What is Lordship salvation?

Who then can mistake the blessed simplicity of verse 9? It is a clear statement of “the word faith” — “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” It is the mouth and the heart that have the important place here — not the hands and the feet. The mouth is the index of the heart, and there will be no personal confession of Jesus as Lord unless there is belief in the heart. There may be something that appears like such a confession, but there is no simple, forth-right confession of Him as personal Lord, without faith. But the two go together. If I believe, I therefore speak.

Of old God brought His commandment very near to Israel that they might do it. He has brought His word even nearer to us in Christ. It is now not a word of what we ought to do, but of what Christ has done, and of what He Himself has done in raising Christ from the dead. On our part the word only demands that we believe with the heart that God has raised Him from the dead, and that we confess Him as Lord with our mouths. When heart and mouth thus go together there is of course reality. Real subjection to Jesus as Lord carries with it salvation.

It is the testimony of the Lord. I must stress that first of all. What does the title mean? It means His authority, His absolute rights over us; He is sovereign Lord. And we are not faithful to the colours if we are not owning that and carrying it out in practical living. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in thy heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." That means open and definite subjection to His will, and rallying to the colours. It was what Saul of Tarsus did when he cried: "Lord, what will Thou have me to do?" But who would not be subject to Him whose love for us surpasses all our knowledge and whose will and way for us is our greatest blessing?

Salvation is a word of very large meaning, as we have before seen. If we confine it in our thoughts to deliverance from the hell that our sins deserve, we miss a good deal of its significance. The moment we believe we are righteous before God, but until we definitely range ourselves under the Lordship of Christ by confessing Him personally as Lord, we do not get free of enslavement to the world, nor can we expect to experience the might of His authority and power on our behalf. How much do we know — each one of us — of a life of happy freedom in subjection to the Lord, and in occupation with His interests?

Taking salvation is not a mere mental assent to the doctrines of the Gospel, but the heart-felt acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord of your life. It is clear that till men and women feel the burden of their sins, they will not desire forgiveness. Our Lord surely had this in mind when He affirmed in plain language, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3 and 5).

From verse 3 we have searching tests applied in order to make plain to ourselves, and to others also, how life manifests its reality or its absence. The object of faith was first fully presented in Christ; next the necessary working of God's nature in such as are His; then (after the brief supplement of grace to restore the fallen) we come to the revealed tests of life. Verses 3-6 furnish the first test. What is this primary test for any soul? That which distinctly and at once, from the very beginning, stamps a man as having life, and which, if he lack it, means the absence of life, is obedience. "And herein we have known (or have the knowledge of) Him;" (it is a continuous result that we have the knowledge) "if we keep His commandments." This is none other than obedience. It is not the only form in which the spirit of obedience is proved; but as a rule it is the earliest. It begins without delay. It suits the youngest saint. He is sure to be forthwith tested by the question of obedience. And it is exactly what the new life prompts to.

Observe this in him that was to become the great apostle of the Gentiles. Directly that the voice of the Lord reached his soul, and identified the true God with Him who died on the cross, He could not but cry, "Lord, what wouldst Thou have me do?" He judges his error, and wants to obey. This is the instant spiritual instinct of life. Converted in heart, his mind is to obey Him whom he without hesitation calls the Lord. Accordingly, if we look at it throughout the word of God, we see how comprehensive obedience is, and how all-important. Take the case of the soul's submission to the righteousness of God: it is what is called in the Epistle to the Romans "obedience of faith;" by which is meant, not the practical obedience which faith produces in the walk, but the prime act of believing God's word. This is really the heart's obedience. It is the person's obeying the truth, the soul's acceptance of God's testimony to His Son. The man hitherto ungodly owns it truly, bows to the word of God, accepts the truth of Christ's person and work, and is justified. Therefore is the gospel preached to all nations, not like Israel for obedience of law, but for faith-obedience. Such is the true force in order to make the scope somewhat more clear: not an obedience produced by faith, but submission to the gospel in faith. And this is in many forms carried out throughout the Scriptures.

It is in the ninth verse of this chapter that we find a clear and express statement of the conditions of Christian salvation. Two things are here affirmed to be necessary to this salvation, First, confession; and, secondly, faith. I quote the words: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." The person of Jesus, now exalted above the heavens and made both Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36), is the saving truth to be confessed. The crucified and dishonoured man is thus acknowledged, with Divine worship and honour, to be the only Lord. This confession at once separates the believer from the world, on which the guilt of rejecting Christ lies, and places him under the eternal sanction of the Father's acceptance, who has willed the Son's honour as His own (John 5:23).

Confession of the name of the Lord is first stated, because it is that which forms the decisive token of distinction between the living Christian and the dead world. As it is presently after added, "with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Confession, then, seems placed here first in order, lest Satan, whose lie deceives the whole world, should seek occasion from such a passage to persuade men that a mere belief of the resurrection as a matter of fact, or even as a proof of Divine power, could suffice to save the soul. But the source of this acceptable confession is a heart which by faith not only perceives the reality of Divine truth as declared in Scripture, but believes in God who raised Jesus from the dead; who, being thus raised, is recognized in the heart, and therefore openly declared by the lips to be the only Lord. This will open itself more fully to our view presently. Meanwhile, let us remember that the object presented to faith in the preaching of the Gospel, is Jesus the Lord (Phil. 2:11). Through Him, as raised from the dead, we are called on to believe in God, who raised Him up and gave Him glory (1 Peter 1:21).

Deceit in one's heart will often result in good-sounding words. One of the worst forms of hypocrisy is to call Jesus "Lord" when one has no intention of obeying Him (v.46), but this is as common an evil today as it was when He was here. This does not at all contradict 1.Corinthians 12:3, which says, "no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit". In 1.Corinthians 12 Paul is speaking of ministry being given in the assembly, where the Lordship of Christ was paramount. If one's ministry fully acknowledged Jesus as Lord, then that ministry was by the power of the Holy Spirit. But here in Luke the Lord does not have the Assembly in mind at all, but people who would glibly use the Lord's name without any thought of subjection to Him. In contrast to this, the Lord expresses His approval and encouragement of the reality of faith that takes His Word to heart, hearing with a faith that responds in obedient action. The person of the Lord Jesus means everything to such an one. He digs deep, through all the mere accumulation of earthly-mindedness, and reaches the bedrock, typical of Christ as the Son of God (Mt. 16:1-18). He wants reality and is satisfied with nothing less than the eternal Son of God on whom to build his entire life. Whatever floods or storms arise, he is not moved, for it is the foundation Rock that secures him (v.48).

This leads to the consideration that mere profession counts for nothing. Men may repeatedly call Jesus their Lord, but if there is no obedience to His word, there is no discipleship that He acknowledges. The kind of foundation that cannot be shaken under the testings is only laid by obedience. The mere hearing of His word apart from obedience may erect an edifice which looks like the real thing; but it means disaster in the day of testing.

Ver. 21 shows us that these were evidently self-deceived. It was quite right to Call Him "Lord" as He says of His disciples in John 13, "Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well; for so I am." Yes, He was, and is, the Lord; and all through this portion He speaks with authority, not only as the great Teacher, but also as the Judge. Every one of the human race shall have to do with Him. In the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth; and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. But here, in Matthew, it is of those who make profession and call Him Lord by lip only. Scripture plainly reveals that profession alone will not suffice; there must be much more than profession. "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord," and this is practical holiness. "The grace of God that brings salvation" teaches us (and you cannot divorce the doctrine from the grace) "that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." There is the danger of making everything of the profession. I think there is often a mistake in dealing with souls as to this. It is thought to be the great thing to get people to say 'I believe.' You should get them to believe, and, to this end, present Christ. But there must be subjection to Him, to His will, to His word. It is true that we who are the Lord's are "elect, according to foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." That is, we are set apart by the Spirit, the very first moment He begins to work in us, not only to the sprinkling of the blood of Christ, but also to the obedience of Christ.