This past week I've been reading through two separate books, which at the outset I did not figure would have anything necessarily in common with each other. After all, they were written by two very different authors, in two very different languages, in two very different countries, in two very different centuries. And yet the exact same parallel point is so stressed in both books, that I could not help being greatly moved and greatly convicted simultaneously. The two books are "The Godly Man's Picture" by the 17th century Puritan Thomas Watson, and "The Cost of Discipleship" by the 20th century Lutheran Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The subject that both men expounded on very strongly was the relevance of surrendering to Jesus as not only the Savior of your soul, but as the Lord of your life.
"When Christ calls a man, he bids him to come and die." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The phrase "Jesus is my Lord and Savior" is a well known phrase that has no doubt been uttered by every living Christian today, and by all Christians who have passed from this world over the past two thousand years. Surely every Christian has full confidence in the second half of that phrase; that Jesus is our Savior. But how confident are Christians in declaring that we have genuinely "died to ourselves" and crowned Jesus our Lord. The phrase in its entirety is so common on the tongues of us Christians that we tend to speak it with such shallow demeanor as to cause it to lose all balance and weightiness. For example, we declare the second half with such confidence that we speak the first half without blushing at our own inconsistency of actually rejecting Jesus as the true Lord over our lives. If we were to be honest, most of us would say "Jesus is my Savior, but I am my own Lord." I, too, fall squarely into the camp of Christians that literally cling to Jesus everyday as my loving Savior, but rarely give a second thought to following Jesus as my commanding Lord. Who among us can say they are not infected by that same "Lordship-denying" syndrome? Even the disciples of Jesus' own lifetime struggled mightily with presiding continually under the Lordship of Christ. Think about it for a moment; at the most important time Jesus needed His followers by His side - while He was dying on the cross - it was exactly then the disciples (with the exception of John) abandoned Jesus as their Lord and scattered under the lordship of their own fear and disloyalty. They did not follow Jesus at all times, not even at the most crucial time. If the disciples themselves failed to follow Jesus physically up to Calvary, how could we expect any different from ourselves about following Jesus spiritually in our own time.
The only comfort I take from this is that the disposition of disobedience is a universal weakness among all believers. But surely we are not to wallow in self-pity from this pathetic universal confession, but to repent of our disloyalty, seek out Jesus' precepts and commands each and everyday of our lives, and to rely on the Holy Spirit to empower us to truly live as though Jesus is our Shepherd (John 10:11), our Overseer (1 Peter 2:25), and our Lord (Jude 1:21). It is He alone that is to direct our every step, so that we do not live as shepherd-less rogue sheep who create our own paths. We are not called to exist as a saved people with no directing Ruler, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ... A Christianity of that kind is nothing more or less than the end of discipleship. In such a religion there is trust in God, but no following of Christ."
I am not here teaching the false doctrine of "perfectionism" which states that you must become perfect and be without sin in order to legitimately call Jesus your Lord. The Apostle John declares, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" - 1 John 1:8. Nor am I teaching the false doctrine of "salvation by works" which states that your salvation depends upon the merit of your own works. The Apostle Paul declares, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith... not by works" - Ephesians 2:8-9. I wholeheartedly affirm that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. My works can neither contribute to, nor improve, the completed salvation Jesus has wrought on the cross. In fact, my works would only tarnish and diminish the finished work of Christ on Calvary by belittling and invalidating the glorious nature and ultimate sufficiency of the atonement achieved through Jesus' holy blood.
"Every pardon is the price of blood." - Thomas Watson
Perhaps the only cure to deliver us from continually rejecting Jesus' lordship over every area of our lives is to continually and consciously live under the knowledge of Jesus' shed blood for us. Meditate daily on what it took for Jesus to become our Savior by the spilling of His precious blood on a wooden cross, and you would then cheerfully and wholeheartedly submit your life to Him as Lord. As Thomas Watson wrote, "Christ ransomed us with a price, not of money, but of blood. Therefore we are to be only at his service. If any can lay a better claim to us than Christ, we may serve them; but Christ having the best right to us, we are to cleave to him and enroll ourselves forever in his service." We as saved Christians may be spiritually clothed in the blood of Christ, but how often do we allow that same blood to drip into our daily thoughts and pierce our conscience so as to cause us to give our all to Jesus? If the blood of Jesus that saves you does not also move you to serve Him, than nothing will. And since the blood of Jesus covers us completely, may we surrender our lives completely to Him. Charles Spurgeon concludes, "This fact [that Jesus shed His blood for you] is the most important one in all your history. That you were redeemed with a price is the greatest event in your biography... Let it exercise the most prominent influence over your entire career. Be a man, be an Englishman, but be most of all Christ's man. A citizen, a friend, a philanthropist, a patriot; all these you may be, but be most of all a saint redeemed by blood."
Is it enough to give thanks, but no obedience? Is it enough to be pardoned, but not led? Is it enough to be cleansed by Jesus' blood, but not conformed to His image? Is it enough to claim Jesus as the Savior of our souls, but reject Him as the Lord of our lives? Jesus Himself answered that question simply and conclusively when He declared in John 14:15, "If you love me, obey my commands."
"Would you as well be ruled by Christ's laws as saved by his blood? He will never be a priest to intercede unless your heart is the throne where he sways his scepter."
- Thomas Watson
