The Gospel Truth: Pt. 11 – Lordship, the Product of Repentance

(This is a continuation of The Gospel Truth video blog series.  This post assumes the prerequisite watching of earlier videos in the series.  Click the link above to watch the entire series up to this week’s installment.)

A great storm is stirred up each time the terms “Lordship” and “gospel”  are uttered in the same sentence; let alone the same title of a message.  This debate involves what is described as “Lordship Salvation;” a theological debate with substantially sound doctrinal minds on both sides.

This post is, of course, not about Lordship Salvation as a subject; but a continuation of this series on the gospel at the point in which the issue is raised that “Lordship” of Christ is in fact at issue in the very subject matter of repentance. 

As has been observed the past few weeks: faith is demonstrated in scripture to be an active response to belief rather than just an academic acknowlegement of certain facts.  That response is repentance.  Repentance is defined as a turning “from” one’s former understanding and allegiances “to” the trust in Christ. 

This act of turning, it will be demonstrated today, is consistently decribed in scripture as an acquiescence to the Lordship of Christ: a confession to his deity and belief that He is the Son of God; and is God incarnate as he said.  Such acknowledgment is not synonymous with stating that a new convert “must give every aspect of their lives to Christ” at the moment of salvation – for no sinner even knows “every aspect” of their lives which Christ will demand.  Yet, such an acknowledgment is an affirmation to the person of Christ as God himself.  As such, a person necessarily at least begins the process of acquiescence – which will be described next week as the process of “sanctification” – by the very turning in faith to Christ as God.

Thus, the idea of “confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord” is not a preconditioned “work” which mandates certain identifyable steps.  It is rather the very element of faith expressed in repentance: the knowlege – by faith – of who Christ is.  He is Lord. 

The Gospel Truth: Pt. 11 – Lordship – The Product of Repentance from Jeff Kluttz on Vimeo.