English: Jesus ascending to heaven (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Ye call Me Master and Lord; and ye say well; for so I am.” – Jesus – John 13:13 KJV

A very remarkable thing about our Lord, Jesus, is that He doesn’t insist that you make Him your Lord.  He doesn’t say, “Thou SHALL make me your Master!”.

We are free to curse him, and we do.  We are free to use His name in vain, and we do.  We were free to spit on Him, and we did.  We are free to put Him to death, and we did.  We can do all this to Him, and he will not even utter a word about it.  Which is exactly what He did. Jesus said we can speak all manner of evil and vileness against Him, and still be forgiven for it.

How then are we compelled to obey Him, if he is not going to insist that we obey?

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.”  II Corinthians 5:17 HCSB

I did not become a Christian by my own will or by my own power.  It was at the will of God that the life of Jesus was created in me.  I became a new creation.  And when I beheld Him, I instantly recognized His right to absolute authority over me.  I beheld my creator.  His redemption, seen through God’s eyes, tells me that Jesus is worthy to be my Lord.

Had God forced this on me, it would have made Him a tyrant.  I am, and have always been free to choose to allow Jesus to be Lord.  His beauty, His life, His authority over death assures in my soul He has absolute authority over all Creation.  It is no ordeal to desire to follow him.  When I see Him, I want to obey Him.

 “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15 NIV

This is a relationship that is described between a Father and a Son.  Obedience is only possible between equals.  Jesus told us that if you have seen Him, you have seen the Father.  He declared that He and His Father are one and the same.  “Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things He suffered.”

I bear the image of Christ, because He lives in me.

When I rebel against His authority, it is only the things that are not His that refuse to bow to Him.  As I give up these things to Christ, and He replaces it with His character, then my whole attitude of life is that I want to obey Him.  He obtains Mastery over the things I have no control over.  I am still free to do as I please, but it pleases me to be like Him.  That is the difference between legalism and grace.

I can still sin all I want, I just do not want to.  I am a new creation.

I love you

David