Lordship Salvation

I read a book the other day by John MacArthur called Faith Works. Mr. MacArthur describes in the book the term Lordship Salvation. He brought it up because a lot of people talk about Lordship Salvation in negative terms. They claim it is a works based salvation. Mr. MacArthur doesn’t believe this and neither do I.

This topic is very important to me because I had a wrong impression of salvation for 33 years. I say that because I said the sinner’s prayer when I was 11 years old. Because I had an emotional experience at church, I walked down the aisle and asked Jesus to save me. I walked out of that church walking on air. I felt great.

But then the feeling faded and I proceeded to live my life for myself, selfishly, doing exactly what I wanted to do. You couldn’t tell any difference between me and my non-Christian friends in junior high, high school or college. Then later on after I was married, I still lived my life selfishly, for myself. I was a Christian “on paper” and I spouted off that I was a Christian, but I really wasn’t one.

How can I say that? Because Jesus said that you will know my followers by their fruit (Matthew 7:20). Where was my fruit? In other words, how could the rest of the world see and know that I was a Christian? They couldn’t because I wasn’t truly saved.

Then in 2007 when I was 44 years old, God opened my spiritually blind eyes through reading the Bible. God convicted me that I wasn’t really saved, that I was on the road to Hell. I can assure you that I was quite shocked when God revealed this to me. When I realized that I wasn’t saved, I asked God to truly save me. I repented from my sins and put my trust in Jesus. I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. Then and only then was I truly saved.

My problem was that I had asked Jesus to save me when I was 11, but I didn’t ask Him to lead my life. I didn’t ask Him to be my Lord. I didn’t deny myself and pick up my cross daily and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23-24). I wanted to still do the things that I wanted to do and that’s exactly what I did. I now see that I was wrong and that’s why I believe in Lordship salvation. When you are truly saved, you surrender your will to Christ. You ask him to be the leader of your life from that day forward. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me,” John 10:27. Clearly, we are to follow our Lord Jesus.

How about you – is Jesus your Savior and your Lord? Have you surrendered your life completely to Him? If not, why don’t you do so today? The Bible says that today is the day of salvation. This so important, don’t put this off another day. Turn away from your sins and put your faith in Jesus. Surrender your will to Him today. Then read your Bible every day and do what it says.