Coming to saving faith includes confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord (Romans 10:9). We think it, believe it and are willing to say it. But initially acknowledging that Jesus is Lord and living daily with Jesus as Lord are two different things, the latter being worked out over one's lifetime.
Believing that Jesus is Lord is good...better than good...it is absolutely necessary! But believing that Jesus is Lord in your heart and mind does not yet mean that the implications of that truth have been born out in the way you live your life. Here's what I mean...our lives are chock full of ways in which we practice idolatry in our hearts and just because we are now in Christ does not mean that all those things automatically melt away.
From the moment of justification (the part of salvation where Jesus makes you right in God's sight), the process of sanctification (the part of salvation where Jesus changes you to think, speak and act like Him) begins. This is all done with glorification (the part of salvation where Jesus completes all of His work in you) in mind. This work is the work of God and He will see to it that it is completed (Philippians 1:6).
In sanctification, the Word of God and the Spirit of God shine light into the life of the believer, revealing to her the ways in which she is practicing idolatry in her life and not living consistently with her profession that "Jesus is Lord". Once these things are exposed to the Christian, she, with the power of the Spirit and the help of the Church, works to rid herself of her idolatrous practices by destroying her idols wherever God exposes them.
We do this because our God is exclusive. In Isaiah 45:6 He says, "that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other." God, who has revealed His power and divinity through what He has made (Romans 1:19-20) and has furthermore provided all things needed for a man to live a God-pleasing life (II Peter 1:3), is One. There is only one of Him. Any other thing that we follow after is, therefore, an idol.
And our God is jealous. We know this from Deuteronomy 6:14-16 where He commands the Israelites, "You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you—for the LORD your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and He destroy you from off the face of the earth. You shall not put the LORD your God to the test..."
God will never abide competition for His throne. He has already revealed that, though many created beings are as of yet unwilling to admit that He is God and submit to Him as such, they will (Philippians 2:10-11). Everyone and everything will.
So, as subjects of the King of kings, you and I are to be ever-vigilant, constantly on a search-and-destroy mission within our own hearts because anything left there that isn't Christ is His enemy.
We must hunt down and kill anything in us that vies for the position of "master". We have but one Master. His name is Jesus. Any other god deserves to die.
By God's grace, some of these idols may die easily. Praise the Lord! But others will not. Some idols are so deep within us and so beloved by us that the battle to kill them in our hearts will be long and bloody. And if it was solely up to us to defeat these enemies on our own, we could rightly be discouraged, but glory be to God we are not on our own, "for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).
So we pray,
"Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!" (Psalm 139:23-24)
Pastor Jeremy
