives, even in the face of death (Romans 14:9). But if we’re honest with ourselves, the very reason we tend to reject this is because we think we can do a better job at ruling ourselves.

Satan tries to convince us that freedom is found in doing what we want, but we were made to serve. And because lordship requires a response, choosing not to serve Jesus leads us into rebellion and serving Satan. We end up more bound than before, because true liberty is acquired only through submission to Christ’s loving Lordship.

We live in an era where some of us would want to have Jesus as our Saviour, that is, to receive His goodness without commitment or to receive the benefits of His death on the cross as the payment for our sins, but not surrender to Him as our Lord. But our victory, experiencing the power of His resurrection, comes from submitting to Jesus as Lord. It is only when we’re under Jesus’ Lordship that we can be who we are designed to be and find our true purpose.

When I consider the state of our nation right now, the one thing I am most grateful for is that I have a Lord who cares about me. The truth is that hardship plagues us all, but those who serve the Lord Jesus Christ have all they need to overcome.