Does Jesus have to be Lord of our lives in order for us to be saved?

I’m sure you’ve heard the above interpretation of Romans 10:9, which states: “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” The big question is what Paul meant by the words “Jesus as Lord.” Does this mean a decision that everything we do from that point on will be done in submission to His rule over us?

If it does, has anyone actually been able to accomplish complete “Lordship”? Or are we all like Paul, who wrote earlier in Romans: “”For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate…for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not” (Romans 7:14-20).

From what I can see, no one I know has actually surrendered themselves completely.

I know I haven’t. For me, surrender to Jesus is an ongoing process. So then, how much “Lordship” is enough? 90% of what we do? Or 50%? Where does God draw the line?

When you consider the implications of making Jesus “Lord” of our lives in order to be saved, it just doesn’t match up with God’s gospel of grace. Grace is undeserved favor. So, either Paul was talking out of both sides of his mouth (in the same letter!) or we are getting Romans 10:9 wrong.

The key to any good interpretation of a verse is to examine the context in which it is written.

First, the context within Romans itself: Paul has just finished an explanation of why Israel largely rejected their Messiah Jesus. “Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works” (Romans 9:31-32). He then goes on: “My heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation…” He then differentiates between the righteousness that comes from obedience and the righteousness that comes from faith. Faith in what? Paul quotes two things about Jesus, as foretold in the Old Testament:

“Do not say in your heart, ‘who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down)”

“’Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.)” Rom 10:6-7

So according to Paul, the two essentials you must believe for a saving faith:

1. Jesus is God who ascended to earth (Jesus is Lord)
2. Jesus died and was raised from the dead. (God raised Him from the dead.)

Romans 10:9 is qualifying what we believe about Jesus. Was He the Son of God? Did God raise Him from the dead? If you believe those facts, you are saved.

Another helpful context is historical. The early Church preached the same gospel requirement. The acclamation that “Jesus is Lord” was very central to the confession of the early Church. It associated Jesus closely with God, “the Lord.” This was a statement of belief in Jesus’ deity, not a requirement for their behavior.

Within the New Testament context, this interpretation can be seen in how the gospel was first preached by Peter and Paul in Acts.

When Peter preached to the crowds at Pentecost, he urged the Jewish crowd to change their mind about Jesus. He was not a blasphemer, as the leaders thought, but telling the truth when He claimed to be the Son of God. It was God who raised Him from the dead (Acts 2:14-36).

Paul told his fellow Jews in Pisidian Antioch: “We preach to you the good news of the promise made to the father, that God has fulfilled this promise to our children in that He raised up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, “You are my Son; today I have begotten You” (Acts 13:33).

To claim that godly behavior has anything to do with our salvation on the basis of Romans 10:9 is to ignore the context in which it was written as well as the simple gospel message preached from the beginning.

We rest in the grace of God alone. Always.