by Mike Vincent
I became a Christian with no concept of what it meant. What I mean is that when I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, I had no background or history with Jesus, no legacy of faith was passed down to me, and I never grew up in church or going to Sunday school. I was never forbidden to go but there was no motivation to go or ever any parental example. I simply met Jesus and got saved. I prayed for Jesus to come into my life at a Connect Group (small group) one Wednesday evening in 2001 and my life was transformed!
Jesus became real to me, and I started to look at everything differently. I had become a Christian. I was now saved and walking in a growing relationship with Jesus. Prayer became a reality; church became a necessity. In some ways, I miss those days, the cross was so fresh and so impactful. But as we know, Jesus never stayed on the cross, which means we should not stay at the cross. Salvation is just the beginning of this wonderful adventure called Christianity. This adventure looks like laying down our lives, giving up our rights, being crucified with Christ and allowing His lordship to take more and more territory in us.
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (NIV)
Lordship has almost become a swear word in our modern church circles. We love Jesus as our saviour and our humble teacher, but I think sometimes we forget that He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I think it is easy to cry out to Jesus when we need Him but it is difficult for us to let go of control, bowing our will to our glorious King.
There are plenty of examples of what this kind of Kingly relationship looked like throughout history as well as in the Bible. Biblically we see David was anointed as the next king and yet the sitting king, Saul, was out to kill him. David continues to honour and serve him despite being a wanted man even when having opportunities to take the throne by his own hand (1 Samuel). We also see the respect given to David when he is on the throne, with men and women bowing before the king, and carrying out his orders (2 Samuel). Ezra followed the orders of the Babylonian king to rebuild the temple with Nehemiah waiting to be asked before sharing his broken heart for the fallen walls of Jerusalem (Ezra 1, Nehemiah 2). Queen Esther fasted for days before attempting to enter King Xerxes’ throne room. She then waited to be allowed to talk to the king to invite him to a two-evening banquet, just to be able to plead for her life and the life of the Jewish people (Esther 5). In medieval times we see this idea of lordship turned into a system where your lord was your provider and protector as ‘payment’ for your working their land and your loyalty.
Psalm 24:1
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it (NIV)
When we recognise the Lordship of Jesus, we understand that we cannot keep treating Him or our relationship with Him flippantly. We cannot dismiss His comment on how we are living, instead, we accept and welcome His leading, guiding, and discipline, submitting ourselves to His authority. We live open-handed trusting Him to add or remove anything in our lives, anything. We lay down our own lives, dead to our old ways, our old thought patterns and mindsets, our old desires and what we saw as our needs. We give up our rights so that we can take up the freedom He freely gives.
So if Jesus is our Lord, and we have laid down our lives, what rights do we have? Let’s have a look at
Hebrews 4:16:
Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (NIV)
We do have rights as Christians, and with Jesus as our Lord, we have the right to enter His presence, we have the right to ask Him anything, and we have the right to worship at His throne. These are not small things; they came at a great cost and we should not take these privileges lightly. We can easily have an audience with the King of Kings, being able to ask, plead, and speak to Him at any time about anything. We can enter into His throne room and worship, spending time in His presence. We get to hear His commands first-hand as He speaks to us. It is at this throne that we receive mercy, His compassion and forgiveness when we miss the mark; and find His grace, the undeserved favour of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
One last thought: John, the disciple who lay on the chest of Jesus at the Last Supper, falls down in reverence and hides his face from the Risen King when he sees Him in Revelation. This should be our response often because we have given up our rights and laid down our lives so that we can love and serve Jesus, our Lord.