Myth busted: 3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Make Jesus Lord of Your Life

I bet you’ve heard the phrase “Making Jesus Lord of your life.” Have you ever held a magnifying glass over this idea to see what’s being said here? I just did. And I came to a startling conclusion! That is that we shouldn’t’ make Jesus Lord of our lives. Here are three reasons why.

Reason # 1. Jesus IS Lord (you don’t make Him be anything)

Listen carefully to the phrase again, “Making Jesus Lord of your life” or as some say “ You must make Jesus Lord of your life.”

Do you hear the legalism and the pride in that? We must make Jesus be something? Who do we think we are that we can MAKE Him be anything?

The truth is, Jesus Christ is ALREADY Lord. He is King of Kings and Lord of lords (1 Tim. 6:15). We don’t make Him to be something He already is. He simply is who He is (Ex. 3:14).

Jesus Christ is:

• All powerful
• All knowing
• All capable
• He is complete in and of Himself

If that’s true, then you can’t MAKE Him be anything that He already is – He is Lord of ALL (Col. 1:16-20). As it’s stated over 600 times in the New Testament, Jesus IS Lord whether you recognizes that or not.

The teaching that we must make Jesus Lord of our lives is not only legalistic, it is the height of arrogance!

Reason # 2. Jesus IS your life (and by default He’s already Lord of it)

But Bas, some people say, “You can be saved and have Jesus be your Savior, but not Lord of your life.” So the question here is, can you have Jesus be your Savior but not Lord of your life?

Here’s the point. Jesus is more then Savior and Lord of your life. Jesus Christ IS YOUR LIFE (Col. 3:4). This is very significant! Jesus is not just your Savior and Lord (even though that’s true and wonderful); He IS YOUR VERY LIFE. Since Christ already IS your life, He is by default already “Lord” of it! Therefore, you don’t make Him into something He already is.

This question if Jesus may or may not be Lord of our lives is strengthened by many religious quotes that belong on the garbage dump. For instance, “If Jesus isn’t Lord of all, He isn’t Lord at all.” That’s garbage.

I’ve told people this lie many times myself. But during the process of renewing my mind I’ve discovered the joy of being wrong 🙂

To conclude, the question is not “Can you have Jesus be your Savior but not Lord of your life, but rather “Do you know Him to BE YOUR LIFE?”

Jesus is not Lord of my life; He IS my life.

Reason # 3. We’re suppose to be Christ-focused not self-focused

Here’s a tip how to find out if an idea is Bible Truth or not. Magnify the idea a 100 or a 1000 times and see if it points to Jesus and what He has done (Grace is talking), or to you and what you must do (Religion is talking).

Take for example the idea that you need to make Jesus Lord of your life. Magnified this a 100 times and I’ll end up asking myself:

• Is Jesus only Savior in my life and not Lord?
• When is the point that Jesus isn’t Lord of my life anymore?
• What must I do to make Jesus Lord of my life?
• Have I made Jesus Lord this morning? What about this afternoon?
• Am I submitted enough to His Lordship?

Where’s the focus? On Christ or myself? Right. On me, myself and I.

The idea that you need make Jesus Lord is a lie that causes you to look at yourself to make sure you do the right thing and to make sure you keep Jesus where He’s suppose to be.

Legalistic teaching wants you to focus on what you are doing. This is bad because you’ll be constantly evaluating yourself to see if you measure up or not and you’ll always conclude that you don’t. You’ll be too concerned about what you are doing instead of what Christ wants to do through you each and every day.

Jesus doesn’t want to Lord over you, He wants to Lord through you.

Some people equate “making Jesus Lord” with “laying down your rights” The idea is that you make Jesus Lord by laying down your rights.

Let’s take the magnify glass again. The results are – again – self-focused, religious baloney:

• I must lay down my rights.
• Have I laid down my right yet?
• What must I do to lay down my rights?”

We can certainly be occupied with the cares of the world (titles, possessions, career, entertainment, money etc.) but instead of you jumping on the religious treadmill by trying hard to “lay down your rights of these things” simply turn your attention again to Christ and say, “Thank You Jesus for reminding me that these external things are not my life. You are my life. In You I live, I move and have my being (Acts. 17:28). In You I find my security, success and significance and not in worldly things.”

To sum up, we can stop making Jesus Lord and try to lay down rights, because it has you focus on you and your actions plus we can’t make Jesus into anything. He simply is who He is. You simply are who you are, in Him. You don’t make Jesus be anything; He is Lord.

So don’t believe this lie that you have to “make” Jesus the Lord of your life. Since Christ already is your life, He is by default already “Lord” of it!

Enjoy the simplicity of your Christian walk.

Question: How will this idea make a difference in your life today? Click here to leave a comment.