..."We live in a time when many people have only experienced a shallow, emaciated form of Christianity. But in the New Testament, whenever a person encounters Jesus Christ, they’re converted and this is always a life-changing experience. When people are converted to Christ—repentance, faith, service, hope, sacrifice and love are all born together at the cross.
The upgradable Gospel
In our time, the Gospel has been widely redefined and repackaged as a decision to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. This, we are told, involves saying a prayer, and that if you believe certain things about Jesus, your sins will be forgiven and you will go to heaven.
Thousands of people have bought into the idea that you can have faith without repentance, justification without sanctification, heaven with Christ in the next world without obedience to Christ in this world, Jesus as Savior, but not as Lord.
If pastors preach a Gospel in which you can receive Jesus as Savior but not as Lord, then we should not be surprised if we hear people saying, “I accepted Jesus as my Savior, but my life didn’t really change. Then years later something happened and I bowed my knee to Him.”
Sixty years ago, writing in Chicago, A. W. Tozer lamented the loss of a gospel that really changes people’s lives:
“The whole transaction of religious conversion has been made mechanical and spiritless. Faith may now be exercised without a jar to the moral life and without embarrassment to the Adamic ego. Christ may be ‘received’ without creating any special love for Him in the soul of the receiver. The man is ‘saved’ but he is not hungry or thirsty after God.” [1]
When my niece was here over Christmas, I got into playing “Rush Hour” with her. It’s a puzzle in which you move little cars around to get them out of an exit. It’s like an overcrowded parking lot.
The kids told me “Dad, you can get that as an ‘app’ on your iPhone.” So, I downloaded it: “Rush Hour”—the free version. It has seventy different puzzles for me to play with, when I have nothing else to do.
Included with this free version is an advert that invites me to buy the full version with 2,500 puzzles that will take me to ever higher levels of difficulty. I won’t be buying the full version. The free one gives me everything I want.
That is precisely how many people have come to think of Christianity. There’s salvation—in which you get your sins forgiven and entrance to heaven—and that comes free. There’s discipleship—in which you are called to repentance, holiness, and sacrifice—and that’s costly. So, why not go with the free version? It gives you all you need.
Of course, you would expect to hear the pastor say, “If you like the free version of Christianity, you really should upgrade to the full version,” but many people never get round to that.
Here’s the problem: We’ve lost the Gospel that is centered on the person of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is not a program. It is a person. The good news of God is regarding His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. The gift of God to us is not an upgradeable product, but the unchangeable person of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
New Testament believers celebrate the Lordship of Christ
Christ offers Himself to you. He is Savior and Lord. You cannot divide him into pieces. In our time there is great interest in Christ the Savior, and a strange reluctance over Christ the Lord. But in the New Testament, you find believers celebrating the Lordship of Christ:
“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11
“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Acts 2:21
Peter is explaining to the people on the day of Pentecost—the risen Christ is Savior and Lord. He is Lord over sin, death and hell. That’s why He is able to save people from them.
“God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11
This early Christian hymn celebrates the Lordship of Christ.
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.” Colossians 2:6-7
This describes how the lives of these believers were transformed by Jesus Christ, who is their Lord.
There is nothing here in the New Testament even close to the idea that you get saved and then sometime later think about consecrating your life to Christ. These believers “received Christ as Lord,” and the rest of their Christian life is a continuing of what started at their conversion.
Paul says, “This is what you were taught.” The Gospel he preached was “the Gospel of God… regarding His Son… Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Why you discover the Lord before you discover the Savior
The story of Paul’s own conversion shows that his first discovery was not that Jesus is Savior, but that Jesus is Lord. Saul was on the road to Damascus, filled with anger, resisting Christ, and persecuting the church:
“As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” Acts 9:3-6
Far from receiving Christ as Savior and then somehow moving on to crown Him as Lord, the first discovery Saul makes is that there is a Lord in heaven. He is the Christ, and Saul needs to be reconciled to Him.
On Pentecost, Peter proclaims the resurrection of Jesus Christ, “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36). Peter proclaims, “Jesus is Lord. And since you’re in rebellion against Him, you have a problem.”
They believe Peter, so they ask, “What shall we do?” Peter says “Repent.” There’s forgiveness, there’s grace, there’s mercy, there’s the gift of the Holy Spirit. But it comes from Jesus Christ the Lord.
The Savior who is ready to forgive us is the Lord who lays claim to our lives. Since Christ is Savior and Lord, and never Savior without Lord, He calls us to faith and repentance, and never faith without repentance.
Becoming a Christian can never amount to adding a belief to an unchanged life. True faith is shot through with repentance because it is faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.
When the Gospel is properly preached, it becomes clear that there is a Lord in heaven to whom we must give account, and with whom we need to be reconciled, there are sins against His law from which we must turn, and there is rebellion against His Son that we need to end.
Trusting Christ as your Savior involves turning from the sin from which you are asking Him to save you. You cannot ask Him to save you from your sins and then not turn from them. Trusting Christ as your Savior also involves placing your whole life under His authority.
Christ lays claim to your obedience, your energy, your gifting, your time, your dream, your family, and your retirement. You may ask, “How can that possibly be my highest good?”
Here’s why. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Then He gives the reason, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it” (Luke 9:23-24).
Your greatest good is to be wholly owned by the Son of God, because in keeping your life from Christ you will eventually lose it, but in losing your life to Christ you will find it, keep it, and gain it forever.
Excerpted from "Jesus Christ our Lord"
a sermon by Pastor Colin S. Smith
The Orchard Evangelical Free Church
Arlington Heights, IL
Unlocking the Bible.org
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