Lordship Salvation: True, False, or Confused?
It seems that one of the newer terms to mark Christians as legitimate or false is concerning the coined phrase known as “Lordship salvation”. It sounds as if the concept of Lordship salvation has become as key to being Christian as trinity and resurrection and inspiration of scripture. There are some that affirm this concept to be essential to biblical fidelity and salvation while others that claim that Lordship salvation is a heretical teaching that damns people at worst and negatively effects people at best. As I write this you may begin to wonder which side I will advocate and write for. I have chosen to take neither side on the issue. On the one hand, I hear those denying Lordship salvation and think that denying this concept is deeply problematic and wrong. To deny the Lordship of Christ is to deny Christ. On the other hand, I hear the way many in the Lordship salvation camp are speaking about this concept and find it to be deeply troubling and inconsistent with historic orthodoxy. The Lordship salvation camp seems to often misquote scripture to argue for a salvation that is a mixture of legal submission to law and faith reception to grace. They have replaced the instrument of faith with the instrument of law submission and redefined faith to in some way be an act of law conformity. The Lordship salvation camp seems to often misquote scripture to argue for a salvation that is a mixture of legal submission to law and faith reception to grace. They have replaced the instrument of faith with the instrument of law submission and redefined faith to in some way be an act of law conformity.Hence, I feel that I must neither deny Lordship salvation as many do nor affirm the way many are arguing for Lordship salvation. I am a reformed believer who believes in the necessity to subject oneself to scripture not sides, and not just some scripture but all scripture in all of its contextual circles (tota scriptura). I also believe that bad solutions to real problems are not justifiable. Meaning that simply because there are many professing Christians acting as if God’s authority has no meaning or place does not mean that arguing for Christ’s Lordship in a way which redefines the sola’s (God’s glory alone, grace alone, Christ alone, faith alone, scripture alone) of our faith is not a valid solution but simply a perpetuation of aberrance in the name of orthodoxy. So what I will do is walk us through texts that speak of and define Christ’s Lordship and provide a definition which neither nullifies Christ’s Lordship nor nullifies the apostolic gospel of salvation by grace. This article will attempt to show the biblical language of Lordship not the evangelical lingo of Lordship.
Lordship salvation is more about what God has made Christ to be in history more than what we make Him to be in life
Philippians 2:8, “He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross. 9 For this reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow—of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth—11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Notice something very important about these verses concerning the Lordship of Christ. Verse 9 states it very clearly that God is the One who has made Christ the Lord of the cosmos and has crowned Him as such. In the Lordship conversation there are often cliches and repetitions about the believer's necessity to make and crown Jesus as Lord of their life. This text often is one of their citations to argue their case. It seems however that the focus and emphasis in their argumentation is on the sinner giving Christ the position of authority and dominion in their hearts. However, this passage paints a very different picture as the emphasis is on how God has made and crowned Jesus the exalted and glorious Lord over us. It seems that in the Lordship discussion their is this narcissistic obsession with us giving Jesus this title by our submission when in fact the biblical obsession is with God crowning Jesus over us rather than us crowning Jesus. Lordship in its essence is about what God has made Christ to be over us more than what we make Him to be over us. Jesus does not need you to make Him Lord of your life anymore than the sun needs you to make it your source of heat; it simply is such already and Jesus simply is such already. The call to Lordship is the call to acknowledge and accept what God has made Christ to be not what you need to make Him to be.Some of you may say, “but wait what about verses 10 and 11?” Well, what about verses 10 and 11? Where do you see this language of us needing to crown and make Jesus the Lord of our lives as the crux of the Lordship conversation? What the text simply says is that we are to acknowledge and affirm that God has made Christ the crucified Lord over us. It is the language of confession and internal assent not personal crowning. According to the text you are to confess and humble yourself in the truth that God has made Christ the Lord and crowned Him over you and all. The difference is subtle but very significant as you are being asked to agree and confirm that God has crowned Christ by virtue of what He did rather than being asked to be the one giving Him the crown as it pertains to you and what you do. The call to Lordship is the call to acknowledge and accept what God has made Christ to be not what you need to make Him to be. God is the actor and we the recognizer. Confession is not about crowning but crowning is about our confession. God making Christ Lord is reality whether you confess it to be so or not, and so the key is to embrace God’s reality that He has made not to place the burden to do so on the sinner's shoulders.
Notice something else about the text as to how exactly it is that we bow down and confess this reality. It is at the name of Jesus that this affirmation and response as to what God has done in crowning Christ occurs in the person. Did you catch that? The name of Jesus is that which brings you to bow to this reality not your willpower-surrender to the crown. The weight of the crown bows you down rather than you creating the moral gravitational force to bow before the crown. The name of Jesus is a biblical way to speak of Christ's person and works of redemption. And so to bow at the name of Jesus is to speak of how grace crashes down on the sinner and brings Him low more than how the sinner morally lifts Christ to be high. It would seem that the Lordship camp would like to speak about the bowing not at the name of Jesus but rather at the demands and moral threats of Jesus's Lord-authority. Jesus's gospel name brings us under His Lordship not our legal and volitional surrender. It is the name of Christ, which is about He, Himself for us, which brings us down not efficiency of our law-surrender. The climax of crowning Christ is by God in history and its consequence is confessed by us in the present; we are to respond to this historic crowning of Christ not personally recreate it in our subjective selves. God crowning Christ creates confession that then creates submission.
