Lordship Salvation Language
“Lordship salvation” is a regrettable title of a doctrine, as if there is eternal salvation without the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The rise and spread of no-Lordship salvation is actually the significant bad development. Someone will say, including concerning me, “he is Lordship salvation” or “he believes Lordship salvation.” Then that person proceeds to strawman and misrepresent what “Lordship salvation” actually is. “Lordship salvation” truly is just “salvation.”
Actual “Lordship salvation” is believing in Jesus Christ. True faith in Christ also believes in Jesus Christ as Lord or that Jesus Christ is Lord. You can’t separate Jesus Christ from His Lordship. In addition to Lord Jesus, He’s also Jesus Christ. The title “Christ” assumes Lordship.
Believing also is more than mere intellectual assent to a fact. Belief implies commitment, a volitional aspect, an acquiescence of the will to Jesus Christ. Even the demons surely acknowledge at least this in something that is still short of saving faith. They are terrified of Jesus as Lord (Matthew 8:29, James 2:19).
Repentance as an Entrance Requirement of Salvation
Jesus said in Luke 13:3, 5, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish,” while in John 3:16 He said that “whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If someone does not repent, he will perish, but if he believes, he will not perish. Mark 1:14-15 say:
14 Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
Jesus preached repentance with believing the gospel, both also related to the kingdom of God. When Jesus provides the gospel, saving message of the Great Commission in Luke 24:46-47, parallel with Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15, and John 20:21, He says:
Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Satan and false teachers deceive with exclusion of repentance as a part of the saving message of the gospel.
History of Repentance and Faith
The English Baptist, author of Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan, wrote in The Jerusalem Sinner Saved: “No man shows himself willing to be saved if he repents not of his deeds.” In his work Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ, he wrote about repentance and faith as two interconnected aspects of the same spiritual motion. He emphasized that true conversion is a singular movement of the heart toward God, consisting of both turning from sin (repentance) and turning to Christ (faith).
Lordship and repentance dovetail in the gospel. In historical Christian writings, repentance and the Lordship of Christ are presented as inextricably linked elements of the gospel message, where repentance serves as the active turning from sin and self-rule toward submission to Christ’s sovereign authority. This connection underscores that the good news of salvation is not merely an intellectual assent to facts about Jesus but a transformative call to allegiance, with repentance manifesting as the initial and ongoing fruit of recognizing Him as King and Judge.
Repentance Tied to Lordship
Early with Jesus
The New Testament portrays repentance as a core command in the gospel, directly tied to Christ’s lordship. Jesus Himself inaugurated His ministry with the exhortation, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17), framing repentance as the response to the arrival of God’s rule through Him as King. The Apostle Paul similarly emphasizes that God “commandeth all men everywhere to repent” in light of the coming judgment by Christ (Acts 17:30-31), portraying unrepentance as defiance against His lordship.
In a sermon in 1879, Must He?, English preacher C. H. Spurgeon at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London said:
Further, will you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord? Zacchaeus did so, for he said, “Behold, Lord.” Now, are you willing to give up all to Christ and to let Him be Lord over you? Are you willing to do what He bids you, as He bids you, when He bids you and simply because He bids you? For, verily, I say unto you, you cannot have Christ for your Savior unless you also have Him as your Lord! He must rule over us as well as forgive us!
Peter on Pentecost
The Apostle Peter declared in Acts 2:36 in his sermon on the Day of Pentecost:
Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
This statement serves as an essential piece of his climactic conclusion to his sermon (Acts 2:14–36), directly tying the lordship of Jesus to His identity as the Christ (Messiah) and forming the core of the apostolic gospel proclamation. Peter connects lordship to Christ by presenting Jesus’ exaltation as God’s decisive proof that the crucified one is both anointed King and divine Lord. His message demanded a gospel response of repentance and faith for salvation and it henceforth formed the foundation of true Christian preaching of the gospel.
Frequently from Jesus
Jesus frequently commanded His followers to “lose their life” as a condition for eternal life, such as Matthew 16:24-25 (Mark 8:34-35, Luke 9:23-24, and John 12:25):
24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
This language emphasizes self-denial, renouncing personal ambitions, attachments, and self-rule in favor of total submission to Christ, often symbolized by bearing a cross (representing suffering and death to self) or dying like a grain of wheat to bear fruit (John 12:24-26). Genuine saving faith in Jesus necessarily includes recognizing and submitting to Him as Lord (Romans 10:9), not just as Savior, turning from one’s own way to His way.
“Losing one’s life” embodies repentance—turning from self-centered rule (the essence of sin as lawlessness, per 1 John 3:4) to live under His kingship. This is seen as a requirement for eternal life, as Jesus equates failing to deny self or prioritize Him above all (e.g., family, possessions, or one’s own will in Luke 14:26-33) with being unworthy of Him and facing perdition. This isn’t works-based earning of salvation but the natural outworking of grace-enabled faith (Philippians 2:13).
Great post.