Experiencing Jesus Christ as Lord

Jesus Christ is Lord of all. And that's because He is the Creator of all: "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3). Thus, He is Lord of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. Though not everyone currently recognizes Him as Lord, the day is coming when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

When Jesus Christ first came to this earth, He "made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:7, 8, NKJV). His second coming will be with power and great glory. "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen" (Rev. 1:7).

To those who have received Him as Savior and Lord, the second coming of Jesus will be a time of rejoicing! We will exclaim, "'Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for Him; we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation'" (Isa. 25:9, NKJV).

Every tongue will then confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, but for many it will be eternally too late to make a saving confession. For the wicked, confession that Jesus Christ is Lord is simply a recognition of an undeniable truth; it's not a heartfelt surrender to His love and divine authority.

The Word of God appeals to us to accept the grace of God so freely given through Jesus. Now is the accepted time. Jesus Christ has paid the penalty for our sins. We can, at this moment, stand perfect in His righteousness, which is freely bestowed upon every willing sinner, "even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3:22-24). Or, as Ellen White said in Steps to Christ: "Since we are sinful, unholy, we cannot perfectly obey the holy law. We have no righteousness of our own with which to meet the claims of the law of God. But Christ has made a way of escape for us. He lived on earth amid trials and temptations such as we have to meet. He lived a sinless life. He died for us, and now He offers to take our sins and give us His righteousness. If you give yourself to Him, and accept Him as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life may have been, for His sake you are accounted righteous.

Christ's character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned."-Page 62.

When we receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we not only confess Him as Lord of every nation, kindred, tongue, and people; we also confess Him as Lord of every aspect of our lives. As Christians, it's our duty, out of love for God, to show that we truly believe in that Lordship. We do this not just by confessing He is Lord of our lives but by allowing Him to rule there, as well.

In this series of lessons, we will consider what it means to experience Jesus Christ as Lord in every aspect of our existence. It's not enough to claim Jesus just as our Savior; we must claim Him as our Lord, as well. Because He's our Lord, He was able to be our Savior. And nothing reveals more that we have recognized Him as Savior than how we live, and how we live depends upon the degree in which we allow Him to be Lord of our lives.

Let's now take a look at what it means to experience Jesus as the Lord of our lives.

Dr. Derek Morris, author of this quarter's study, is pastor of the Calimesa Adventist Church in Calimesa, California, as well as adjunct professor of preaching at Southern Adventist University.

Contents:  (all lessons may not be posted)

Giardina Sabbath School Study Helps

Jerry Giardina of Pecos, Texas, assisted by his wife, Cheryl, prepares a series of helps to accompany the Sabbath School lesson. He includes all related scripture and most EGW quotations. Jerry has chosen the "New King James Version" of the scriptures this quarter. It is used with permission.  The study helps are provided in three wordprocessing versions Wordperfect; Microsoft Word;  RTF for our MAC friends (this is now a zip file); and HTML (Web Pages).

Last updated on May 23, 2005

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Principal Contributors:  Derek Morris
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