What Is Lordship Salvation?

What is Lordship Salvation? What does it mean? Is it biblical?

The Doctrine of Lordship Salvation

Some have proclaimed that if Christ is not Lord of all, He’s not Lord at all, but is that true? I don’t believe it’s accurate because Jesus Christ is Lord whether anyone believes it or not. Someone can be in a country and reject the local ruler there but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s still the ruler. The doctrine of Lordship Salvation concerns what grace and faith must include, and what they must exclude, or what things we should do or should not do as a believer to have salvation. Part of God’s saving work includes repentance, faith, sanctification, yieldedness, and obedience, but the most troublesome part of this doctrine is that the believer must make a total commitment in every facet of their life but should it be commitment or should it be surrender? These are not the same, and in fact, they are the very opposite of one another. To be committed is to put the ball in your court and make you responsible by doing what is expected of you, however surrender means we give up trying to save ourselves by our works, which God would reject anyway, and then we submit to God and obey Him as best we can. It isn’t “all or nothing” or we’d all be hopelessly lost. The Lordship Salvation doctrine is at the opposite end of the spectrum from what is called, “easy believism,” which are two ditches of the same road. It is far from easy to enter the narrow gate and clearly, every one of us must agonize to enter it, which is why only a few find it (Matt 7:13), but thankfully, God’s Spirit works in us and through us so it’s not just us (Phil 2:13); neither is it the Spirit alone. Authentic, saving trust in Jesus is ultimately a submission to His lordship.

What is a Biblical Definition for Salvation?

If the doctrine of the Lordship Salvation is true, in the strictest sense, then we need to be holy before coming to Jesus, but holiness is not the way to Jesus; Jesus is the way to holiness. We surrender our will to God instead of trying to save ourselves by works, which the Apostle Paul writes about in Ephesians 2:8-9; “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” but what are we saved for? Paul answers, we are saved “for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10) so there’s good to be done that God’s prepared in advance for us to do but we are saved before we ever reach that point! We don’t do them to complete what God has already done; we do them because of what God’s already done. These works can never save us because we have already been saved. If it’s anything that we must do, then it’s no longer grace. If we include what we must do, we don’t ascribe to God that it is something that He does. That’s not the purity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. True saving faith is a faith that saves without works but a faith that does works and that work includes working in us just as Paul writes, “it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). God’s Spirit works in us to bring us to repentance, confession of sin, sanctification, and trusting in Christ; it is not that we must first have repentance, faith, sanctification, yieldedness, obedience and then become a believer.

Differences of Opinion on Lordship Salvation

There are differing camps that argue that Lordship Salvation is not contrary to the gospel at all because it mentions repentance, faith, works, and having Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives, but can any of us honestly say that they have made Jesus Christ Lord over everything in their life in absolutely every area? I make the effort to live a holy life but I know that I fall far short of God’s perfect, holy, righteous standard (Rom 3:23). Read the Lordship Doctrine’s Position Statement number six; “With respect to salvation, repentance is a change of mind regarding the Person and work of Christ” but it’s considerably more than just changing one’s mind like changing your mind about which ice cream to buy. When asked by the crowd on the Day of Pentecost about what should they do (Acts 2:37), Peter responded that they needed to repent and be baptized (Acts 2:38). The word “repent” is from the Greek word “ametanoeō” which is a combination of two words; “Meta,” (change) as in a metamorphosis and “Noeō,” which means “to perceive,” so it’s not just changing your mind…it’s a renewing of your mind (Rom 12;1-2) and having a new mind, just as Paul writes to the Corinthians, that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2nd Cor 5:17). In other words, the old lustful desires and sinful habits are now passing away, although it will take time, and all things become new or now there are new desires to live a life pleasing to God, desires to serve and love others, and to submit to Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

In my research of this article, I discovered that some see the doctrine of Lordship Salvation as good and some see it as troubling. I typically don’t believe in labels, so in conclusion, why label anything at all, like the Lordship Salvation, when we can simply quote Scripture and clearly communicate how a person must be saved. I hope you will reach the point of decision where the people shouted to the Apostle Peter, “Brothers, what shall we do” (Acts 2:37) to which he answered, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.