Jan 19, 2020
Originally Presented: March 16th, 2008
Scripture Reading: Romans 10:9-10
When Jesus came riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, one week before His death, it was a deliberate display of His majesty and provided the Jewish people with an opportunity to make an unambiguous declaration that Jesus is king. That is the point of the Palm Sunday story. It is the proclamation, in no uncertain terms, that Jesus is king.
To come to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and life, we must come to Him for who He is. He is God and Savior and Sovereign. The Palm Sunday story declares, from the housetops, that Jesus is King. Romans 10:9 says that to become a Christian a man must confess Jesus as Lord. To submit to Jesus as Lord is an essential element in genuine repentance.
Today the gospel of Christ is often presented in such a way so as to give people the impression that they can be Christians without being followers of Christ. The gospel is often couched in such terms that require of sinners only that they acknowledge the facts about Christ by the barest intellectual assent. Immediately, then, they are assured of their eternal security when they may very well not be born again by God's heart-changing Spirit.
There is a kind of believing that accepts the truth about Jesus Christ but does not rest in Him and does not obey Him. On the other hand, there is a kind of believing that truly hopes in God and rests in Christ and issues in obedience. We are saved by faith alone, but saving faith is never alone. There always follows a life of obedience (Jam 2:21, 25). There is no true salvation which does not result in the heart's full-throated, passionate confession that Jesus is Lord.