Click for Chapter 28
We are continuing our study on the Lordship of Christ. In our last lesson we studied the fact that God had made Jesus "Lord." Acts 2:36 "Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified."
He had died as the Lamb of God. He had been crucified in weakness. 2 Corinthians 13:4 "For He was crucified through weakness, yet He lived through the power of God." Yet when He arose, He arose as Lord.
In His death, He was as a lamb that is led to the slaughter. By oppression and judgment He was taken away. Ye He arose from the dead as a mighty victor. He had defeated Satan who had held the Lordship over man (1 John 3:8). He had conquered Satan before his cohorts - his own servants in the dark regions of the damned, and there He had stood in that dread place, the absolute victor and master. He stands before the three worlds today, heaven, earth, and hell, as the undisputed victor over man’s ancient destroyer (Hebrews 2:14).
Is it any wonder, that fresh from such victories, He said to the disciples in Matthew 28:18 - "All authority has been given to me in heaven and in earth." No! He arose as LORD, and today there is no authority in heaven and on earth, or in Hell that does not obey the authority of His Name (Philippians 2:9-10).
Man’s personal need of the Lordship of Christ is today practically a lost truth. As a rule, the unsaved man is taught only his need of forgiveness of sins. In reality, the unsaved man needs a new Lord, a new master.
The natural man lives in bondage to sin, and in rebellion toward God, because Satan is the Lord of his life. Adam’s crime was, selling out to the Lordship of Satan. This is the reason for Paul referring to Satan as the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). Jesus referred to Satan as the Prince of this world (John 14:30). Satan is Lord in the realm of spiritual death. "Him that had authority of death, that is the devil" as stated in Hebrews 2:14.
The human race was identified with Adam in his crime of high treason (Romans 5:12), and as a result of that identification, the human race came under the personal Lordship of Satan (Luke 4:5-6).
All human suffering is the result of Satan’s Lordship over humanity. Human suffering may be caused by cruelty and selfishness of others, or by our own sins, by sickness, by circumstances; yet it all may be traced to the reign of Satan.
Man lives in the realm of spiritual death, because Satan is the Lord of his life. Therefore, every spiritual, mental, physical, and material want of man centers in the Lordship of Satan. For this reason, the real need in the life of the human family is the need of a New Lord. Satan is a hard taskmaster. He is the one who destroys both body and soul in Hell (Matthew 10:28). Man needs a Lord who loves him, a master who loves him; such a Lord is Jesus Christ.
The purpose of our last lesson was to show that on legal ground, without violating the throne of God’s righteousness, the Son of God has dethroned Satan from his position as Lord over man and god of this world. Hebrews 2:14 & 15 "That through death He might bring to naught him that had the authority of death, that is the devil; and might deliver all of them, who through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage."
One scholar of the Greek New Testament gives the following rendering "That He paralyzed him who had the dominion of death." The scripture is clear on the fact that this cruel Lord of man was brought to naught. Every unsaved man and woman, living in the bondage of spiritual death has a legal right, based on God’s righteousness, to the New Lordship of Christ over his or her life.
The Lordship of Christ means a new nature, a new family, a new Father. Christ died and rose again that He might meet the need of man for a New Lord. Romans 14:9 "For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living." What a message of joy, what glad tidings to have to bring to an unsaved world, the message of this New Lord for man.
Romans 10:12-15 "For the same Lord is rich unto all that call upon Him." Every need of man may be met according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. As the scripture continues (v. 13), "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." By a man’s calling unto this New Lord, the power and authority of Satan, the old Lord, will be broken over his life. But (verse 14) "How then shall they call on Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher." Let US be faithful in making known the Lordship of Christ.
Because man’s need can only be met by the Lordship of Christ over his life, the confessing of that Lordship is the way unto salvation. Redemption is all of grace. It is God’s work, not man’s. Ephesians 2:8-10 "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God."
Man’s part is to confess the Lordship of Christ. This is the highest order of repentance. Repentance is not weeping or crying over sins committed in the past. A man may be sorry for the way he has lived, ignorant that the reign of sin is simply the result of Satan’s lordship over his life.
Repentance is deeper than that. Repentance is to turn from Satan’s rule, from following him, to the Lordship of Christ. It is confessing in the presence of men and demon, that you are following a New Lord and taking Him unto your life. Repentance is a public confession of the Lordship of Christ.
The moment that a man will invite Jesus in as Lord, the authority of Satan over his life is broken, and he is delivered from bondage to him (Colossians 1:13). The man who knows his place in Christ, is aware that Satan is as naught, a foe defeated by Christ (Hebrews 2:14 cp. 1 John 3:8). When a man confesses the Lordship of Christ, he is delivered from the authority of Satan into the authority of Christ. "Who delivered us out of the authority of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom of His son" (Colossians 1:13 & 14).
The following takes place in the life of a man when he confesses the Lordship of Christ. He is translated from the authority of darkness into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. This means that spiritual death (a condition brought about by the fall of Adam) is eradicated from his spirit. Therefore, satanic bondage is at an end. He receives the nature of God when he receives Christ (John 1:12-13). He becomes God’s son. Christ the love-ruler now belongs to emancipated man. He is in God’s family and in God’s Kingdom, the Kingdom of Christ.
Now we can see why confessing the Lordship of Christ is the way unto salvation. Thousands would have been saved years of suffering had they only known this. Confessing the Lordship Christ is very simple. A man simply confesses, "I will take Jesus as my Lord. I will invite Christ into my life."
He gives this to us in Romans 10:9,10. "Because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead thou shalt be saved; for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
Note: "With the mouth confession is made unto salvation." God watches over His word to perform it. When a man acts upon it by confessing the Lordship of Christ, God imparts to that one His own life and nature. His confession of the Lordship of Christ, is the way to the New Birth, the way unto salvation.
Just as every spiritual want of man is centered in the Lordship of Satan over his life, every spiritual blessing centers in the personal Lordship of Christ over a man’s life.
Ephesians 1:3 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ."
The man who has taken Jesus as Lord is blessed with every spiritual blessing. The real man is the spirit. Every impoverished condition of humanity is the result of spiritual death in man’s spirit. Being blessed with every spiritual blessing means union with Deity, being brought back into the realm of Deity, the realm of omnipotence. This results in every need of man being met, whether it be mental, physical, or material need of man. It is met in Christ Jesus.
The Lordship of Christ over a man’s life means that sin and disease are no longer issues. To the man who knows what the Lordship of Christ means, sin and disease are no longer problems at all.
Lordship of Christ means freedom from the reign of sin. This revelation that we have from God, gives to us a very clear understanding of the sin problem, its origin, its reign over man, and its destruction on the cross of Calvary by Christ.
The Word teaches us that sin entered the world through one man (Romans 5:12). The seventh chapter of Romans gives to us the hopeless cry of a spiritually dead man for freedom from the bondage of sin. It is the experience of Paul before he was born again. The law had awakened his mind, but the sin that dwelt in him, made it utterly impossible for him to keep it (Romans 7:7-24). Paul’s testimony is that he was carnal, sold under sin, or a slave to sin (Romans 7:14).
Then a man appeared for the purpose of putting away sin. Weymouth translation of 1 John 3:5 says, "And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin."
He, Himself, was without sin. He knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). He had never known its pangs, its reign. He had never known Paul’s experience of Romans 7. But this one, Jesus Christ, became sin. 2 Corinthians 5:21 - "God made Him to be sin on our behalf."
Then He died to sin. Weymouth translation of Romans 6:10 "Death no longer has any power over Him. For by the death which He died He became, once for all, dead in relation to sin. . ." He put sin away. Hebrews 9:26 - "Else must He have suffered since the foundation of the world; but now once at the end of the ages hath He been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself."
He put sin away as though it had never been, and today in Him there is no sin (1 John 3:5). The scripture continues in the sixth verse: "Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not."
The Lordship of Christ means utter oneness with Him. It means a union so close that the oneness of the vine and the branch are used by the Holy Spirit to illustrate it.
To Christ, sin had no power. He is our Lord. It has no more power over us than over Him. To recognize fully the Lordship of Christ is to recognize that sin has no power over you. Romans 6:5-7, 11, 14 states "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin... Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord... For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace."
Because the devil is a deceiver and a liar (John 8:44 cp. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4), he tempts the believer to sin, and uses the stratagem of deception to bring sin into the life of the believer. The believer, however, has been completely delivered from the power of sin and Satan (Colossians 1:13-14), and must understand that the enemy is a defeated foe. The temptation to sin is a bluff from the adversary; treat it as such.
In His earthly ministry, Jesus was not concerned with sin or its power over His life. He said: "The prince of this world comes and has no part in me."
"The Son of God appeared for the purpose of undoing the works of the devil" states Weymouth’s translation of 1 John 3:8. Christ has undone the works of the Devil in the human heart. This means that sin has absolutely lost its power over the New Creation, for sin has its origin in Satan.
"He that doeth sin is of the Devil; for the Devil sinneth from the geginning. To this end was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the Devil."
If sin had its origin in Satan, and if Satan has been brought to naught, we can readily understand the fact that the works of Satan has been undone and have no power over the New Creation in Christ. John in his writings (1 John 3:8-10) seems to have captured in heart and mind the profound fact of the emancipation of the human family in Christ, and this explains the reason for his assertions.
The question may arise "What is sin to the New Creation?" Sin is anything that keeps us from walking in fellowship with our heavenly Father and Christ. 1 John 1:5-10 reveals to us that whatever would hinder us from walking in the light, is sin. Walking in the light simply means, walking in the light of His Word.
Psalm 119:105 shows us "Thy Word is lamp unto my feet and a lamp unto my path." The Word of God, our light, reveals to us our place in Christ, is a place of complete deliverance, complete victory.
Walking in the light of the Word of God is walking in our privileges and responsibilities. Sin, therefore, is anything that would keep us from taking our place. Sin is anything that causes the New Creation to walk in failure and weakness. We must walk in life in the presence of the fact that Christ has been made our strength, our freedom from satanic dominion. Unbelief, which keeps us from rest and quietness in Him, is sin. "For whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Romans 14:23).
We have seen that sin, in whatever form it may appear, has no power over the New Creation. The Christian must understand this and take the deliverance that the stratagem of Satan is the premise of deception, and when tempted, confess his deliverance in Christ.