Jesus is Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3) is the distinguishing mark of Christianity and is the essential confession of faith (Romans 10:9). Jesus proclaimed it to His disciples, His enemies, and His casual inquirers and the religious.
The expression “Lord” (kurios) speaks of ownership, while “Master/Lord” (despotes) denotes an unquestionable right to command (John 13:13; Jude 4). Both words describe a master with absolute dominion over someone else. That explains Jesus’ incredulity at the practice of those who paid homage to Him with their lips but not with their lives: “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Doulos frequently describes what it means to be a true Christian: “He who was called while free, is Christ’s slave [doulos]. You were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 7:22-23).
Slavery to Christ is exactly how Jesus Himself defined the “personal relationship” He must have with every true follower (John 12:26; 15:20). In fact, the fundamental aspects of slavery are the very features of redemption.
We are
chosen (Ephesians 1:4-5; 1 Peter 1:2; 2:9);
bought (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23);
owned (Romans 14:7-9; 1 Corinthians 6:19);
subject to His will and control (Acts 5:29; Philippians 2:5-8);
called to account (Romans 14:12);
evaluated (2 Corinthians 5:10);
and either chastened or rewarded by Him (1 Corinthians 3:14; Hebrews 12:5-11).
Those are all essential components of slavery.
Jesus introduced the NT slave metaphor. He frequently drew a direct connection between slavery and discipleship (Matthew 10:24-25). His words reflect what every true disciple should hope to hear at the end of life: “Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21).
Jesus always described true discipleship in such terms, with no effort to adjust the message to make it sound appealing to religiously minded sinners. He never muted what it would cost to follow Him. Would-be disciples who tried to dictate different terms were always turned away (Luke 9:59-62).
However, as well as being slaves we are friends and as such have the freedom to feast on his grace. Perhaps the key passage on Jesus’ demand for implicit obedience is one already alluded to—John 15:14-15: “You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
Jesus was simply saying they were His friends as well as His slaves. “The slave,” He explains, “does not know what his master is doing.” A slave isn’t owed any explanation or rationale. But Jesus had kept nothing secret from His disciples: “all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you” (John 14:15). They were therefore much more than mere slaves to Him. They were His friends as well, privy to His thoughts and purposes (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:16), and had the freedom to thus able feast on hHis grace.
It’s kind of alarming that you don’t hear much about sin from the pulpit anymore. Recognizing and identifying it; wrestling with the guilt of it; repenting of it, or for that matter, dealing with it at all—those ideas are absent in most churches today.
The modern church has largely done away with the biblical language of sin, salvation, repentance, contrition, atonement, restitution, and redemption. If no one is supposed to feel guilty, how could anyone be a lost sinner needing salvation??
Recently I was told, “Oh we don’t talk about sin in our church cause, that’s negative!
We don’t talk about hell, we don’t talk about judgment, we don’t talk about repentance, we don’t talk about punishment, we don’t talk about pain, we just talk about everything that makes people feel good.”
I responded, So if you don’t address these biblical doctrines or even talk about them, then I guess you have no salvation message. Is it any wonder then, you never see anyone professing salvation!
These days I find that many of the unsaved in today’s world respect us believers for our virtue, and character. But alongside that, that respect for integrity and virtue, comes a very aggressive violent hatred for the message. They’ll like us until we tell them, whether from the pulpit or the marketplace.
“Everyone who does not believe in Jesus Christ is headed for eternal hell forever,”
and then everything changes.
The message is narrow, it is exclusive, it is confrontive, it is condemning, it is judgmental, it generates hostility. Jesus said in John 15 and 16, “They hated Me, they will hate you. I’m just telling you they will hate you; they hated Me. They killed Me; they’ll kill you.” And what we see in the early chapter of Acts on the one hand is respect; and on the other hand, they start killing the apostles. They kill James, and they kill Stephen, and the slaughter begins, and it becomes a great slaughter very early in the book of Acts. And one of the principle motivators of that slaughter is a man named Saul.
So on the one hand, the world is in this tension that they admire the transformation in our lives, and the joy, peace, love that marks us. And if we never say anything, everything would be fine.
But when we do what we’re supposed to do, which is to alarm the unconverted, when we press the issue of judgment and the gospel – and it’s the exclusivity of the gospel. When we say, “Anyone who denies the person of Jesus Christ as revealed in Holy Scripture is on the way to eternal hell,” that is a very, very narrow message.
And that’s exactly what the apostle said in chapter 4, verse 12: “There’s no salvation in any other than Jesus Christ. If you don’t come to Christ, your entire system of Judaism is absolutely on a road to hell.”
That’s the message. It’s offensive; it’s exclusive. It puts all false religion in the same category; none is better than the other. In fact, In fact, none is good, they’re all bad. And we are called to alarm the sinner.
We should be the world’s “smoke alarms”, and we need to be going off. We need, on the one hand, to be admired; on the other hand, to be feared.
That’s kind of how I view myself. On the one hand, I want people to look at me with favor, because there’s a kindness there. There’s love and compassion, for unbelievers, both the religious lost and the pagan lost.
But my experience has been as soon as the message reaches them, the narrow message of the gospel, that whatever favor I might have from them is immediately replaced by the hostility toward the gospel.
Folks has this been your experience also, or just mine?
Evolution is a biological impossibility. Consequently we’re left with no alternative but creation. Evolution cannot occur.
Every living thing has a DNA code, every living organism has a genetic code programmed with the exact information to produce, preserve and repair that living thing. It has no less than that necessary information and no more than that necessary information.
The genes in every organism limit that organism to what it is. It cannot be less than it is, and it cannot be more than it is. There is no genetic information to transform it into something other than what it is. The Bible talks about kinds of living things that can reproduce after their own kind. And that essentially is saying the same thing. There can be variations within a kind, but not anything beyond that.
Science has tried to tell us that evolution is a process called mutation, that living organisms have the capacity to mutate, simply means to change. But you need to understand this: Mutations do not change the nature or the kind of any living organism.
They don’t make it anything other than it is. What mutations involve is always a loss of existing information. There is never a gain of information. Mutations never add new genetic information. Mutations therefore do not work toward an upward evolutionary process. Mutations are not a mechanism for upward evolutionary process.
Dr. Werner Gitt, a director and professor at the German Federal Institute of Physics and Technology, answered this question: Can new information originate in a living organism through mutations? And this is his response.
“Mutations can only cause changes in existing information. There can be no increase in information and, in general, the result of mutations is injurious. New blueprints for new functions or new organs cannot arise. Mutations cannot be the source of new information,”
Consequently evolution cannot occur; it is a biological impossibility!
Evolution is a biological impossibility. Consequently we’re left with no alternative but creation. Evolution cannot occur.
Every living thing has a DNA code, every living organism has a genetic code programmed with the exact information to produce, preserve and repair that living thing. It has no less than that necessary information and no more than that necessary information.
The genes in every organism limit that organism to what it is. It cannot be less than it is, and it cannot be more than it is. There is no genetic information to transform it into something other than what it is. The Bible talks about kinds of living things that can reproduce after their own kind. And that essentially is saying the same thing. There can be variations within a kind, but not anything beyond that.
Science has tried to tell us that evolution is a process called mutation, that living organisms have the capacity to mutate, simply means to change. But you need to understand this: Mutations do not change the nature or the kind of any living organism.
They don’t make it anything other than it is. What mutations involve is always a loss of existing information. There is never a gain of information. Mutations never add new genetic information. Mutations therefore do not work toward an upward evolutionary process. Mutations are not a mechanism for upward evolutionary process.
Dr. Werner Gitt, a director and professor at the German Federal Institute of Physics and Technology, answered this question: Can new information originate in a living organism through mutations? And this is his response.
“Mutations can only cause changes in existing information. There can be no increase in information and, in general, the result of mutations is injurious. New blueprints for new functions or new organs cannot arise. Mutations cannot be the source of new information,”
Consequently evolution cannot occur; it is a biological impossibility!
John MacArthur What is the Gospel?
Compare John Macarthur’s clear gospel explanation with Tim Keller’s semantic dodgeball performance!
Tim Keller
John Macarthur
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Cher ami, j’aimerais vous poser une question, en fait, la plus importante de votre vie. Votre bonheur ou votre perte, pour toute l’éternité, dépend de votre réponse.
Voici la question: “ Etes-vous sauvé ? Etes-vous sûr d’aller au ciel à votre mort ? ” Je ne vous demande pas si vous êtes membre d’église, mais si vous êtes sauvé. Il ne s’agit pas non plus de savoir si vous êtes bon, mais si vous êtes sauvé. En effet, personne ne peut obtenir les bénédictions de Dieu ou même aller au ciel sans être préalablement sauvé. Jésus a dit à Nicodème dans l’évangile selon Jean, au chapitre 3 et au verset 7 : “ Il faut que vous naissiez de nouveau ”. Dieu nous donne dans sa parole, la Bible, le SEUL plan de salut qui ait jamais existé; ce plan est simple et vous pouvez être sauvé.
Alors, qu’est-ce que je dois faire pour être sauvé?
Tu me dis le croire, mais ce je dois croire?
* Croire et acceptez que vous êtes un pécheur.
* Croire et acceptez vous êtes aliéné de Dieu et devez vraiment se repentir et se détourner du votre péché.
* Croire et reconnaissez sont « condamnés déjà » et avez besoin d’un pardon.
* Croire et accepter que vous avez besoin de se repentir (tournez le dos du péché) et produisent des fruits de l’obéissance.
* Croire et acceptez que Jésus prit ton châtiment sur la Croix comme votre remplaçant et qu’il attend de vous pardonner.
* Croire et accepter que la justice de Dieu a été satisfaite par le fait que Dieu a ressuscité Jésus… d’entre les morts.
* Croire et reconnaissez que les éléments de preuve que vous êtes vraiment un croyant que vous produisez des « fruits de l’obéissance. »
C’est ce que vous croyez. C’est l’Évangile. Et quand vous croyez que par la foi, tout simplement faire confiance à Dieu, lui, dans sa miséricorde prend la justice de Jésus-Christ et il attribue à vous parce que vos péchés ont été crédités au Christ quand il est mort sur la Croix.
2 Corinthiens 05:21 car Dieu l’a fait Jésus à être péché pour les USA qui ne connaissait aucun péché ; que nous pourrions faire la justice de Dieu en lui.
Si vous avez un désir dans votre coeur à croire, le meilleur moyen de savoir comment est de prier tout simplement et discrètement dans votre cœur :
« Dieu, je veux Jésus Christ. Je reçois de lui maintenant. Je ne veux pas mourir dans mon péché. Je veux aller là où vous êtes. Maintenant, je me repens de mes péchés, je tiens à vous suivre et obéir à vous et votre mot. S’il vous plaît enregistrer mon âme perdue. Amen. »
Si vous faites cela en la foi faisant confiance, il va entendre que la prière et votre vie seront transformées en un instant. Si votre foi est faible, demandez-lui de vous aider à croire. Si vous avez besoin de plus informations lire l’Évangile de Jean et demandez à Dieu de vous enseigner la vérité du Christ.
Tu me dis de le croire, mais ce que je dois croire ?
* Croire et acceptez que vous êtes un pécheur.
* Croire et acceptez vous êtes aliéné de Dieu et devez vraiment se repentir et se détourner du votre péché.
* Croire et reconnaissez sont « condamnés déjà » et avez besoin d’un pardon.
* Croire et accepter que vous avez besoin de se repentir (tournez le dos du péché) et produisent des fruits de l’obéissance.
* Croire et acceptez que Jésus prit ton châtiment sur la Croix comme votre remplaçant et qu’il attend de vous pardonner.
* Croire et accepter que la justice de Dieu a été satisfaite par le fait que Dieu a ressuscité Jésus… d’entre les morts.
* Croire et reconnaissez que les éléments de preuve que vous êtes vraiment un croyant que vous produisez des « fruits de l’obéissance. »
C’est ce que vous croyez. C’est l’Évangile. Et quand vous croyez que par la foi, tout simplement faire confiance à Dieu, lui, dans sa miséricorde prend la justice de Jésus-Christ et il attribue à vous parce que vos péchés ont été crédités au Christ quand il est mort sur la Croix.
2 Corinthiens 05:21 car Dieu l’a fait Jésus à être péché pour les USA qui ne connaissait aucun péché ; que nous pourrions faire la justice de Dieu en lui.
Si vous avez un désir dans votre coeur à croire, le meilleur moyen de savoir comment est de prier tout simplement et discrètement dans votre cœur :
« Dieu, je veux Jésus Christ. Je reçois de lui maintenant. Je ne veux pas mourir dans mon péché. Je veux aller là où vous êtes. Maintenant, je me repens de mes péchés, je tiens à vous suivre et obéir à vous et votre mot. S’il vous plaît enregistrer mon âme perdue. Amen. »
Si vous faites cela en la foi faisant confiance, il va entendre que la prière et votre vie seront transformées en un instant. Si votre foi est faible, demandez-lui de vous aider à croire. Si vous avez besoin de plus informations lire l’Évangile de Jean et demandez à Dieu de vous enseigner la vérité du Christ.
So what is the true church’s responsibility? Or, as believers, what is our responsibility?
You may say, well:
*We are here to worship the Lord, and that is true.
*We are here to live godly lives, and that is true.
*We are here to minister, and that is true.
But all of those things we will do perfectly in heaven. We will worship perfectly. We will love perfectly. We will obey perfectly. We will serve perfectly.
So then why does the Lord leave us here on the earth? The answer is because there is one thing that we are to do on earth that we will not do in heaven, and that is to proclaim the Gospel to sinners. We are to evangelize!
That is why the church was left in the world. Jesus gave us the Great Commission. It is not merely the great suggestion; it is our commission, and that is the reason we are here. Evangelism is not listed anywhere as a gift, nor an exclusive activity for the man of the cloth to perform. It is a command and as believers called to be evangelists we are to:
* Go to the lost – Mark 16:15 “Go into the world, preach the Gospel to every creature.”
*Tell the Lost – Romans 10:14 “How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to them?
*Compel the lost – 2 Corinthians 5:13-14 “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. Luke 14:23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.”
*Beg/ persuade the lost – 2 Corinthians 5:20 “We beg you on behalf of Christ, we beg you, be reconciled to God.”
More than any other single passage 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, best defines for us our responsibility as believers in a world of dying sinners who are headed into eternal punishment. This is a passage that is just rich with insights into our responsibility. So let’s look at verse 18.
“Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Now, in this very important passage, we see the word “reconciled” five times. This is the heart of our responsibility as a Christian. God has called us to preach the Word of reconciliation, as it says at the end of verse 19, the message of reconciliation. At the end of verse 18, He says He’s given us the ministry of reconciliation.
God is the reconciler. He does it by forgiveness. He does it through faith, and it’s possible because the Lord Jesus took the full payment for sin. So God is just. Every sin that all believers have ever committed through all of history has been paid for at Calvary. Now, God can look at you and me and see His Son. He looked at the cross, He saw you. He looks at you, He sees Christ.
This is the staggering, stunning reality of the Gospel. This is the heart of Solo Evangelicum. Can we just obey it and get the message out to the both the religious and pagan lost?
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So what is the true church’s responsibility? Or, as believers, what is our responsibility?
You may say, well:
*We are here to worship the Lord, and that is true.
*We are here to live godly lives, and that is true.
*We are here to minister, and that is true.
But all of those things we will do perfectly in heaven. We will worship perfectly. We will love perfectly. We will obey perfectly. We will serve perfectly.
So then why does the Lord leave us here on the earth? The answer is because there is one thing that we are to do on earth that we will not do in heaven, and that is to proclaim the Gospel to sinners. We are to evangelize!
That is why the church was left in the world. Jesus gave us the Great Commission. It is not merely the great suggestion; it is our commission, and that is the reason we are here. Evangelism is not listed anywhere as a gift, nor an exclusive activity for the man of the cloth to perform. It is a command and as believers called to be evangelists we are to:
* Go to the lost – Mark 16:15 “Go into the world, preach the Gospel to every creature.”
*Tell the Lost – Romans 10:14 “How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to them?
*Compel the lost – 2 Corinthians 5:13-14 “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. Luke 14:23 And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.”
*Beg/ persuade the lost – 2 Corinthians 5:20 “We beg you on behalf of Christ, we beg you, be reconciled to God.”
More than any other single passage 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, best defines for us our responsibility as believers in a world of dying sinners who are headed into eternal punishment. This is a passage that is just rich with insights into our responsibility. So let’s look at verse 18.
“Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
Now, in this very important passage, we see the word “reconciled” five times. This is the heart of our responsibility as a Christian. God has called us to preach the Word of reconciliation, as it says at the end of verse 19, the message of reconciliation. At the end of verse 18, He says He’s given us the ministry of reconciliation.
God is the reconciler. He does it by forgiveness. He does it through faith, and it’s possible because the Lord Jesus took the full payment for sin. So God is just. Every sin that all believers have ever committed through all of history has been paid for at Calvary. Now, God can look at you and me and see His Son. He looked at the cross, He saw you. He looks at you, He sees Christ.
This is the staggering, stunning reality of the Gospel. This is the heart of Solo Evangelicum. Can we just obey it and get the message out to the both the religious and pagan lost?
Tu me dis de le croire, mais ce que je dois croire ?
* Croire et acceptez que vous êtes un pécheur.
* Croire et acceptez vous êtes aliéné de Dieu et devez vraiment se repentir et se détourner du votre péché.
* Croire et reconnaissez sont « condamnés déjà » et avez besoin d’un pardon.
* Croire et accepter que vous avez besoin de se repentir (tournez le dos du péché) et produisent des fruits de l’obéissance.
* Croire et acceptez que Jésus prit ton châtiment sur la Croix comme votre remplaçant et qu’il attend de vous pardonner.
* Croire et accepter que la justice de Dieu a été satisfaite par le fait que Dieu a ressuscité Jésus… d’entre les morts.
* Croire et reconnaissez que les éléments de preuve que vous êtes vraiment un croyant que vous produisez des « fruits de l’obéissance. »
C’est ce que vous croyez. C’est l’Évangile. Et quand vous croyez que par la foi, tout simplement faire confiance à Dieu, lui, dans sa miséricorde prend la justice de Jésus-Christ et il attribue à vous parce que vos péchés ont été crédités au Christ quand il est mort sur la Croix.
2 Corinthiens 05:21 car Dieu l’a fait Jésus à être péché pour les USA qui ne connaissait aucun péché ; que nous pourrions faire la justice de Dieu en lui.
Si vous avez un désir dans votre coeur à croire, le meilleur moyen de savoir comment est de prier tout simplement et discrètement dans votre cœur :
« Dieu, je veux Jésus Christ. Je reçois de lui maintenant. Je ne veux pas mourir dans mon péché. Je veux aller là où vous êtes. Maintenant, je me repens de mes péchés, je tiens à vous suivre et obéir à vous et votre mot. S’il vous plaît enregistrer mon âme perdue. Amen. »
Si vous faites cela en la foi faisant confiance, il va entendre que la prière et votre vie seront transformées en un instant. Si votre foi est faible, demandez-lui de vous aider à croire. Si vous avez besoin de plus informations lire l’Évangile de Jean et demandez à Dieu de vous enseigner la vérité du Christ.
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