The Gospel According to Jesus: What Does Jesus Mean When He Says, "Follow Me?" [Paperback]

But the boxing ring in which this brawl is being waged is mediocre, as the debate is generally confined to dispensationalist circles. If one peers into the conservative Reformed circles, this issue doesn't really exist, because the Reformed emphasis on God-centeredness, obedience, and the perseverence of the elect guarantees that, in a nutshell, "If you LOVE me, you will keep my commandments." Check out the description of "LOVE" in First Corinthians 13, apply it to your (alleged) relationship with God, and see if you too have attempted to take a gift from a God you hate (and supposedly don't ever have to love, even through your last breath). But as MacArthur reminds his readers, "The faithful ARE faithful."

Imagine this pathetic scenario: upon hearing a sermon on loving God, or sanctification, or crucifying your flesh with its passions and desires, you reject that message in your heart (because Lord Zane said you can -- and you sure as heck will obey him), and then after the service you dart your way up to the preacher and ask: "Aww, but do we HAVE TO in order to still be saved?" Buddy, you ain't.

This book patiently highlights the qualities of genuine faith (as described in the bible) and at the same time exposes the deficiencies of the latest gospel fad - the Kingless kingdom (easy believism).

At the heart of the issue is whether a person can enter the kingdom of heaven and at the same time deny the sovereignty of it's King - Jesus Christ.

Opinions are understandably passionate on this issue. One camp believes that you can be saved even while denying Christ (his Lordship), while the other camp believes you must accept Christ in His entirety - as Lord, as High Priest, and as Saviour.

Scripture says "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." - Romans 10:9-10

"Confess" means to agree with or say the same thing as. If we confess the Lord Jesus, we accept Him as Lord. No one can ask Christ to be their Savior and at the same time deny Him as their Lord - that is not confessing Christ! Christ said "If you love me you will keep my commandments", anyone who thinks you can have Christ without his Lordship lacks a genuine confession of Christ as Lord and therefore has no reason to imagine they are saved.

We are most certainly saved by grace through faith alone, but the faith we are saved by must be placed in the real Jesus Christ, and NOT in a watered down counterfeit. If you refuse Christ as your Lord, you refuse Christ.

The saddest thing about the broad road, is that people who think they are saved are walking on it. Don't assume you are saved because some one has told you so. Salvation is between you and Jesus Christ (the real Jesus Christ). Make your calling and election sure.

The book is aptly named.

A few years later the book came out and I gobbled it up. MacArthur makes a strong scriptural case for the fact that when Jesus "saves" someone, he also changes them. I was amazed at some of the things that some well known Christian authors and leaders had said about salvation and how they tried to defend their belief that a person can have Christ as savior without having Him as Lord.

MacArthur scripturally rebuts this idea. Also, the caricatures that the opponents of Lordship Salvation have raised are off base. MacArthur does not teach a works salvation in this book, he simply teaches that Christ is able to sanctify those whom He saves.

I read the original edition of this book, and I know that MacArthur updated it in this current edition. The original edition was not without some problems, but my understanding is that he corrected and stated some of his points better in this edition. The book "Christ the Lord," edited by Michael Scott Horton, addressed some of the problems in the original edition and I believe that these have been addressed in the current edition.