Although my discipleship is imperfect, I maintain that, what's at stake when I sin and fail to follow on with the Lord in full obedience, is not my salvation but my sanctification. And Scripture confirms this (Ro. 12:1,2, for example). The reason Lordship men miss the mark on yieldedness is that they confound discipleship passages with salvation passages. And the results are predictable: Salvation becomes a message of radical submission that no believer can ever know with any confidence that he's achieved it.
Those who promote Lordship (that is, total surrender as both an expression of genuine faith and as a requirement for salvation) say that prolonged failure in the Christian life proves that salvation was never there. But is this so? As I pointed out at the close of Article II, Scripture provides telling examples of believers in protracted carnality who were saved (Lot and Solomon, for instance, in the OT; and the Corinthians in the NT). Yes, carnality is a problem. But changing the terms of the gospel won't eradicate it. Making the gospel harder, stiffer, and more threatening isn't the answer. Paul addressed the protracted carnality of the Corinthians not with threats of damnation but with a reminder of the Judgment Seat of Christ (1 Cor. 3:10-15). Just because a believer won't go to hell for drawn-out disobedience doesn't mean he won't pay a price for it. He will, but not at the expense of his soul (1 Cor. 5:1-8).
It's not my desire, of course, to give comfort to disobedient believers. Perish the thought! However, what is needed isn't a message of try harder and do more but a message of rewards in jeopardy. As noted, that was Paul's solution for carnal Corinthians (1 Cor. 3:1-5; cf. 1 Cor. 3:9-16), a message that warned them about the high costs and consequences of inferior service. Paul never preached the "You might not be saved" card as a solution to carnality. He never said, for instance, "Okay, you Corinthians, you've had two years now to get things right, to surrender to the mastery of Christ, and to get on with a holy walk; and you haven't. Apparently, you must be lost because prolonged disobedience and salvation are mutually exclusive."
If we compare (as Scripture does) salvation to a house, salvation would be the foundation and works the superstructure. While the two aren't the same, they are, nevertheless, intimately connected. Not surprisingly, 1 Cor. 3: 10-15 undermines the Lordship claim by showing that the foundation (salvation) doesn't guarantee the quality of the structure built upon it, a fact Lordship followers sometimes miss. If believers must inevitably produce a strong Christlikeness, Paul knew nothing of it. According to Scripture every believer is placed upon the foundation of Christ at the moment of faith in order to erect a structure upon it. That building is the believer's testimony, and it's the result of various materials (or works) he puts into it. Every believer works. No believer is without works. To say a believer doesn't produce works after he's saved is not true. Every believer produces works. The question is, What kind of works are they? Lordship men say they will largely be excellent--gold, silver, and precious stones because, as they see it, a true believer must necessarily raise up a testimony more indicative of a mansion than a shack, more like gold, silver, and precious stones than wood, hay, and stubble. Yet Scripture nowhere supports this.
Some Lordship proponents charge that non Lordship men preach a divided Christ. I was surprised to hear that. They say we divide Christ's Saviourship from His Lordship and thus divide His person when we refuse to make submission (Lordship) a necessary condition of belief (Saviourship). To be sure, Christ isn't a divided Saviour. He is One Lord and Saviour. When we receive Him, we receive Him as both Lord and Saviour. However, when we first come to Christ, we often experience (or relate to) these two truths differently. I recall my own salvation experience. After hearing the gospel for the very first time, I responded to an invitation to receive Christ as Saviour. The preacher took me into his office, and we knelt on the floor. Then he opened his Bible and explained clearly what Christ had done for me, what He offers me, and how I could trust Him and be saved. After about thirty minutes of explanation, I received Christ as my Saviour. But if someone had asked me later that day if I had forsaken all to follow Him, if I truly hated my mom and dad, I would've said no. I didn't forsake anything. Rather, I received something, the free gift of salvation (Jo. 1:12; 2 Cor. 6:1,2; Col. 2:6)!!!
Later on, I came to see the necessity of Christ's Lordship and its importance in my walk with Him. To grow as I should required a happy submission to His rule. After being saved, I've found that submitting to Christ's Lordship is a process. It's not a one-time seamless act. In fact, I find myself repeatedly (with various levels of intensity and passion) surrendering to His mastery everyday. But, again, before I could do that, I had to be saved. Lordship involves believers, not unbelievers. Practically speaking, I had to know Christ as Saviour before I could know Him as Lord, the former being prior to the latter as a practical matter. After all, Christ doesn't call the unbeliever to submit to His Lordship; He calls them to repent and believe (Mk. 1:15; Acts 20:21) which makes Lordship possible.
Once saved, I had both the duty and privilege of consecrating my life to Him. Since being saved, I have repeatedly presented myself as a living sacrifice (Ro. 12;1,3). I wince when I say that, but it's true. While I love Him dearly, I'm not always submitted fully. Again, the day I received Christ, I didn't promise Him anything, yet I received everything! Quite frankly, I don't think He would've cared a hoot about my promises. After all, what good were they? I was lost. I was dead in sin. I was in no position to promise or pledge Him anything, much less follow through on such things. Besides, to barter my obedience for His salvation would've been blasphemous. Jesus isn't looking to barter with men about their souls. He isn't interested in sinners promising total obedience in exchange for His salvation. Barter salvation is baloney . . . and pagan. Again, while I never promised Jesus anything that day, He promised me something . . . eternal life . . . on the sole condition of faith.
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