Salvation is indeed a gift we receive with empty hands! Faith in God through the blood atonement on Calvary is the only doorway to accepting Christ as Savior. But when we accept Christ as Savior, we must also acknowledge the fact that He needs to become Lord of our lives. This necessitates the placing of ourselves under His authority and control in all of life. The term “Lord” must not be a mere mental exercise, but rather a living demonstration in our thought patterns, in our business dealings, in our cultural tastes, in our conversation, in our attitudes, and in our lifestyles. We must live under the Lordship of Christ in all areas of life, even at great cost if need be.
It is a moving experience to reflect on those Christians behind the Iron Curtain who must pay a great price for their loyalty to Christ; but our feeling of sympathy for them should in no way relieve our own need to be under the Lordship of Christ here in America. For anyone who will dethrone self and put Christ there instead, there will be a price to pay even here in our beloved country: The doctor who pays the price of having certain hospitals closed to him because he will not perform abortions…The individual or family who will suffer ridicule because of their nonconformity to the world’s standards and patterns and fads. . .The businessman who knows he is forfeiting advancement because he refuses to go along with some of the devious practices of his company…The clerk who is expelled from employment because she can’t in good conscience sell lottery tickets.. .The teacher or professor who is willing to lose his position because of refusing to teach godless and erroneous theories .. .The pastor who is asked to leave a church because of his unwillingness to embrace a liberal theology.
Are you willing to pay the price of Christ’s Lordship in your life? As you accept His Lordship, the world will truly feel your presence as the true salt of the earth. That salt will be a genuine preservative, both showing forth the beauty of Christianity in the midst of a distorted world, and also helping to remove the festering malignancy of evil that surrounds us.
March/April 1980