Jesus must be Lord of all or …

One of the clichés bandied about in Christian circles is “Jesus must be Lord of all or he can’t be Lord at all.” As with many other trite sayings that are in wide circulation, this one has passed into the warp and woof of modern evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity without nary a critical thought or a moment’s contemplation. The statement is not true. It is false. It is a lie. All lies have as their source Satan himself. This cliché is meant to encourage people to live all-out for Jesus Christ, but in some cases it has the opposite effect of comforting people who are presuming they are Christians and on their way to heaven but who are, in fact, spurious believers destined for the Lake of Fire.

Now, I’ve been so brazen as to declare this a false statement. I’ve contradicted what more learned men than I have said. The late Adrian Rogers, an iconic figure among many Southern Baptists, has written on his blog, “There is no middle ground for the Christian: Jesus must be Lord of all, or He can't be Lord at all.” Interestingly enough, he in that same blog, takes my position. I’ll show you that a little bit later. The pastor of a church in Houston similarly states, “Jesus must either be Lord of all or of nothing. The choice is yours.” This idea is prevalent in modern churchianity, as a search in Google will show. That it is echoed by so many does not, however, give it legitimacy. Follow me to the Court of the First and Last Resort.

Let us be “more noble than those in Thessalonica” and search the scriptures to see whether those things are so.

The first thing I would like to point out is that we do not “make Jesus Lord” of our lives or anything else any more than a British subject makes Elizabeth II the Queen. Jesus is Lord. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is one of his titles. It means something. It is not a mere sentiment. This is how Paul and Silas referred to the Savior when they addressed the Philippian jailor and said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved, and your house (Acts 16:31). It is God that made (past tense, completed action) Jesus Christ to be the Lord: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ,” (Acts 2:36).

Secondly, we do not “accept” Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. (By the way, the idea of “accepting” Jesus was totally foreign to the apostles). The admonition that Paul gave the Philippian jailor says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” We cannot pick those elements of Jesus that we like while disregarding the rest. We must believe on “the Lord.” What does that mean? It means when we come to Christ we come with the recognition that not only is he the only Savior, the only way to God, but that he is also the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe and of ourselves in particular. His being Lord gives him the right to order us around, to send us where we do not want to go, to do the things that we do not want to do. It means we submit to him much as General Robert E. Lee submitted to General Ulysses S. Grant — unconditionally!

That brings me to the original thesis of this posting: The saying, “Jesus must be Lord of all or he is not Lord at all” is false. This bromide is, as I said above, supposed to encourage spurious saints to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Whether it is effective or not, I do not know. But God did not call us to be pragmatic. He called us to be truthful.

In Acts 10:36 we find these words: “The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:).” Notice the words in parentheses: “He is Lord of all.” That is a present tense statement. He is Lord of all. Note again, that he is Lord of all. There is nothing not subject to his dominion, his lordship. He is Lord of all!

Adrian Rogers agrees with me (not that it makes what I have written truth) and says in the same blog from which I quoted above,

In the dictionary, the definition of the word lord is one with absolute power, absolute authority. We often speak of commitment, but the real question is surrender. When you're committed, you're in control; when you surrender, you relinquish control. If a robber puts a gun to your head, you don't commit your wallet; you surrender it!

To understand that truth is the beginning of kingdom authority. He is called Lord no less than 747 times in the New Testament. You can't make Him Lord; He has already claimed the title. Your questions are, first, will you recognize His Lordship, and second, will you submit to it? He is Lord of all you have and all you do. Do you live by that Lordship?"

The quality of our new converts suffers because of our misuse of terminology. How much different do you suppose a new believer would be if he was told that he needed to demonstrate repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ? Our superficial evangelism does not allow for this, of course. Sinners are in rebellion against the Almighty. They are avowed enemies. When one comes to Christ one must abandon his self-centered and egocentric thinking and living and surrender to the rule of a new master, the Lord Jesus Christ. He (or she) must be told that when they come to Christ their life is no longer their own (1 Corinthians 6:15-20). Then, their conversion will give proof to their confession that “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” (Philippians 2:11).

Popcorn prayers

“Let’s all pray popcorn prayers,” the preacher said at prayer meeting one evening. That was the first time I had ever heard that expression so I asked, “What are popcorn prayers?” He politely responded that popcorn prayers are when you go around the room and everybody prays a sentence prayer. I immediately made the connection: small and without substance.

Later I asked why he chosen to pray these non-prayers. I was told it was because we had a number of new believers who did not know how to pray and he did not want them to be overwhelmed or intimidated by people praying longer prayers.

Like so many things we do, that sentiment sounds good but has disastrous results: we end up with people addicted to popcorn. In church after church across America we have people who claim to have been Christians for years who could not pray their way out of a paper bag.

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.’ And he said unto them, ‘When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.’” (Luke 11:1-2). Today's churchmen would do well to follow Jesus’ example. Instead, when their disciples come to them wanting to learn how to pray they say, “Just pray a popcorn prayer.”

Popcorn prayers are not prayers at all. They are brainless mutterings. They go against the whole nature of prayer, which is to pour your heart out to God. Now, I have nothing against short prayers. The shortest prayer recorded in the Bible was only three words long, both in the Greek and in English. That prayer was Peter’s cry to Jesus after Jesus had commanded Peter to come to him on the water: “Lord, save me.” That was a real prayer. It was from the heart. It was sincere. It had pathos. It was direct. It was a cry of distress to God.

Enter the average American church today and listen to the praying. It is weak and anemic. It is often inane and wandering, little more than pious words strung together with no thought of what is coming next. If we talked to our Congressman like that we would get ushered out of his office hastily, yet we come before the Sovereign Lord of all the universe and blather.

The way to teach new and immature believers how to pray is not using popcorn prayers. The way to teach new and immature believers how to pray is to follow the example of the Master pray-er. But before we can teach others how to pray we must first learn at the Master’s feet ourselves. Weak prayers come from weak pray-ers. Weak prayers are symptomatic of a careless and distant walk with God.

Sure, new believers may feel uncomfortable praying and should not be forced to run before they learn to walk. New believers need mature examples to follow. This is no less true in the school of prayer than in any other discipline. Pastors: give them meat, not popcorn.