Jesus Is Savior and Lord: Terms of Peace

In last week’s article we wanted to establish that a person is saved by God’s grace through faith only if she or he has made an unconditional surrender to God. It is true that a person can join a church and serve faithfully for many years and still not be saved. The church accepts the person because it hears a verbal confession of faith. On the other hand, God hears what we say, but more importantly, God knows our hearts (1 Sam. 16:1-7; Rom. 10:9). Most people who join the church accept Jesus as their savior, but they may not know that they are making an unconditional surrender to Jesus to be their Lord also. I can relate this to my enlistment into the United States Army.

On August 23, 1967 I along with several other inductees raised my right hand and took the following oath. “I, Joseph Larry Myles do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Unified Code of Military Justice. So help me God.” Without thinking much about it, I had made an unconditional surrender to the United States Army. I was a little familiar with the military as my three older brothers were serving in the military. I joined voluntarily because I wanted to get out of the circumstances of my life. It did not matter much to me that I might have to go to war in Viet Nam. I was unprepared to live a military life. I would have to learn how to carry out the terms of peace with the army if I was to be a successful soldier. I soon realized that the Army had already decided for me what I must do and my thoughts and feelings would not change the values of the army. I would not be able to change what is written in the Unified Code of Military Justice. In the same way, when a person surrenders their life to Jesus Christ, God’s attributes, His laws, and His commandments will not change. The new convert has the responsibility to their savior and Lord Jesus Christ; to other believers, to people in general, and especially to themselves to learn the terms of peace that determines how one is to live as citizens in the kingdom of God.

I now want to tell you of three things that I had to learn as a newly inducted soldier in the army. I believe that persons who become citizens in the kingdom of God will need to learn the same things. After taking the oath of enlistment in Nashville, Tennessee, I boarded an airplane headed to Columbia, South Carolina where I would be picked up by a military bus and taken to Fort Jackson, South Carolina. I was not ready for this trip. I had never ridden on an airplane and I knew nothing about how to make the necessary flight changes in Atlanta, Georgia. I was not prepared to stay up until 2:00 a.m., get back up at 4:00 a.m. and go through processing until 9:30 p.m. When finally I had a few hours of sleep and thought about it, I realized that I was a new person with new expectations on my life. Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17, NASB). I was the same person, but I was no longer a civilian, I was now a soldier. The person who has surrendered to Jesus is no longer a person who lives according to the desires of the flesh, but lives according to the Spirit. The Christian no longer lives according to the ways of this world, but according to the ways of God. So, when I realized that all things in the army were new to me, I next learned that I was no longer under civilian authorities, instead I was under the rule of military authorities.

Jesus is Lord because God has made Him the authority to who we are obligated to live up under. Jesus died on the cross to save people from their sins. He did this because God wanted the children that He had created to be reconciled back to Him. When Jesus obeyed the will of His Father, “God exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven, and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:9-11; see Heb. 1, NASB). When Jesus was raised from the dead He met with His disciples in Galilee. He commissioned them to take the Gospel to the whole world so that they might be saved. The apostles (meaning “sent ones) went out under the authority of Jesus. He said to them, “‘All authority (Greek=exousia) has been given to Me in heaven and on earth’” (Matt. 28:18, NASB). When we become Christians, we enter into the kingdom of God. We now must obey the words of our new commanding officer, and we must live by the regulations made in heaven before the foundations of the world.

Finally, when I enlisted into the army I discovered that the army would give to me my assignments. The army would determine what job I would do. The army would tell me where and when I would do service. This would be determined by the authorities whose main concern was the security of the United States of America. In serving this country it was highly possible that I would be sent to the war in Viet Nam. I might get killed serving my country. As Christians we must learn to obey Jesus just as the army soldier obeys the President. We must be willing to put our life on the line for the sake of God and His kingdom. We have surrendered unconditionally and we must live by the terms of peace in God’s kingdom. So, what did I gain from serving in the United States Army? What can we expect to gain from serving in the kingdom of God?”

There were many benefits available to me as a result of my service in the army. I have taken advantage of three of these. They funds for an education, a loan to purchase a home for my family, and access to health care. The benefits of serving God in His kingdom include access to God who is willing and able to supply everything that we need in this life. In Christ Jesus we have eternal life with Jesus and God our father.