What Are We Aiming For?

One of the strangest ideas that has haunted and corrupted the evangelical Christianity that I’ve been a part of is the notion that you can be a Christian (be ‘saved’) without being fully committed to living under the Lordship of Christ. I’m not talking about actually being able to live and obey perfectly – for even as born-again believers there’s too much remaining sin inside us for that to be true. But I’m talking about acknowledging and embracing that most definitely our aim and aspiration and goal should be a life that, in Paul’s words, "pleases him in every way". (Col.1:10) Notice the word ‘every’ there. Such language echoes how Jesus defines what it means to be one of his followers/disciples (=Christian, see Acts 11:26). According to Jesus, a disciple is a person committed to obeying "everything" Jesus has commanded (Matt.28:20).

And when the apostle Paul describes the conversion of the Roman Christians, his language is just as striking: "But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. ….Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life." (Rom.6:17ff.)

Paul calls Christians "slaves to righteousness" and "slaves to God." Slaves. I think we read over words like that too quickly, without really being struck by what they mean. A slave is someone totally submitted to the will and work of his master.

Now certainly as Christians we are more than slaves (we are sons!), but we are not less. And the fuller truth of our being sons and daughters of God doesn’t in any way diminish the idea of total submission that is involved in being slaves.

The Bible teaches us this truth – that to be a Christian means being totally submitted to God – in so many different passages and so many different ways, its fairly amazing that we could think any differently. What did Jesus say the greatest commandment is? It’s to "love the Lord our God with all our heart, and all our soul and all our mind." (Matt.22:37).

Add to this the passages that warn us away from limping along between allegiance to the Lord and devotion to other gods – gods like Pleasure, Profit, Power, Self (see 1 Kings 18:21; 1 Jn.2:15-17; Matt.6:24; Jas.4:4). And then remember that Laodicean lukewarmness makes our Lord sick (Rev.3:16).

To be honest, one of the most disheartening things that I face – and one of the most serious stumbling-blocks that I know of – are professing Christians who, in spite of their claims and their outward appearances on Sunday – just do not really seem to be committed to bringing every area of their lives under the Lordship of Christ. We may croon about commitment as we sing and sway during praise songs on Sunday morning, but do we really and truly seek to live by the Lordship of Christ, which in practical terms means living by his word in Scripture, by Sunday afternoon (let alone the rest of the week)?

Again, I’m not saying that we don’t all fall short when it comes to living out our all-encompassing allegiance to Christ, which again in practical terms means living by every word of God available to us in the Bible (Matt.4:4) – we all fall short, and we all need daily forgiveness. But what is so troubling to me is the number of professing Christians who don’t even seem to think that such all-inclusive allegiance and devotion to Christ should even be our aim and aspiration.

I honestly think there might be some awful surprises ahead for people like that (Matt. 7:21-23). I don't want to be one of those people. Instead, I want to be the kind of person who's on the path that Peter describes, someone who makes his calling and election sure by making every effort to add to faith goodness, and to goodness, knowledge, and....

"For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Pet.1:5ff.)