Lordship Salvation
IV. LORDSHIP SALVATION
Another variation of this invitation when inviting people forward mixes faith and dedication for salvation. This is known as "Lordship salvation." The phrase most commonly used goes something like this, "Make Christ Lord of your life, for if He is not Lord of all (means completely controlling your life); He is not Lord at all." In essence this means "if one is not entirely surrendered to the Lord's will, then they are not really saved," for then He is not Lord at all. This invitation includes phrases like:
"Come and lay all upon the altar."
"Come and give your life to Jesus."
"Come and surrender all to Jesus and be saved."
"Come, make Him Lord of your life and be saved." And so on!
Many have responded to this type of invitation sincerely desiring to surrender all, make Him Lord, give their life, and lay all upon the altar. Then, after Sunday comes Monday, and soon they realize they have fallen short of fulfilling their promise of complete surrender made last Sunday!
What now! In talking to many who have experienced this, almost unanimously, two things come to their mind. The first is, "Was I really saved?" The second is, "If I was really saved, how could I have failed the Lord so soon?" If not counseled soon, this person very often does not come back to church. The reason is, they are embarrassed over not fulfilling their promises and commitments to the Lord, and they do not want people to think they are hypocrites. The question is, "Do you have to make Christ Lord of your life to be saved?
Many pastors and evangelists make this a part of their call "to come forward" or the public invitation. This is actually the damnable doctrine of "Lordship Salvation in disguise!" This false teaching is incorrectly derived from Romans 10:9 a, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. The verse should actually read, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Jesus as LORD (or Jehovah)." For Christian Jews, or Christian Gentiles, to testify that Jesus was Jehovah during the First Century A.D., was a dangerous thing in light of the persecution against the church, in Judea and elsewhere, which they were encountering. As Paul said to the Thessalonians,
"For ye brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: (14) Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; (15) ...Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved..." - 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16.
"Jesus" is a transliteration of the Greek "Iesous," which in turn is the transliteration of the Hebrew name we know as "Jehoshua" which means "Jehovah is Salvation" or "Jehovah is the Saviour" or "Jehovah Saves." The name "Lord" is the Greek "Kurios" which, in the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint, is used for "Jehovah." Therefore, by its use it implies deity. To confess that Jesus is Lord is to testify that Jesus is truly God in human flesh who went to the cross, died, was buried and was resurrected as foretold by the prophets." Kenneth S. Wuest (Word Studies in the Greek New Testament). This refutes the false teaching that you must make Jesus Lord of your life to be saved, or "Lordship Salvation." This is NOT what this verse is teaching at all. One false teaching leads to another. For example, should God give us salvation on our promise that we will make Christ Lord of our lives; then, if at any time later in our lives we should not allow Him to be Lord over our lives, our salvation would be lost! In other words, one would have to be in complete obedience, and live sinlessly for the rest of our lives to not lose our salvation. This is impossible! Whatever happened to the doctrine of eternal security of the believer?
"Making Christ Lord of your life" as a part of salvation is also adding works to salvation. This is certainly not scriptural.
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. - Ephesians 2:8-9 As I have said before, salvation does not come as a result of what we do. We have salvation because we believe and accept what Christ has done for us, when He died on the cross as our payment for sin and was resurrected showing that God accepted the payment.
"Make Christ Lord of your life," is another religious cliché. What is most likely meant is a dedication of your life, a time when you determine that you want to live your life as a good testimony for the Lord. As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 6:13,
"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."
After we are saved, Christ wants us to dedicate ourselves to follow Him. One must remember that dedication is never a condition to obtain salvation; but is God's will for every believer after we are saved. Romans 12:1-2 is written to the Christian,
"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. (1) And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (2) The sad thing is, they were misled to believe they had to make promises and commitments to Christ in order to be saved. This is some of the damage that is done by this type of invitation. The person is led to believe that they must give something to Christ in order to be saved, little realizing salvation is all of the Lord. It is receiving what Christ did for eternal life, not offering what we can do to deserve it.