‘Lordship Salvation’
There is a lot of controversy about this term ‘lordship salvation’ and many views about what it means. Those who reject Calvinism reject it on the grounds that certain celebrity Calvinists teach a version of it, even when it completely contradicts the foundations of their theology. Calvinists believe that regeneration (being born again) is not a human choice and it occurs before a person can exercise faith, only then can a person make a choice.
Frankly speaking, if you insist that God made the choice about you being born again without you taking any part in that choice, then talking about what you must choose in order to be regenerated is a total contradiction and irrelevant. Therefore, Calvinists who hold the regeneration preceding faith position should be silent on the topic of Lordship salvation or any question about what is required for salvation. Their foundational belief is that we play no part in being born again (Westminster Confession 10).
Free grace and hyper-grace adherents reject it on the grounds that it promotes a ‘work’s based salvation’ and cite Ephesians 2: 8-9 that ‘it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not of yourselves, it is a gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast’. If one claims that we must ‘receive Christ as Lord’ (Colossians 2:6) these people state that this is adding works to just believing and is thus salvation by works.
This position reveals an ignorance of the difference between works of the law, and acts of faith, in fact these people seem to have no understanding of the word faith at all. When Paul speaks of works he is speaking of those who claim that their obedience to Mosaic Law contributes to their salvation, a common point of contention between Jesus and the Pharisees in the gospels. Paul’s letter to the Galatians confronts this issue.
But the free grace adherents teach that if a person claims that the individual has to do anything to be born again, this is works based salvation and not ‘faith’. In Scripture, any real faith is active faith. If there is no act, there is no faith. Hebrews chapter 11 gives us a long list of people who were justified by faith under the old covenant. These people acted on God’s command and revelation and never on presumption. Verse 4 tells us that ‘by faith Abel brought God a better offering that Cain’. Abel acted…he had to go and prepare the offering, and then ‘brought’ it to God. His ‘bringing’ was an act of faith. Was this ‘works based salvation’?
Verse 7 tells us that Noah, when warned by God about things not yet seen, ( the revelation), built an ark to save his family, the act of faith. It took about 100 years to build that boat, a lot of work, so, was Noah saved by ‘works’? Did he earn his salvation by works? No, because the phrase by works is NOT about acting in faith, but about claiming self-righteousness.
Verse 8 tells us that ‘by faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place…obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going’. God called Abraham (the revelation) and Abraham ‘obeyed and went’, there’s the action. Noah only had God’s promise that it would rain, and he believed and built, Abraham did not know where he was being called to go, but he obeyed and went.
There is NO real faith without an action on the part of the individual because ‘believing’ requires an act of faith. To these free-grace people I would ask, is obedience works, is seeking God works? Hebrews 11:6 states that the seeking must be earnest or diligent, it requires action or it is not faith. So…please, understand what biblical faith is and the difference between faith and works of the law.
The second thing we need to understand is the difference between the old and new covenants. Hebrews 11 ends with the words that none of these people received what was promised or foretold, they never received the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit, they were never regenerated, never ‘born again’. Jesus told His disciples that the Holy Spirit was ‘with’ them, and would be ‘in’ them (John 14:17) and that the Holy Spirit would not be sent to indwell people until He had returned to the Father (John 16:7-11).
People read the words ‘unless a man is born again he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven’ (John 3:3). They take this to mean that everyone who is not born again is automatically going to hell. They then claim that Noah, Abraham and all those under the old covenant were born again. Understand this! Being born again is about experiencing the kingdom of God NOW, in this life, an existential taste of what is to come, it is becoming a ‘citizen of heaven’ and ‘an alien on earth’ now, before you die.
So…we need to understand the old and new covenants, and I discuss this topic in detail in my video/article entitled ‘once saved, always saved’.
In this article I want to simply examine what Jesus taught on the issue of His Lordship as it pertains to salvation and discipleship. We will examine the following questions, but not necessarily in this order:
1. What is required to be regenerated, that is, to become a partaker of the divine nature?
2. Can a person receive Christ as Savior, but reject His Lordship over their life?
3. Is there a difference between being Christian and being a disciple?
4. What did Jesus teach on these issues?
The world population is currently just under 8 billion, and there are almost 2.5 billion people who identify as being ‘christian’. Jesus said ‘few there are that find it’, but over a quarter of the world’s population is not a few. The vast majority of these people would claim to believe in the historical Jesus, that he lived, died on a cross for their sins, and rose again. If they are Roman Catholic they will have been baptized as infants, received their first communion around 7-8 years old and believe that their salvation is very much tied to sacraments. The Orthodox churches are similar.
However, these churches seldom if ever tell people they also need to be ‘born again’, and few of them would ever confess to having an experience of new birth. In many evangelical protestant churches, if children and young teens make a confession of faith in Christ they are told by someone they are born again and then baptized. Sadly, of those baptized before 17 yrs, 81% deny Christ and declare themselves as atheist or agnostic by age 25-30. Something is seriously wrong.
Protestants would say that the Catholics and Orthodox were not putting their faith in Christ alone, and the evangelicals who ended up denying Christ were either never truly born again, or just lost their salvation. My question is simply this: Did any of these people ever become ‘partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1:4), did they ever ‘belong to Christ’ (Romans 8:9), were they ever ‘God’s own possession’ having the Holy Spirit as a ‘guarantee of their heavenly inheritance’ (Ephesians 1:14)? I believe that Scripture would say ‘no’, they were never truly born again, and I would remind those who say they will still get to heaven, that Jesus said that any who deny me, I will deny to my Father.
But of course there are the millions who act in faith in the way their church or priest has told them they must, people who never experience new birth, but also, who try to live for Christ and never deny Him. In many ways they are like the old covenant saints, and as far as them being saved by their faith, that is up to God, not up to us to say.
If they were not truly born again, then obviously God withheld His Spirit from them, even though they had a measure of faith. And this is an incredibly important point. Who decides when a person is ready to be regenerated? Does the pastor, or the church’s idea of some age of accountability, or did Jesus Himself give us His own conditions? Will Jesus Christ regenerate someone who wants Him as a Savior, but still wants to control their own life?
Some say ‘yes’ to that question as they claim a person needs to ‘just believe’, and quote John 3:16 or some other summary verse. These same people end up with two levels of Christianity…the people who ‘just believed’ and are ‘saved’, and those who choose to be disciples. If one claims that a person must choose to be a disciple from the outset, they are labeled a lordship salvation heretic who promotes works based salvation.
Jesus spent three years preparing His disciples to go and ‘make disciples’ and establish His Church. And yes, He also told them that the Holy Spirit would lead and guide them after He sent the Spirit to permanently indwell them John 16:7-11 and 14:17, but His teachings were and always will be, the foundation of what it means to be a Christian disciple, not a Christian ‘or’ disciple.
So what are the conditions for being a disciple according to Christ? Let’s begin in a seldom taught passage from Luke 14:25–33. The context is that large crowds were travelling with Jesus and He turned to them and said these words:
‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters – yes, even their own life – such a person cannot be my disciple. (25)’
The Greek ‘sane’ translated as ‘hate’ has multiple meanings, but in the context of Luke 14, it is best understood with Jesus’ words in Matthew 10:37:
‘Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross is not worthy of me.’
The entire context of Luke 14:25-33 is in what is initially required to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. It is not about sanctification but regeneration, for Jesus was not speaking to regenerate people, but those who were following Him for the benefits they could receive. Christ will not take second place to family. He must be our first love from the beginning.
When the Holy Spirit reveals the depth of our sin and rebellion, and we understand the grace of God and sacrifice of Christ, we then see our sin as God sees it, and understand the unfathomable depth of love that drove Him to the cross. This fact is revealed in the words, ‘yes even his own life’(v25). The revelation of our sin through the lens of God’s holiness will manifest itself in a hatred for one’s own sinful life, and a desire to die to self, to have that self-ruling principle destroyed and replaced with a new life.
This is the heart of ‘taking up our cross’. It is an act of faith whereby the truly repentant sinner wants to deny self, die to self, and be ‘crucified with Christ’(Romans 6:6). Yes, it is also an ongoing process after regeneration, a ‘putting on the new self’, but the initial death to self is non-negotiable, for unless the self that rules us dies, there can be no ‘new birth’, or even any need for new birth.
Note also the words ‘cannot’ be my disciple. This word ‘dynatai’ means ‘impossible’, as explained in my video ‘Cannot continue in Sin’. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKi-w6Nl9Ns&t=1s
Unless there is a death to self, it is impossible to be a disciple of Christ. The same force of these words is used in Mark 8:34-37.
‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.’
Jesus goes on to speak of losing our soul, and asking what can be given in exchange for our soul. Obviously, then, He is not speaking to Christians about sanctification, but about the requirements for regeneration. Denial of self and taking up the cross are intrinsically linked.
The cross is a symbol of execution and death. The self that ruled us, the self we are enslaved to must be executed, must die. In verse 37 of the Markian passage Jesus asks a question. ‘What can anyone give in exchange for their soul?’ When we surrender our life to Christ we are not purchasing our salvation with an exchange, my life for His life, for our sinful life without Christ is worthless.
Surrender is not an exchange, and Christ demands an unconditional surrender, a point Jesus makes abundantly clear in His second analogy in Luke 14:31-33 which we will examine shortly.
From Luke 14:28-32, Jesus gives two analogies of counting the cost of becoming a disciple. In the first He speaks of beginning a building project and being ridiculed for not being able to finish it. Those who through the Spirit’s conviction have come to understand their slavery to sin, also know that they have never had the power to keep a New Year’s resolution, or change their own stony heart. The fear they have is ‘what if I try to be a disciple, make a public confession, and then have no power over my slavery to sin, and fail as a Christian’?
This is the very heart of the matter of active faith which must be exercised for regeneration. We must, by faith, confess; I do not have the power to live for you, but I surrender my self-will to you in faith, trusting you to give me the strength to live in your will. If we take this step of faith, Christ will destroy the root of sin and we will ‘become partakers of the divine nature and be given his divine power, and everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness’ (2 Peter 1:3-4).
The second analogy (verses 31-33), is in the context of war and ends with the words ‘in the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have, cannot be my disciple’. In the analogy, there are two kings, and therefore, two thrones. One king is more powerful than the other, and Jesus asks, won’t the king with less men sit down and consider if he can win this war, he has to ‘count the cost’.
In essence, we are at war with God and, if we continue to rebel, in the end we will be destroyed because, even though the Lord is forgiving, loving and merciful beyond measure, and has even taken the punishment for our rebellion upon Himself, there is no place for His enemies in His eternal kingdom.
In a war, one party must surrender, must lay down their arms, end the rebellion, and submit to the other. In this war between Creator and creature, it is the creature which must surrender. But in that surrender God always gives mercy, always forgives and pours out His love on that person, fills them with His divine nature and sets them on a path of freedom and immortality. And the surrender must be an unconditional surrender, for there is nothing we can give in exchange for our soul.
Did that person earn their salvation by surrendering to Christ? Does anyone earn mercy by surrendering to the King? Never, for His mercy is a gift, His forgiveness is absolute, and His love beyond measure. Unconditional surrender is the absolute opposite of works, it is confessing, I can do nothing, only be saved by grace, through faith. When Jesus says ‘in the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciple’, He is speaking of the conditions for peace, an unconditional surrender of everything we have and are to His Lordship as King of Kings.
Before we are born again we are enemies of God (Colossians 1:21) and must make peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1). We arrogantly stand with fist raised declaring ‘I will not be ruled by you?’ This is the root of all sin, the creature demanding to rule its own life, to sit on the throne of ‘self’, to set its own standards of morality, justice, etc. We are called to ‘receive Christ as Lord’ (Colossians 2:6) to unconditionally surrender to the just, merciful and loving King of Kings. In Jesus’ analogy, we are the little king who cannot win the war, and the conditions for peace are, ‘giving up everything we have’. If we refuse to do this, we remain in rebellion and cannot be His disciple, His subject, or His beloved child.
We could also discuss Jesus’ common analogy of the seed which must die as in John 12:24-26.
‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it; and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall My servant also be; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.’
Again, this is in the context of regeneration, of salvation, of eternal life. What is the grain that must die? It is the life of slavery to sin that has been revealed through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the sin we now see as He sees it, the root of sin in which ‘there is a way that seems right to a man but the end thereof is death’ (Proverbs 14:12).
That life must die before it can bear fruit for God. Regeneration is the death to self, the burying of the old life which then, through the permanent indwelling Spirit is made alive and begins to bear fruit.
Did Jesus teach ‘Lordship salvation’? If by that term we mean did He teach that we must surrender to His Lordship in order to receive salvation and become a disciple, the answer is yes.
Jesus taught what is required to be His disciple, and the conditions required to die and be born again. We cannot take a summary verse such as John 3:16 which tells us to ‘believe in Him’ and dismiss everything He said about becoming a disciple. Why, because everything He said is His teaching of what it means to ‘believe’, to surrender to Him and trust Him with our lives.
Did Jesus ever suggest there is a difference between ‘believer’ and ‘disciple’? No He did not! He commanded we make ‘disciples’ and gave us all of the conditions for beginning that relationship and process.
Can a person receive Christ as Savior, reject His Lordship as an optional extra and be considered ‘born again’. Such a foolish idea contradicts everything we have examined in this article.
Some will object because they believe the dependent child of a believer can be born again from a very young age, and I would remind such people that Jesus was never addressing children. Scripture has very specific commands to children which many disregard, but this is also a huge issue which desperately needs to be addressed or we shall continue to see over 80% of children and teens, baptized before 17, completely denying Christ from age 25-30. The following video/articles deal with this topic.
Are your Children Saved? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1WZnEr_whA
Child Evangelism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRCQKvHdZPE
Age of Accountability or Independence https://youtu.be/779QokNH_xQ
I understand that many of you were never taught about surrendering to Christ when you were seeking God, and only at a later date were confronted with the issue of whether or not Jesus Christ was Lord of your life. If His being Lord of your life is still in question, then please understand this biblical fact. If He isn’t Lord, then neither is He Savior, for He will never submit to those who insist on ruling their own lives. Trust Him with your life, your whole life, so that you may know the wonderful peace of being God’s own possession.
Steve Copland