LORDSHIP SALVATION: Last night in reply to a few messenger posts, a new friend from FB mentioned the term “lordship salvation.” This first paragraph is how I replied, and just left it at that. “I’ve heard the term “lordship salvation,” and I suppose I could google it, but I’m not entirely sure what it means, so I apologize. I don’t keep up with all the latest theological trends or people, as I basically live in a cave, and only come out every once in a while, usually just long enough to refill my coffee and make sure the world hasn’t ended yet. Their life, like ours, is in the hand of the LORD. I’m so thankful that He is ‘patient’ with us all, and that He always teaches His people Christ. I should mention perhaps, that I do not follow social media on any platform, nor engage in FB apart from just posting my latest thoughts. If I’m allowed to live another 10 years, as I hope to semi-retire when I turn 70, I’ll hopefully have a little more time for stuff like that? For now, I know my own tendency to get sidetracked too easily!”
So yeah, let me get sidetracked here for a few minutes, because I just googled the phrase, and this is the result, “Lordship salvation is a theological view that asserts saving faith in Jesus Christ necessarily involves a commitment to submit to His authority and Lordship in all areas of life, leading to a transformed life characterized by obedience and good works. It emphasizes that true saving faith is not merely intellectual assent to the truth about Jesus, but also a conscious decision to follow Him as Lord and Master.”
Well, that’s a bad start before we even get out of the gate, since I completely deny this notion of “saving” faith. In fact I cringe when I hear gospel ministers toss that term around, like it’s some spiritual currency we hand to God in exchange for salvation, instead of the empty hand that simply receives what Christ has already accomplished. Isaiah 55:1. Faith doesn’t make salvation happen; it bears witness that salvation has already been accomplished in Christ. To call it “saving faith” risks confusing the evidence with the essence, as though the fruit of salvation were the root. Scripture never says we are saved because of our faith, it declares that Christ saved His people by His own blood, Hebrews 9:12, and faith is the God-given recognition of that finished work. “Saving faith” as a phrase can subtly reverse that order, making salvation feel contingent on an act in time, although for all that criticism, I do realize that the term can actually be used in a gospel sense.
From there, it’s only a short step to redefining the gospel as our commitment, surrender, and obedience, which seems to be exactly what “lordship salvation” does? It seems like the good news of what Christ has accomplished is replaced with a checklist of what you must now do. The promise of “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” Acts 16:31, is gutted, and in its place is a demand to prove your faith by a life of submission and obedience. In other words, you aren’t saved by Christ, you’re saved by Christ plus your surrender, your commitment, your performance. This is not simply adding a few rules; it is splicing human effort into the very heart of salvation. And the moment you make salvation depend on anything you must produce, it ceases to be grace. Romans 11:6. In that moment, grace is displaced, Christ is diminished, and you are crowned as your own deliverer. This hardly seems like the good news of Christ, but the old news of man’s effort dressed in gospel words. Galatians 5:4.
The gospel is not a staged offer, receive Christ as “Savior” today and upgrade to “Lord” at some later date. Nor is it a preconditioned contract where you must sign away a lifetime of obedience before Christ will save you. That is salvation by terms and conditions, works in disguise. To divide Christ into “Savior now” and “Lord later” is to fracture the gospel. Salvation is not a cooperative project, it is the once-for-all work of Christ for His people. His obedience is complete, His blood is enough, His righteousness is perfect. Faith receives Him entirely, and even that has nothing to do with us. “Not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8. Whether you make obedience a prerequisite or a later upgrade, you have made salvation hinge on you, not Christ.
Yes, the redeemed will follow their Redeemer, but that following is the outworking of salvation, not its price tag. Scripture says we are God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” Ephesians 2:10. This is echoed in the sure foundation of God’s Word, “the Lord knoweth them that are his; and, let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” II Timothy 2:19. CHRIST knows His own sheep, plus He alone knows how to manage his flock, and the mark of His workmanship in them is clear, they follow Him, and by His grace they depart from iniquity. John 10:27-28. Lordship salvation confuses this order, making the proof of life into the source of life.
These thoughts are piecemeal, so I may revisit this topic at a future date, DV, especially if I read up on it a bit more, but one part of me is saying that this is hardly even worth the time, as it seems so obviously wrong! In fact it seems like it’s got its own detonation device, and carries within itself the cause of its own destruction, as a house divided against itself cannot stand. Matthew 12:25. The few arguments I’ve read in its defense, when carried to their logical conclusion, collapse under their own weight. It’s not so much that you have to labor to refute it, it practically lights its own fuse. “Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein, and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.” Proverbs 26:27.
I mean, really, “you must receive Jesus as both Savior and Lord?” Christ is LORD whether you ‘receive’ Him, acknowledge Him, deny Him, or never even think about Him at all. Your opinion changes nothing. God has already declared Him to be “both Lord and Christ,” Acts 2:36, and His throne is not vacant, waiting for your consent. He reigns by the decree of God, a decree that does not await the consent of man, and is as unchanging as the ONE who gave it. Daniel 4:35.
In a twisted sort of way, this sort of thinking imagines a throne vacant until man consents to fill it. That’s insane, the gospel is not an invitation to help Christ onto His throne; it is the proclamation that He already reigns, and that He has finished the work of salvation for His people at the cross. Faith does not make Him Lord, it simply receives the Lord who already is. Philippians 2:9-11. With those thoughts in mind, I’m willing to go out on a limb and say this isn’t merely bad theology, it’s dangerous. Galatians 5:9. In fact, I believe it falls squarely into the category Paul warned of in Galatians 1:6-9, “another gospel,” which is no gospel at all. This does not exalt Christ, it reduces Him to a helper in our self-salvation project. It shifts the pivot point of redemption from His finished work to our act of receiving, surrendering, or obeying, dethroning grace and enthroning human effort. II Corinthians 11:3-4. So no, this is not just a slightly different emphasis. It is another gospel, one that subtly dethrones Christ from the work He finished, and seats you beside Him as co-savior. And that is not salvation at all. Colossians 2:8. MPJ