Romans 10:8-14 NKJV
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): 9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
The dictionary defines submission as the action of accepting or yielding to a superior force or to the will or authority of another person. You can either be forced to submit or you can submit willingly.
Now can God force us to submit? Yes, he can, he is God but yet he does not do so because he wants us to willingly submit because we love him and we trust that he has a good plan for our lives.
When an individual responds to the good news by believing in Christ Jesus that he died on the cross for our sins and that God raised him from the dead and confessing thus with their mouth, then they are born again. That then becomes the starting point and not the destination for the process of discipleship to begin.
Jesus said that if we follow him, he will make us fishers of men. It is in the following by submitting to him and making him Lord of our lives that we are made into disciples. God is not just interested in saving us, he wants us to become disciples and in turn to go out and make disciples. Remember the commission that Jesus gave us before he ascended back to heaven was to go into all the earth and make disciples of all nations. You cannot make a disciple if you are not a disciple yourself because how then do you teach what you are not?
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall [b]direct your paths.
When we submit willingly then we begin a journey with him, a journey in which he begins to reveal himself to us and the plans and purpose he has for our life. As that plan is unfolded and as we follow him then our life begins to change and we begin to become more like him.
Sadly, many confess Jesus as Lord and savior but they do not submit to him. Jesus declared, why do you call me Lord, Lord yet you do not do what I say?
We have to carry our cross daily and follow him. The cross was an instrument of death, we have to allow our will to die and fully surrender to Gods will trusting in him whole heartedly then he will make us to be like him.
Reflections
Is Jesus Lord of your life, and what does it mean when you say that he is Lord?
What are some of the areas of your life that you struggle to fully submit to the Lordship of Christ?
In what areas of your life have you seen a change that is making you more like Jesus?
