The Lordship of Jesus genuinely matters for our lives.

So often we miss or overlook the practical implications of a particular doctrine or teaching of the Scripture. The tendency in our lives is to treat theology and Christian living as distinct and sometimes divorced aspects of our relationship with God. This should not be, for orthodoxy (right doctrine) must always lead to orthopraxy (right living). If these two realities are left apart, we will end up with a cold, dead theology and a weak, anemic Christian walk. Instead, a theology properly conceived will be a theology properly lived.

At Lakewood, we are currently working through the letter of Paul to the Colossians. The central themes of the letter and of Paul’s exhortation to the Colossians are built on the centrality, supremacy, deity, and lordship of Jesus Christ. As such, I began to try to trace out what practical significance the doctrine of Christ’s lordship had for our everyday walk in Christ. Here are seven practical ways that the Lordship of Jesus matters to us day by day.

Lordship secures our future.

The doctrine of Christ’s lordship is what assures us that Jesus holds our future securely. We have not trusted Him in vain. Because Jesus is Himself Almighty God, He has the power to fulfill his promise to give us eternal life and resurrection from the dead. Indeed, Christ’s on resurrection from the dead is the preeminent proof that He will also raise us and keep us (see 1 Cor. 15).

For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. 2 Timothy 1:12 (NASB95)

Let us be thoroughly convinced that Christ is able to keep us until the end. Our salvation is secure.

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6 (NASB95)

Lordship fuels faith.

God will perform what He has promised, so He can be trusted even when we don’t see how things might work out. God’s promises are not mere wishes of how He hopes for things to turn out. As the Lord of the universe, He also possesses the will and and the power to bring them to be. Therefore, a firm confidence in the lordship of Christ will lead to our faith growing ever stronger. We will trust God to do what He has promised to do because He is King of kings and Lord of lords. Let us be like Abraham who “being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.” (Rom. 4:21)

Lordship motivates mission (and secures its power).

Christ claims authority over believers and non-believers. So, in Christ’s authority we have both the reason for mission and the confidence that God will work in and through us for His glory and the salvation of other people. Jesus Christ the Lord has commanded that we “make disciples,” and He also promises to be with us mediating His authority as we carry out this divine commission. So then, Jesus begins the Great Commission reminding us of His power and concludes the Commission promising us His presence.

And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18–20 (NASB95)

Lordship grounds total obedience.

As Lord, Christ deserves obedience. As Lord over all, He deserves our obedience and service in all of life, all the time, with all of our heart.

This is not to be an obedience to earn salvation, but one of love and delight. Because we are already secure in Christ, we are free to obey Him out of love and adoration rather than out of drudgery or compulsion. We respond in obedience to Christ out of gratitude for what He has done and from the real change that He has made in our hearts.

Consider how Vern Poythress puts this idea,

Genuine obedience is the offering that we give in gratitude to God, because we have already been saved. Because we are saved, we are empowered by the Spirit of Christ, and we bring forth the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).

Poythress goes on to list several complementary reasons for why we are to serve Christ:

1. Christ is enthroned and deserves our obedience.

2. Christ is altogether lovely and completely worthy of all our service.

3. It is God's command for us to serve him.

4. We were created and designed and destined for this service.

5. We will find the deepest satisfaction and joy in life only in this service.

6. The Holy Spirit empowers us for this service.

Lordship encourages sanctification.

This is built on two complementary principles. First, as the Lord, God has ordained the ordinary means of grace (Bible study, prayer, preaching and teaching, giving, church community and accountability, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, etc.). If He has instituted means by which we may be made mature, we must learn to make use of them by His help through the Holy Spirit. The Lordship of Christ helps to lead us away from a mechanical or drudgery-based sanctification model as if we must check off the boxes in God’s task list so that He doesn’t get angry with us. In the same way that we don’t eat food because we have to, but because we understand that it is the means to nourishment, so also must we partake of the ordinary means of grace so that we might be nourished spiritually. Why would we not avail ourselves of the means of God’s transforming power?

Second, because God has instituted these as the means by which we grow in spiritual maturity (i.e. Christ-likeness), He intends to use them effectively to transform us. In other words, Christ’s lordship grounds the effectiveness of the ordinary means of grace as a transforming principle in the lives of God’s children. In this way, we respond to God’s action toward us by working out what He is working in (Phil. 2:12-13). God’s grace is opposed to merit but not to effort. God empowers our effort to partake in these spiritual disciplines by the Holy Spirit to make them effective means towards service, growth, and change.

Lordship helps us to respect and obey other authority.

God has ultimate rule over all things, but He has entrusted authority in various spheres to various people and entities. Because of the lordship of Christ, we can learn to properly obey the governing authorities that God has placed over us (Rom. 13:1-7). Children can learn to obey their parents (Eph. 6:1-3). Wives can learn to follow their husbands (Eph. 5:22-24). Church members can learn to submit to the pastors (elders) of their church fellowship (Heb. 13:17). We can respect and obey these authorities because we believe that God has placed them over us.

Of course, there may come time when we have to disobey the intermediate authority in order to obey the highest authority as Peter and John do in Acts 4 (see especially verse 19-20). But, most often, we must see that obeying the authorities that God has placed over us is a means to obeying His final and ultimate authority over all things.

Authority comes from God; it is not merely a human invention. All human authority is limited because it is delegated by God through his Son. The responsibilities of officers of civil government, parents, church leaders (pastors and elders), business leaders (owners and managers), teachers, artists, farmers, and so on, are limited by God, and these responsibilities depend on what kind of authority belongs to each. Christians must study the Bible and consider its ethical implications for our responsibilities in each area. —Vern Poythress

Lordship drives away fear.

If Jesus is the highest authority, and He has loved us such that He gave Himself up to death that we may be rescued (Gal. 2:20), then we have nothing to fear. Indeed, this is the glorious theme of Paul in Romans 8.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Romans 8:31–34 (NASB95)

Because Jesus is Lord, we don’t have to fear the things of this world, for there is nothing that can separate us from His love.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35–39 (NASB95)

Additional Resources

You can find more information on this topic in The Lordship of Christ: Serving Our Savior All of the Time, in All of Life, with All of Our Heart by Vern Poythress. If you prefer a physical copy of the book you can buy it directly from Crossway who publishes it, from Amazon, or you a get a free PDF copy of the book.

References

Vern Poythress, https://www.crossway.org/articles/10-things-you-should-know-about-the-lordship-of-christ/