v. 25 – authority,

Devotional:

To say Christ is the authority over all things is to say He gets the last word. And indeed, He does. This is, on the most fundamental level, what it means to be Lord; it means you have the authority.

In Matthew 28, when Jesus gifts all those who will ever become His disciples the great commission, He says, “All authority on heaven and earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:19). To recognize Jesus as our authority is to recognize Him for who He is.

There have been those through the Church ages who have taught that Jesus as Savior and Jesus as Lord are two different things. They would lead us to believe it is possible to be “saved” but not be submitted under Jesus’ authority as a way of life. I just can’t get there biblically. Of course, people struggle, are selfish, and are a work in progress of sanctification, but you can struggle under Jesus’ lordship and He will be closer than a brother to you in that struggle; but it’s altogether different than struggling against Jesus’ lordship.

To be surrendered to the lordship of Jesus Christ is to be surrendered to His authority in all things. It is to say “I willfully want to spend my life telling my pride no, giving of all that I have for His agenda, loving others at great cost to myself, forgiving fast and seeking forgiveness from others faster, repenting always, and being wholly aware of my complete dependence on His grace for all things. I want what He wants and when I don’t, I will deny myself and go with Him anyway. I believe He has earned the right for my love and devotion because of who He is and what He has done for me which I do not deserve. I do all these things by faith because by faith I believe what He has planned for me is better than anything I could’ve planned for myself.”

The joy of following Jesus as Lord is exactly what it sounds like, it is choosing to follow Jesus’ example and teaching over anything else. Whether it be cultural norms, our feelings, the powers that be, or the whispers of our past which seek to make themselves lord over us, we have a higher authority in Christ and we do what He says because we are who He says!

Our brother and martyr of the faith, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, says it like this: “Discipleship never consists in this or that specific action: it is always a decision, either for or against Jesus Christ… Christ speaks to us exactly as he spoke to them (1st-century disciples). It was not as though they first recognized him as the Christ and then received his command. They believed his Word and command and recognized him as the Christ–in that order.” 21 It is God’s design and desire that we are united in heart, soul, mind, and strength in submission to His authority. Our invitation today, as it is every day, is to align all of who we are with all of what His Word tells us – be true to who He is and what He desires. And as we align our lives under His command, we begin to experience the full life He offers us (John 10:10). Living the full life offered by Jesus means that we live aware of His presence in all the ordinariness of life. And as we sense and experience His presence, ordinary things can be enjoyed as supernatural gifts.

REFLECTION:

Is Jesus Lord and Savior over your entire life? Are there any areas where you are living willfully not under His authority?