In the course of preparing for the next sermons as I preach through Philippians I came across this paragraph in MacArthur’s commentary on Phil. 2:10-11. I couldn’t help but chuckling because this is one area where MacArthur seems to be most misrepresented. So, in the name of getting the truth out there, here is a portion of what stood out to me:
Contrary to much popular teaching and preaching, Scripture nowhere speaks of a person making Jesus Lord. Although many people who use that phrase are merely referring to believers’ obedient submission to Jesus’ sovereign authority, such expressions are seriously misleading and confusing. The problem is especially serious because some evangelicals maintain that confessing Jesus as Lord is not an integral part of saving faith. They wrongly view that as an optional, though desirable, step that believers should take sometime after they are saved. The notion is that it is possible to be saved by confessing Jesus as Savior but not as commanding, ruling Lord. But as just cited, it was God the Father who “has made Him Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36), and in order to be saved it is necessary for a person to “confess….Jesus as Lord, and believe in [his] heart that God raised Him from the dead” (Rom. 10:9), a truth repeated a few verses later. “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved” (v. 13) Acknowledging Jesus as Lord must include submission and obedience, because, by definition, the title of Lord assumes it.
The New Testament Commentary: Philippians. John MacArthur pg. 147
I use this as an encouragement to be very careful as to how I present the gospel. How many “innocent” things do we say that can be very misleading and/or confusing? For more on this subject I’d highly recommend reading “The Gospel According to Jesus.”
