A Perversion of The Gospel!
Lordship Salvation
By Dr. Curtis Hutson
CHAPTER FIVE
V. Some Arguments of Those Who Try to Prove Lordship Salvation
Those who teach Lordship salvation say, "But the Bible says, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.'" Sure it does. But it does not say, "Obey the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."; it is always careful to identify the object of our faith. Our faith, our trust, our dependence must be in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We cannot trust our good works, our good life, our surrender, our baptism, our ordinances or anything else. We must trust Jesus Christ and Him alone for salvation. He plainly said, "I am THE way, THE truth, and THE life: no man cometh unto the father, but by me" (John 14:6).
Why must we confuse the most important message in the world?
Suppose I am going to jump from a building into a net held by four men. A mechanic is holding once corner of the net, a dentist one corner, an airplane pilot one corner, and an insurance salesman the other corner. I am going to trust them to catch me. Some one could say, " Believe on Mr. Domansky, the dentist, and thou shalt be saved," but that doesn't mean I have to let him pull all my teeth in order to get saved. It simply means that I am going to have to trust him to catch me in that net. Someone else could say, "Believe on Mr. Smith, the insurance salesman, and thou shalt be saved." But that doesn't mean I have to buy my insurance from Mr. Smith to be saved. It simply means I must trust him to hold that net for me.
When the Bible says in Acts 16:31, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," it doesn't mean you have to make Him Lord of your life. It simply means you must trust the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation. Verse after verse in the Bible clearly says that salvation is simply trusting in Jesus Christ. John 3:36 says, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not on the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."
The man who is trusting anything other than Jesus Christ is not saved. That is plain teaching of the Bible. The man who claims he is trusting in Jesus Christ--plus his ability to yield to the Lordship of Christ, is not fully trusting the Saviour; and there is no promise to those who trust Jesus Christ plus something else, no matter how good the other thing may be.
When we get to Heaven, we are going to sing: "Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation" (Revelation 5:9). We are not going to sing: " We are worthy for we have committed and surrendered to the Lordship of Christ." Now when you teach salvation by grace through faith, that one is saved simply by trusting Jesus Christ, some call that "easy believism." But you will not find that expression in the Bible. That is a manmade expression.
It is not easy to get one to trust Christ, Him alone, and nothing else for salvation. As matter of fact, that may be the hardest thing in the world to do.
You are called upon to believe in Someone whom your eyes have never seen. You are called upon to believe in Someone, and you have never met an eyewitness who ever saw Him. You are called upon to believe on Someone whom the so-called scholarship of the day denies. You are called upon to believe in Someone who died on the cross two thousand years ago. You are called upon to believe in Someone of whom the only record you have of Him has been kept by His friends. You are called upon only to believe in His existence, but to believe that by depending on Him you can be justified on the basis that He was made guilty for your sins.
Now that is not easy! It is hard enough to trust someone we see and know, someone we have shaken hands with and talked to. But to trust in Someone whom we have not seen is difficult. That fact that most religions teach works, ordinances, sacraments, baptism or something else for salvation show how difficult is is to get a person to simply trust in Jesus Christ as Saviour. Salvation by grace is "believism" all right, but it is certainly not "easy believism."
Now don't misunderstand me. I am not saying that you simply admit there is a Christ and thou shalt be saved; I am saying what the Bible says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
The Bible word "believe" means to depend upon, to rely upon, to trust in. Some argue that verse in James 2:19, "...the devils also believe, and tremble." But the devils do not trust Jesus Christ as Saviour; they simply admit His existence.
It is one thing to believe an airplane can fly; it is quite another to trust your physical life to the pilot and plane to take you across the nation. To be saved, one must trust Jesus Christ completely for salvation.
No Christian in the world can say that when he was saved he totally committed himself to Christ and has since then been absolutely surrendered. Not even those who teach Lordship salvation will say that. They will say, "Jesus has been my Lord, but many times I have disobeyed Him." Then when you disobeyed Him, He wasn't the Lord of your life.
Those who teach Lordship Salvation say, "He's always Lord." "Lord" comes from the Hebrew word Adonai, meaning "Master." It also comes from the word Jehovah, the personal name of God. There are several translations of the word. In that sense, He is everybody's Lord. He is the tadpole's Lord, the bumblebee's Lord, the bullfrog's Lord, the rattlesnake's Lord--but that doesn't mean they are saved. He is Master of the whole universe. he can do what He want to do, when He wants to do it!
Philippians 2:10-11, declares, "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Does that mean that everyone will be saved, since the day will come when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord? Of course not. When we talk about Jesus being Lord of one's life, we mean yielding to Him for the control of the life.
Jesus is Lord over many things about every individual--the color of my eyes, my height, my parents, etc. The Lord determined who my parents would be. He was the Boss; He was the Master. The Lord determined my height. he determined the size of my ears, nose, the texture of my skin.
But one important area of my life where He gives me control is my will. God made us free moral agents. We are creatures of choice. He wants to be Lord of our wills, but he doesn't want to force us. He wants us to yield to Him because we want to do so.
He was a willing Saviour, and He will have only willing servants. We trust Him for salvation, and we yield to Him for service.End of Chapter Five
