Daily DevotionalsIn the late 1980s Dr. John MacArthur published You Call Me Lord (published in the U.S. under the title The Gospel According to Jesus). This book was MacArthur’s contribution to the “Lordship salvation” controversy. It is a reasoned answer to those who taught “that one can be a Christian without being a follower of the Lord Jesus”—you can have Jesus as your Saviour but without accepting Him as your Lord. Like most false teaching this view of salvation was not new—it was a revival of Sandemanianism, a dispute in Scotland in mid 1700s.

How can we have Christ as our prophet and priest and not have Him as our king? Faith in Christ demands fidelity to Him, His word, His will, and His church (Hebrews 13:17). Every area and aspect of life is under the kingship of Jesus Christ, so that, in Paul’s words, “For me to live is Christ.” Even a cursory reading of the New Testament leaves one with the distinct impression that Jesus is Lord. He is referred to often in the New Testament as the “Lord Jesus Christ.” In his letter to the Philippians Paul is more definite than in any other letter. In chapter 3 verse 8 he tells the Philippians that he “count

[s] all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” Furthermore, in chapter 2 verse 11 Paul tells the Philippians that at the end of the age “every tongue [will] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Reading: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”—Philippians 1:21