by Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001)
(Chapter 11 from Dr. Hyle's excellent book, Salvation is More than Being Saved)
Colossians 2:16, 17, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in
respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a
shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." I Corinthians 2:8, "Which
none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not
have crucified the Lord of glory."
Now exactly what is Lordship salvation? It is a doctrine embraced by some
who
say that one must receive Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord in order to be saved. A careful took at this doctrine will show that it is really nothing more but
salvation by works rearing its ugly head. It adds to salvation by faith and
faith alone something that man must do, and that is make Jesus the Lord of his
life.
Those who embrace this doctrine often do so from good motives. They are sick of
sub-standard Christianity and shallow Christian living. They find others who
agree with them, and as they fellowship in their lamentation caused by
disappointment after examining the lives of God's people, their lamentation
becomes doctrine. They do not realize that they are adding works to salvation.
They adopt spiritual clichés such as "if Christ is not Lord of all, He will not
be Lord at all." Then they will adopt other little clichés like, "Don't pluck
green fruit," "Easy believism," etc. Their disappointment and oftentimes disgust
with the shallowness of many Christians causes them to go so far in their
disdain that they teach heresy. They love to talk about returning to New
Testament Christianity. Well, the truth is, people
have not changed since the New Testament. They had shallow Christians then even
as we have today. For example, look at I Corinthians
3:14, "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto
carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with
meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For
ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and
divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of
Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?" Here we have mention of
carnal Christians. Jesus was certainly not Lord of their lives. Yet they are
called babes in Christ.
I Corinthians 5:1-5, "It is reported commonly that there is fornication among
you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that
one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather
mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as
though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed. In the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the
power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such an one unto Satan for the
destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord
Jesus." Here is a member of the church, and the Lord said of him that his spirit
would be saved in the day of judgment. What a tragic testimony! He, like Ananias
and Sapphira and others, had committed the sin unto death. Certainly Christ was
not the Lord of his life.
Galatians 4:8-11, "Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them
which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather
are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto
ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and
years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." Once
again we have some weak Christians whose lives were not characterized by the
Lordship of Christ.
2nd Thessalonians 3:6, 14, 15, "Now we command you,
brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from
every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he
received of us. And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man,
and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an
enemy, but admonish him as a brother."
Was Jesus the Lord of Lot's life when he was in Sodom? Of course not, yet God
called him "just." This does not mean he was just in his behavior, but he was
just in his standing before God because he was a believer. Was Jesus the Lord of
David's life when he sinned? Was Jesus the Lord of Peter's life when he denied
the Lord, denied the faith and denied the church? Was Jesus the Lord of
Abraham's life when he fled to Egypt because of a lack of faith? Was Jesus the
Lord of Moses' life when he lost his ticket to the Holy Land because of his sin
of smiting the rock twice? Was Jesus the Lord of Jacob's life when he was in Haran all those years?
Now certainly there is a doctrine called the Lordship of Christ, and the Bible
is full of warnings, pleadings and exhortations for God's children to yield to
Lordship. Romans 12:1, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God, which is your reasonable service." Romans 6-12, 13, "Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts
thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead,
and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Galatians 5:16,
"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the
flesh."
Galatians 6:10-17, "As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand. As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain, you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." The admonition to the unsaved is that they accept Christ as Saviour. The admonition to those who have accepted Christ as Saviour is to accept Him as Lord.
