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Lord of All Rom. 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (NKJ) (emphasis added) At the very beginning of our Christian walk we are presented with a question: Do we confess that Jesus is Lord or do we confess Him as Lord? In the Greek, the above verse literally says to "confess Jesus as Lord". "What difference does it make?" is the usual reply. Is - as; how can two letters make that much difference. What does "confessing Him as Lord" mean anyway? If we confess that Jesus is Lord, we are merely stating a fact. That Jesus IS Lord is true whether He is Lord of you or not (Rev. 17:14). Even the demons confess that He is Lord and it surely doesn't bring them salvation. (See Matt. 8:29; Mark 1:23, 24; 3:11; 5:7; Luke 8:28) Unless we state what He is Lord of we really aren’t saying anything substantial. Is He the Lord of the world? Is He the Lord of Bro. Wayne's dog? Is He the Lord of Bro. Wayne? Ah, now we are getting somewhere. Is He the Lord of Bro. Wayne? That Jesus was made Lord of the Heavens and the Earth is a fact that was determined by God who made Him the Lord of everything except you. We have nothing to do with that, it is a foregone conclusion for when we say that "He is Lord", we are simply acknowledging a fact. It would be much like saying that there is gravity, or that the sun is shining, or that it is raining. We didn't make gravity, nor did we make the sunshine or the rainfall. We are simply acknowledging that it is a fact. Our part comes with what we do with Jesus. Do we make Him Lord of us? Now that is something that God can't do. Wait a minute, Bro. Wayne! What do you mean "something that God can't do"? Ok, lets say "something that God won't allow himself to do". You see, God gave you free will to do, say and think what you want. (See Deut 30:19,20) In the above reference, where God said "choose life", you is understood. You choose Life. God won't make that decision for you neither will He allow Satan to make it. If anyone is going to make the decision to choose life, it will be you. You see, if either God or Satan were to inject their wills to choose right or wrong for you, you would be nothing more than a puppet on a string. Furthermore, God would be unjust for punishing or rewarding us for our actions if they were not really our actions. So, knowing all that, if God won't choose right or wrong for us, He certainly won't choose our Lord. That is strictly up to you and me. But before we can choose something we should certainly know what we are choosing. What is a Lord after all? Here in the United States we have never had Lords and Ladies (well, we have many ladies but not in the sense that we are discussing here). If you had lived in seventeenth century England when the King James Bible was being translated, you would know exactly what was meant by that word. A Lord ruled over an area and the people in it. He had the say over life and death, what the people did for a living, how they lived, where they lived, over every aspect of their lives. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Lord as one having power and authority over others. In 1611 that power was absolute and the translators knew that when they selected that word to translate the Greek word Kurios; from kuros (supremacy); supreme in authority, i.e. (as noun) controller; by implication, Mr. (as a respectful title) (See, also, note 1 below). When the Bible says to "confess Jesus as Lord" it is saying to confess that Jesus has absolute, supreme power and authority in your life. In other words that He is "calling the shots". If this is not true, then the confession is a lie. Hebrews 3:1 says that Jesus is the High Priest of our profession. The Greek word for profession is from the same root word that is translated "confession" here. How can Jesus be High Priest of a lie? To put it bluntly, He won't! When we look at the Bible, we usually see only that God wants us born into His family. We often miss the other great purpose of the Bible; to cause us to make Jesus our Lord and to live under His authority and Lordship. Jesus (and therefore God) wants us to die to our own wills and to live to His. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die"2. C.S. Lewis was even more fluent when He said "Christ says 'Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of you work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked -- the whole outfit. I will give you a new will instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours."3 Jesus simply said "If anyone desires to come after Me , let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me". (Luke 9:23 NKJ) If you take up the cross of Christ and follow Him, it will be to die on it. But after that comes the resurrection. By the way, the cross you are to take up is any place where your will is going one way and God's will is going another. You crucify your will and follow His. In short, if we make Jesus Lord of our lives it means that we will follow Him by becoming His disciples. We will also do what He tells us to even if it is not convenient or in line with our wills or agendas. We will act as if He is our master (because that is what He will be). We will be at His beck and call at all times day and night. We will conform ourselves into His image (Rom. 8:29). We become slave/servant/brothers to Jesus. This relationship/condition is not instantaneous. It is not so much an action as a choice although action is required. We decide to make Him Lord then we spend the rest of our lives doing it. It’s a lifetime journey. Lets start on it NOW. And remember, If you don't make Jesus Lord of all, you haven't made Him Lord at all. Notes:
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