Jesus was always going to be our Savior, but He only is if we ask Him to be. This daily devotional looks at our submitting to Jesus for him to be our Savior.
Nuggets
- We have to willingly submit to God because Jesus died for our sins.
- Jesus is Lord of the dead and the living.
To read devotions in the Redo for Godliness series, click the appropriate button below.
Devotions in the Transformed to Perfection series
Jesus knew before the foundation of the world that He would be our Savior. It was always in His plan that He would give His life to pay the price for our sins.
Glossary
Christ is Lord over our lives only when we voluntarily ask Him to be. He isn’t going to force His way in and make Himself King over our hearts.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
The Price Was Paid
“Christ died and returned to life for this …” (Rom. 14: 9 CSB)
We have to willingly submit to God because Jesus died for our sins. Submitting to God is actions by humans that obey God and keep His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, follow His purpose for us, and do not follow Satan’s promptings. It is trying not to sin.
Hull reminded us that this is going to be a daily submission. He wrote, “Christ must possess us, and we must yield up our hearts daily as living sacrifices to God through Him.”
Resource
We know that being a daily sacrifice is the first job duty of our disciple’s job description. If we tie this to the strong and weak discussion from a couple of verses back, it is our responsibility, then, to try to strengthen our faith.
The Disciple’s Job Description
Complete Job Description
Individual Description
Job Duty #1
Be a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12: 1-2)
Well, regardless of the strength of our faith, I bet there is always room to strengthen it while we are in this life.
Thomas gave us a hint about how we can improve because he told us the way in which strong and weak faiths differ. He wrote, “The causes of this diversity are difference in mental capacity, methods of education, in the period of adopting Christianity, in the means of improvement and the manner of employing them, etc.”
Resource
Okay. Look at that list a second. Mental capacity is being able to make our own decisions. There is a continuum of ability. We are not all great at making decisions.
The rest we may or may not be able to exert some influence on to a certain extent. At times, we can choose the manner in which we learn, how much time we will commit to that learning process, the manner in which it will occur, and how it will play out.
Other times, we are just along for the ride. Thomas said those are usually just there for the ritualism.
Whatever our whatever, we need to be devoted to the Lord. If we can’t make decisions, this has to be one decision we make. Whatever the manner, however long, and however it turns out, we have to choose Jesus.
Jesus has to be sovereign of our inward and outward lives. What popped into my mind was what we said a couple of devotions back (and I actually found it!). I like Macmillan’s definition of character. Macmillan wrote our character is “the sum of our thoughts, feelings, and actions.”
Resource
Inward and outward. It is all tied up to make who we are.
Pope explained the living over the dead part. He wrote, “(a) Sin had dominion over man in virtue of the penalty of violated law. The Redeemer died to atone for sin, to absorb its sentence in Himself, and thus to reign in the bestowment of pardon and peace.(b) Sin had dominion over man through the law of evil ruling in his nature. By His atoning death the Redeemer obtained for man the Spirit of a new life making him free from the law of sin and death.”
Resource
So, sin not only had a grip on us because of the stain it put on us, but it also had a grip on us because we were then held accountable because we were guilty. Jesus’ death atoned for both.
Don’t limit yourself to thinking this is only talking about those of us walking around here on earth and those snoozing in the cemeteries. This is also talking about the spiritually dead and spiritually alive.
Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings. The consequences of sin are spiritual death and separation from God. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
Bonar made a statement that made things click for me. Really, it was a duh statement, but it is one of those we really just don’t think through sometimes.
Bonar wrote, “Christ’s claim over us as Jehovah is eternal, and nothing can be added to it. But His claim over us as the Christ is a superadded claim. This claim He has made good by His death and resurrection.”
Resource
Jesus has always been God. So, He has always had a claim over us. His claim as Christ is more.
I think a lot of times we forget just how much Jesus gave up just to come down here to be our Savior. “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2: 5-7 ESV).
Hmmm. In my book, “… though he was in the form of God …” (Phil. 2: 5-7 ESV) really doesn’t say it all.
John 10: 30 says, “I and the Father are one” (ESV). Then, we have the whole Trinity thing. The Trinity is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, three distinct Persons within one indivisible Divine nature.
Yep, that is one of those things that falls into the “… lean not unto thine own understanding” (Prov. 3: 5 KJV).
Benson listed a whole bunch of roles in which Jesus serves for us.
- Deliverer
- Protector
- Ruler
- Master
- Head
- Husband
- Judge
- Owner
- Governor
Resource
Because Jesus plays all those roles, it makes it easy to submit to Him.
Lord of the Dead and the Living
“… that he might be Lord over both the dead and the living” (Rom. 14: 9 CSB)
Jesus is Lord of the dead and the living.
Hmmm. Lord of the dead, eh?
What happened to when they are dead, they are dead?
Well, that really isn’t the case, is it?
We know what will happen when Jesus returns. “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord” (I Thess. 4: 16-17 ESV).
Yes, that does give a very important caveat: in Christ. That means those who have ABCDed.
That, however, is not the only verses that talk about what happens to the dead.
“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done” (Rev. 20: 11-13 ESV).
No one is going to miss out in the final judgment if they are spiritually dead.
Huntington reminded us of what assurance that gives us. He says it talks of a reunion with recognition. Jesus will see us and know us.
Going on about the recognition part, Huntington assures us that we will still have the same identify in Heaven. He wrote, “The resurrection of the body of Jesus signifies the literal reality of all that is promised the Christian in his future home — the actual identity of the person here and the person there, and the actual renewal of affections and their interchange; for what is the identity, or the blessing of it, if the heart has got to begin its whole history afresh? It signifies the actual restoration, too, of the society, only in more exalted forms, of those who have believed and worshipped the same Saviour here. There will be no confusion of persons, no obliteration of the lines that mark off one soul from another. We shall be just, as distinct persons: with all personal faculties, affections, sympathies, substances, yes, and appearances, as we are now. In those celestial congregations there will, no doubt, be something to be recognised by, in feature or form, inbred on earth and indestructible by dissolution. Hence the need of a glorified resurrection body, to be set free at the last change — following the analogy still of His body who died and rose the same.”
Resource
We will be changed “… in the twinkling of an eye …” (I Cor. 15. 52 KJV) but still be recognizable.
What we shouldn’t do is shortchange this. Jesus is Lord of all — living and dead. He is Lord of all who have been alive and who will feel born.
Paul always struggle with wanting to stay and minister to everyone and go home to be with Jesus. “I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account” (Phil. 1: 23-24 ESV).
Making the Connections
What has Paul been saying about Jesus in all of this? Candlish gave us a good list.
- Jesus mediates for us.
- Jesus is patient with us.
- We belong to Christ.
- His Lordship came through His death and His resurrection.
- Candlish said that Jesus’ Lordships rests and flows from His service of sacrifice.
- That brings Him glory.
Resource
How Do We Apply This?
- We should not judge each other.
- Accept Jesus’ Lordship while you are alive, because you will have to live with that decision when you are dead.
- Let our faith touch every part of our lives.
- Serving God brings us much happiness.
Resource
Jesus was born to be our Lord and Savior. He asks us to follow Him.
Father God. Even though we have willfully disobeyed You, You have made a way for our relationships to be restored. Lord, we submit to You and ask Jesus to be our Lord and Savior. Amen.
What do you think?
Leave me a comment below (about this or anything else) or head over to my Facebook group for some interactive discussion.
If you don’t understand something and would like further clarification, please contact me.
If you have not signed up for the email daily or weekly providing the link to the devotions and the newsletter, do so below.
If God has used this devotion to speak with you, consider sharing it on social media.