The Gospel is: Jesus is LORD
By Elmer G. Klassen
The chief cause of the rapid spread and ultimate triumph of Christianity in the first three centuries of its history was the transformation the gospel made in the lives of the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. The spiritual power of the life "in Christ" caused individuals to rise to a morality and a loyalty to God and their families far above that of heathen religions. The daily life of the believer was a living union with Christ, ever seeking the glory of God and the salvation of men.
The love Christians showed to each other was unknown among people before the Christian era. The lives of the Apostles were not always perfect yet their moral influence was to such a high degree that they were an example for all to follow as they believed in their sinless Lord and Master.
The gospel they preached changed lives and families. It made men holy and responsible for their families. It gave women true freedom and dignity and made them willing to voluntarily submit to their husbands. It transformed and sanctified the entire family. It abolished polygamy and condemned all forms of concubinage. Unchastity and impure living among the single and married believers were no longer practiced.
We are told that the virtue among Christians was like leaven to the whole civil and social life of nations and led them on the path of progress in genuine civilization. Christians carefully abstained from improper interference with political and secular affairs and flourished in monarchical and republican institutions, whether in freedom or under oppression and persecution, by demonstrating freedom from sin as the history of the first three centuries of Christianity sufficiently can tell us.
Christianity taught the true nature and duties of all governments and its subjects. It promoted the abolition of bad laws and anti-Christian institutions and helped the establishment of good. It tended under every form of government towards order, propriety, justice, humanity, and peace. It filled the rulers with a sense of responsibility to the supreme king and judge and caused them to rule with the spirit of loyalty, virtue and piety.
The gospel reformed the international relations by breaking down the partition walls of prejudice and hatred among the different nations and races. It united in brotherly fellowship and harmony around the same communion table, even the Jews and the Gentiles once so bitterly separate and hostile.
The spirit of Christianity rose above all national distinctions. The world was able to see true love in action. The true church began in Jerusalem with "one heart and of one soul" and continued with one heart and soul in spite of the collisions between a Peter and a Paul, between Jewish and Gentile Christians and, maybe because of, the lack of systematic theologies.
They had the same problem with people we have today, yet lived above the inner struggles and tensions with other people the gospel had brought.
We must, therefore, admire them for their constant spirit of victory, of harmony and love over the forces of the old nature and of a former life of sin which made it possible to testify to the world that they loved each other.
The power to be holy and to be a testimony to the world was the gospel they preached. They knew nothing of accepting Jesus Christ as Savior, then trying to making Him the Lord of their lives. They believed that Jesus was Lord and accepted no excuse to continue in carnal living. Their confession, "Jesus is Lord," meant that they believed that He was the Lord of their lives, their circumstances and of their society. This they believed and therefore lived and acted accordingly. Their salvation was based on the confession they had made and their believing and trusting Christ to be sufficient for a holy life and victory over all the works of Satan. Being "in Christ" was being victoriously safe and confident in this present life. This they preached and practiced.
If a gospel did not give victory over sin it was not the Gospel they were preaching. To have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ meant to be faithful to Him. To believe was to be faithful and to be faithful to Christ was to be obedient to Him. Without this kind of faith the people were not considered to be Christians. Righteous living was an inevitable result of faith in the true God.
Salvation is confessing and believing that Jesus Christ is LORD. For this reason we offer bumper stickers and smaller labels with the words "Jesus is Lord" to help Christians confess publicly what they believe. A failure to confess that Jesus is LORD openly in one form or another is to deny Him.
On the other hand, to confess Jesus is Lord and not believe it is hypocrisy. To fail to confess that Jesus is Lord or to confess and not obey Him gives evidence of not knowing God. "We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, ‘I know Him’ but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:3-4).
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