It’s been quite a while since I’ve read Bible scholar and Christian theologian Charles Ryrie’s book, "So Great Salvation," but one of the chapters that has left an enduring impression on me is titled “Of Course He Is Lord.” In this chapter, Ryrie makes the fascinating distinction between “objective lordship” and “subjective lordship.” 

The former speaks to the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord of all, whether anyone chooses to acknowledge it or not; it is simply a fact. The latter refers to the individual believer’s relationship with Jesus, and to what degree he or she submits to His lordship.

Ryrie writes that, while Jesus should be the Lord of our lives, He sometimes is and sometimes is only partly so, depending on what the believer is willing to allow. “The cliché ‘If He is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all’ is simply that – a cliché and not a biblical or theological truth. He can be Lord of aspects of my life while I withhold other areas of my life from His control.”

According to Ryrie, “Many believers do not settle the matter of the personal, subjective lordship of Christ” for years, and he backs this up by referencing the fact that “New Testament appeals for surrender or dedication are addressed to believers.” In other words, submitting to the lordship of Jesus doesn’t necessarily happen automatically or completely at the time of our salvation. Again, while He is OBJECTIVELY our Lord from the get-go and in the fullest sense, SUBJECTIVE lordship may require the passage of time for its full development, and it can also depend on the makeup of the individual.

Yesterday, I was teaching the adult men’s Sunday School class at my church, and the focus of the lesson was Jonah. Jonah was a prophet of God to the northern Kingdom of Israel, and the first mention of him is in the book of II Kings, which tells us Jonah prophesied to Jeroboam II that God was going to allow him to expand the borders of Israel.

We know from this passage that Jonah was obedient in delivering God’s word to the king, a fellow Jew and Israelite. But when we get to the book of Jonah, and God asks him to carry a message to the people of Ninevah (a city in pagan Assyria, which cruelly oppressed its enemies, including the Jews), Jonah resists and draws a hard line in the sand. In fact, he attempts to run from God, and before he finally submits to the mission God has for him, he forgoes more than one opportunity to repent. 

There are many things we can glean from the story of Jonah, but the point I want to focus on here is our degree of willingness to obey God…to fully submit or subject ourselves to His lordship, direction, and instruction. 

There are instances in the Bible where God called individuals who immediately, with little to no hesitation, answered that call. In the book of Isaiah, when God asked for someone to carry His message, Isaiah responded, “Here am I. Send me!” And when Jesus was calling His disciples, the Bible tells us they left everything behind and followed Him. While these individuals seem to have more easily submitted themselves, others, like Jonah, were much more hard-headed. In fact, I think we would be hard pressed to find a more stubborn individual than Jonah, who, at one point, would rather have died than do what God was asking of him.

So where do I fall in this continuum? And where do you land? I hope and pray I am not as resistant as Jonah, but I recognize and confess that I am not always as compliant as those who more readily followed Jesus.

Am I truly allowing Jesus to be my Lord in every way? Do I allow Him to conduct the orchestra of my life, or do I snatch the baton from His hands? Is He steering my course, or do I keep grabbing at the wheel? Do I declare Him to be my Lord but then ease off of that declaration when His plans start to contradict my own? 

Most of us have likely heard that comparison story about inviting Jesus to be a guest in your house, and you promise Him entrance into every room. But then you begin to say, “Oh, except that room…and that room…and that closet...and the attic. You can go anywhere You like but just don’t go in there.” 

What things are we withholding from God? What corners of our hearts or minds are we forbidding Him entrance to? Are there areas of sin that we are clinging to? Do we have talents, gifts, and capacities that God has blessed us with that we are using for our own enrichment or benefit rather than for His glory and the advancement of His Kingdom? 

I admit to struggling in some of these ways, and my natural man tends to like calling the shots. Relinquishing control is a learning and growing process, and may the good Lord help me in it.

“Father, thank You for the ongoing sanctification process in which You are continuously molding and shaping me into Your likeness. Help me to me pliable, that I may bend in the directions You would have me go. Break my stubborn will that would choose my way over Yours, for Your Word says that Your thoughts and ways are higher than mine, and that I should not lean on my own understanding of things. Help me to see and appreciate the great benefits of submitting every aspect of my life to Your direction and lordship.”