Latest / Reformed Thinking / “Lord, Lord”: When Confession Lacks Obedience (Luke 6:46–49)

Transcript

“Lord, Lord”: When Confession Lacks Obedience (Luke 6:46–49) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. Have you ever taken a test where
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you thought you knew all the answers only to find out you
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were taking the completely wrong test to begin with?
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That is the tension we are looking at today.
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The mission for this specific deep dive into your provided
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sources is to rigorously analyze a single piercing question that
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Jesus asks in Luke chapter 6 verse 46.
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He looks at a crowd and asks, Why do you call me Lord, Lord
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and not do what I tell you? I look at that as the ultimate
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spiritual lie detector test. You, the listener, have provided
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us with two incredibly thorough theological texts that unpack
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this severe warning against antinomianism.
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Now, for anyone unfamiliar with that massive theological term,
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let us define it simply. Antinomianism is the false,
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deceitful belief that you can claim Christ as your Savior to
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get out of hell while entirely rejecting His absolute authority
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as King over your daily life. It is, you know, wanting the
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fire insurance without the home renovation.
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The text you submitted tackle this head on.
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They expose the fraud of a faith that possesses pristine orthodox
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vocabulary but lacks any practical daily submission.
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We are going to examine the grammar, the historical context,
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the theological implications, and the heavy pastoral
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application of this single terrifying verse.
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Sets the table perfectly. We must establish right from the
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start that this will be a weighty, serious theological
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analysis. It is a necessary one for our
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modern moment though. We will be looking at this
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passage specifically through the lens of Protestant Reformed
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theology, applying the strict, clear framework of the
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Westminster Standards to our modern brand of cultural
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Christianity. The goal of the authors and the
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sources you provided is to strip away the glossy veneer of modern
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seeker sensitive church trends. We live in an era that
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frequently prioritizes subjective emotional experiences
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and basic intellectual agreement over genuine, life altering
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submission to a holy God. But the raw biblical demand
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presented in these texts is for a faith that inevitably yields
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obedience. This is not about moralism or
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works righteousness. We will address that detail
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later, of course. It is about the true objective
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nature of saving faith. When Jesus deploys this specific
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question in Luke 6, he is utilizing the moral law to
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painfully expose sin and self deception in the hearts of those
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who think they are safe just because they have memorized the
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right religious dictionary. OK, let's unpack this.
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We need to begin by looking at the devastating contradiction of
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that phrase Lord, Lord. The weight of the vocabulary
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here is massive. Jesus does not use terms
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lightly. He is specifically targeting the
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Greek word curious, which translates to Lord.
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Now, if you're listening to this in our modern 21st century
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context, calling someone Lord might just seem like a polite,
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archaic title. Maybe it is something you hear
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in a British historical drama on television.
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But the sources highlight that in the 1st century context, this
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word carried A terrifying absolute weight.
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This was not a casual term of endearment.
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It was not a polite greeting you would give the rabbi at the
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synagogue door. It was a title of absolute,
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unquestioned authority. Let us make sure we are grasping
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the gravity of what these people were actually saying when they
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used this word. The historical and linguistic
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context next year changes everything.
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In the Greco Roman world of the 1st century, the term curious
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designated an absolute master. It referred to an owner who
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possessed literal life and death authority over his slaves or
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dulois in the Greek. If a master decided a slave was
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no longer useful, the master had the legal right to end that
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slaves life without any legal repercussion.
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The curious was the unquestioned sovereign of the estate.
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When you called someone curious, you're acknowledging their total
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comprehensive ownership of your person, your time, your body,
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your resources, your future. All of it belong to the Master.
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Furthermore, and perhaps even more significantly for the
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Jewish audience listening to Jesus, we have to look at the
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Septuagint. That is the Greek translation of
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the Hebrew Old Testament, right? The one widely used during the
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time of Christ. Spot on in that translation.
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Curious is the explicit, direct substitution for the holy
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covenantal name of God, Yahweh. Pious Jews would not even speak
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the name Yahweh out loud out of reverence.
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Instead, they would say Adonai. And when writing in Greek, they
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use curious. Therefore, when these
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individuals in the crowd address Jesus as curious, they're not
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just being respectful to a smart teacher.
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They are verbally subscribing to the highest, most Orthodox
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Christology imaginable. They are flat out acknowledging
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that He is God Himself. They're recognizing His absolute
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divine authority and His sovereign right to rule over
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every square inch of their existence.
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Yet the horrifying reality exposed in this passage is that
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their pristine theological vocabulary is an empty, hollow
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shell. They have the right doctrine on
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their lips, but they fiercely deny His authority by their
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daily deeds. That brings us to a fascinating
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detail the sources mentioned regarding the syntactical
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duplication in the text. They do not just say Lord, they
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say Lord, Lord. That Hebraic duplication is a
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brilliant linguistic feature in Jewish culture.
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Repeating a name or a title conveys intense zeal, high
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emotion, and a strong sense of intimacy.
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Think of when Jesus says Martha, Martha, or when God calls out
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Abraham, Abraham. It denotes closeness.
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So the people saying Lord, Lord are not cold, apathetic people
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sitting in the back row of a synagogue checking their
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sundials. These are passionate
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individuals. They are the kind of people who
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might sing the loudest during corporate worship, who might
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pray with fervent tears, and who feel a strong emotional
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connection to Jesus. They genuinely believe they're
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close to him. It reminds me of people at a
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modern concert who are screaming the lyrics, completely caught up
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in the hype, in the atmosphere of the moment.
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They feel something intense and they mistake that feeling for a
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genuine relationship. That observation shatters so
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many modern illusions about what actually constitutes genuine
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faith. We live in a cultural moment
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heavily infected by mysticism and emotionalism, where the
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validity of 1's faith is wrongly measured by the intensity of
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subjective feelings. The modern church landscape is
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filled with an environment specifically engineered to
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elicit that exact Lord Lord emotional response.
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Dim the lights. Swell the music.
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Create a mood. People often equate fleshly
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goosebumps or weeping during an emotionally charged worship song
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with the regenerating presence of the Holy Spirit.
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But Jesus shows us right here that fervent emotion without
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objective submission to His Word is a completely fraudulent
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confession. A weeping eye and a raised hand
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in a worship service mean absolutely nothing if the heart
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remains stubbornly unbowed to His moral law when Monday
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morning arrives. Intensity of profession is not
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the same as reality of submission.
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You can cry tears of joy at the idea of a savior while harboring
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absolute hatred for the demands of a king.
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That is a striking distinction. Intensity of profession is not
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reality of submission. Let us look at the grammar of
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rebellion that the text highlight, because this gets
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incredibly practical. The passage hinges on the Greek
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verb poite, which translates to do in the phrase do what I tell
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you. The sources spend a lot of time
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analyzing this verb. They note that it is cast in the
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present active indicative tense. Let us translate that academic
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jargon into something we can all understand.
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This tense means Jesus is not talking about a one time failure
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or a momentary lapse in judgement.
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He's pointing to a continuous, habitual lifestyle.
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Christ is not demanding absolute sinless perfection here.
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No fallen human being could stand under that kind of burden.
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What he is demanding is a trajectory of obedience to you
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is a silly analogy. It is like claiming you're on a
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strict health diet while currently habitually eating a
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powdered doughnut every single morning.
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The terrifying absurdity is calling him Lord while
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habitually, continuously denying His commands and practice.
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The grammar forces strict self judgement.
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Jesus is asking a logical question.
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How can you continuously say this specific word while
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continuously living like that? It is the purest essence of
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hypocrisy. To acknowledge Christ's
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authority with the lips but reject it with the hands is a
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fatal spiritual disease. The contrast Jesus draws is
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between the continuous verbal claim of lordship and the
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continuous behavioral reality of rebellion.
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You cannot treat his words as optional commentary or helpful
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suggestions while simultaneously acknowledging Him as King.
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If he is truly Lord, His commands are kingly decrees.
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They're absolute mandates. If His word is treated as
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negotiable, obeyed when convenient, ignored when costly
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or socially awkward, then the title on our lips becomes a
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damning indictment against our own hearts.
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You were testifying to the fact that you know who he is, and
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you're choosing to ignore him anyway.
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You know, what is fascinating about the sources is that they
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point out Luke did not just accidentally drop this quote
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into the text. It is actually the climax of an
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entire argument Jesus was building.
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When we look at the literary and covenantal context of this
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passage, Jesus is actively prosecuting a case.
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Throughout Luke chapter 6. The flow of thought is
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deliberate and brilliant. First, Jesus teaches about the
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tree and its fruit, showing that nature reveals life.
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A good tree cannot bear bad fruit.
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Fruit does not create the tree, it reveals the unseen root
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system underground. Second, he moves to the treasure
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of the heart and human speech. The mouth exposes the heart.
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It is a spiritual disclosure. Out of the abundance of the
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heart, the mouth speaks. And then finally he arrives at
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this false confession. The progression goes from
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outward behaviors to inward realities, and then confronts
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the most deceptive outward behavior of all, which is a
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pious orthodox confession that lacks any corresponding action.
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It is a masterful legal trap he sets for the hypocrite.
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If we connect this to the bigger picture, we see that verse 46 is
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the gateway into the famous parable of the two builders.
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In verses 47 to 49, both of these builders hear the words of
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Christ. The issue is never about access
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to the teaching or intellectual comprehension.
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The dividing line is what they do with those words after they
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hear them. One builder digs deep and lays
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his foundation on the solid rock, representing the one who
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hears and actively does. The other builds quickly on the
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sand without a foundation, representing the one who hears
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but does not do. Notice.
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A crucial detail here. The House of the sand might look
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perfectly fine from the street level.
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It might have a beautiful coat of paint and look structurally
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sound on the sunny day. But Jesus insists the storm is
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coming. In the Middle Eastern context,
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building on the sand often meant building in a dry riverbed
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awadi. It looks like a great flat place
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to build in the summer. But when the winter rains come,
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a massive flash flood rips through that valley.
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The storm does not create the collapse.
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The storm merely, I should say the storm, simply exposes the
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bedrock reality of the house. The flood reveals what was
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always true beneath the surface. A faith of empty words will
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disintegrate under the pressure of divine judgment.
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That ties so perfectly into the Old Covenant background that the
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texts trace. The sources highlight that this
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theme of hearing and doing is not a brand new concept Jesus
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invented on the spot to surprise his audience.
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It goes all the way back to the very bedrock of the Old
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Testament. Think about the Shema in
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Deuteronomy chapter 6, which is the central, defining confession
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of Israel. It begins with hear, O Israel,
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but it immediately connects hearing God's voice with obeying
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it. The Word must be in the heart,
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it must be taught diligently to the children, and it must be
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woven into the very physical rhythms of daily life, bound on
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the hands and foreheads, written on the doorposts.
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In the biblical covenant world, hearing was never meant to be a
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neutral act of collecting academic information.
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To hear God rightly is to receive His Word with reverence
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and respond with immediate, tangible obedience.
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If you heard and did not act in the Hebrew mindset, you did not
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actually hear. That historical continuity is
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crucial, and we see this echoed loudly in the prophetic
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critique. Throughout the entire Old
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Testament, the prophets constantly demolished the false
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refuge of lip service. Think of the narrative of First
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Samuel chapter 15. King Saul disobeys a direct
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command from God, sparing King Agag and the best of the
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livestock. When the prophet Samuel
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confronts him, Saul claims he kept the sheep to sacrifice to
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the Lord. He tries to spiritualize his
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rebellion, but Samuel rebukes him with that famous line,
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declaring that to obey is better than sacrifice.
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Saul thought he could cloak his direct rebellion in religious
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ritual, but God vehemently rejected it.
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We see the prophet Isaiah denouncing a people who
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faithfully keep all the holy days and offer incense while
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their hands are full of blood and injustice.
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We see Jeremiah standing at the very gates of the temple,
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warning the people not to trust in the deceptive, repetitive
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words. This is the temple of the Lord.
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The temple of the Lord while they live in open, unrepentant
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sin. Throughout the week, we see Amos
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declaring that God literally hates their religious festivals
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and their worship music when justice and righteousness are
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absent. The recurring tragic crisis of
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Israel was never a lack of access to God's word.
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It was stubborn, stiff necked, rebellion, cloaked, incorrect
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religious ritual. Jesus is picking up that exact
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same prophetic mantle in Luke 6. Let us transition into the
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confrontation with modern idols and pragmatism that your sources
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detail. The authors argue that this
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ancient text specifically targets the modern idol of human
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autonomy. This is the oldest lie in the
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book, stretching all the way back to the Garden of Eden.
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It is the satanic lie that we can be our own gods, that we
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have the right to govern ourselves and determine good and
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evil on our own terms. The texts argue that this
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ingrained desire for autonomy is the root cause of the Lord.
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Lord contradiction. Today people desperately want
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the eternal benefits of association with Christ.
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They want heaven, peace and comfort without yielding their
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personal sovereignty to His absolute.
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Rule, The source material you provided points out that in our
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present cultural moment, this desire for autonomy manifests in
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highly specific, controversial ways.
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The authors point out professing Christians who embrace secular,
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unbiblical definitions of marriage, those who reject the
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complementary design of the home and the church, or those who
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align with secular division sewing ideologies like critical
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race theory. Now the office of these texts
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argue strongly that these are not secondary issues or casual
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political debates where Christians can agree to
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disagree. Their perspective is that these
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issues represent direct rebellions against the Creator's
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established design. We are imparting the viewpoint
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of the original authors here, looking at how they view these
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specific cultural touch points through the strict lens of
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Christ's absolute Lordship. They assert that you cannot bow
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the knee to the prevailing spirit of the age, adopting the
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ethical frameworks of a secular culture while truthfully calling
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Jesus your Lord. You cannot let the culture
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define morality Monday through Saturday and then show up on
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Sunday singing Lord Lord. The sources also level a massive
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critique against the pragmatic, seeker sensitive mega church
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movement. They argued that by treating
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Jesus as a cosmic therapist or divine life coach rather than
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the sovereign king of the universe, these church
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environments actually produce multitudes of false converts.
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Let me make sure I'm tracking what the authors are asserting
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here. They are saying that by
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intentionally omitting the hard offensive truths about the wrath
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of God, the absolute necessity of explicit repentance, and the
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harsh self denying demands of taking up a cross, these
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churches lower the bar of discipleship just to pack their
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auditoriums. They coddle the unregenerate
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person in their sin engineering. A brand of cultural Christianity
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that wears the name of Christ is a trendy accessory while
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completely rejecting his authority over their wallets,
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their entertainment choices, and their private ethics.
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That seeker sensitive approach leads directly to a massive
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theological error, which is the danger of a divided Christ.
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You cannot divide the offices of Christ.
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Reformed theology clearly outlines Christ acting in three
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distinct offices as our mediator.
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He is prophet, priest, and king. The seeker sensitive model and
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antinomianism in general, attempts to slice Jesus in half.
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They want to take Jesus as an atoning priest who sheds his
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blood to help them avoid the fires of hell, while entirely
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rejecting him as a ruling king who dictates how they must live
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their lives. But the gospel presented in
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Scripture never offers half a Savior.
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Saving faith receives the whole Christ.
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The Lord who graciously forgives sin is the self.
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Same Lord who sovereignly breaks the dominion of sin and the life
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of the believer. A faith that demands the saving
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benefits of Christ while actively, habitually rejecting
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His sovereign government is a theological and practical
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absurdity. You get all of him or you get
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none of him. So what does this all mean?
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If we are saying obedience is required, doesn't that directly
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contradict the idea of grace? How do the sources justify that
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without sounding like a legalistic trap for the listener
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who might be feeling the crushing weight of this text
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right now? If Jesus says we must do what
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goes up, he says, it is very easy to fall into the trap of
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thinking our daily obedience is the currency that earns our
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salvation. But the sources are crystal
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clear that this is absolutely not what Jesus is teaching, nor
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is it what the Reformed tradition has ever held.
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This is where we must bring in the brilliant, liberating
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clarity of the Westminster Confession of Faith,
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specifically Chapter 11 on justification.
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The divine who wrote that document in the 17th century
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were incredibly careful. We must distinguish what
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Scripture distinguishes without separating what Scripture joins.
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Specifically, we must distinguish between
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justification and sanctification.
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Justification is God's once for all legal declaration in the
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courtroom of heaven that we are righteous in His sight.
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This declaration is based solely and entirely on the imputed
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righteousness of Jesus Christ, and it is received by faith
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alone. We are not accepted by God
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because we obey. We obey because we are already
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fully accepted by God. Our obedience is never the
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meritorious ground of our standing before the Father.
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If it were, the gospel would be a business contract, and Christ
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would be reduced to a helper rather than a perfect sufficient
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substitute. However, Chapter 11 also clearly
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asserts that while saving faith rests upon Christ's
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righteousness alone, it is no dead faith but worketh by love.
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True faith is never alone. It is always accompanied by all
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other saving graces, including a pursuit of holiness.
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That distinction between justification and sanctification
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is incredibly helpful. It brings us to a massive
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question about the engine of obedience.
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If we are completely fallen dead in our trespasses and sins, as
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Paul says in Ephesians, how can we possibly obey the commands of
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Christ if a pastor just yells at his congregation to obey without
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giving them the spiritual means to do so?
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He is preaching damning, exhausting moralism.
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The text introduced the beautiful Reformed doctrine of
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union with Christ as the definitive answer.
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True obedience is not something we muster up in our flesh by
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trying harder. It is the undeniable, inevitable
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fruit of sovereign grace working within us.
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That is precisely it. When the Holy Spirit applies the
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finished work of Christ to the elect, He performs A radical
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supernatural heart surgery. We see this prophesied in
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Ezekiel 36. God removes the hard
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unresponsive heart of stone and gives a new pliable heart of
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flesh. The believer is legally and
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spiritually united to the living resurrected Christ.
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Think of Jesus's analogy in John 15 of the vine and the branches.
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Because the branches are united to the life giving vine, they
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inevitably bear fruit. The Armenian errors suggest that
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man somehow cooperates with God, his own fleshly strength, to
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maintain or secure his salvation.
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But Reformed theology insists that our ongoing sanctification
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is fueled entirely by our vital spiritual reunion with the Lord.
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The exact same grace that justifies the ungodly also
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progressively and inevitably sanctifies them.
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We obey because His Holy Spirit actually dwells within us,
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changing our desires and giving us both the will and the ability
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to submit to His Word. And understanding that union
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completely changes how we view the commands of God.
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The sources spend time explaining the reformers concept
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of the third use of the moral law.
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Let us break that down. Historically, the reformers
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talked about the law having different uses.
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For the unbeliever, the first use of the law acts as a
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terrifying mirror to expose sin and condemn them, driving them
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to see their need for a Savior. But for the justified Sinner,
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the person who is already hidden in Christ, the law no longer
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condemns. Instead, it takes on 1/3 use.
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It acts as a beloved guide. It shows us how to practically
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please the sovereign King who already saved us.
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The commands of Christ, which used to look like a terrifying,
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impossible burden to our flesh, now become the delightful, safe
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boundaries of true freedom. The third use of the law
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provides massive pastoral comfort.
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We do not discard the moral law as the antinomian suggest.
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We look at it through the warm lens of grace when we truly
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grasp the gospel indicative, the objective reality that we are
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fully known, totally loved, and completely justified by faith
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alone in Christ alone. The holy imperative to do what
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He says ceases to be a legalistic weight crushing our
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shoulders. It becomes our highest joy.
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We want to align our lives with His character because we love
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Him. As John writes in his first
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epistle, his commandments are not burdensome.
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They're The Walking stick for the weary traveler, not a whip
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for the slave. Let us shift into the heavy
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pastoral application of all this theology, because the text break
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this down masterfully by addressing 3 distinct audiences.
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First, there is a direct, unapologetic application for the
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nominal Christian, for the person who treats Christianity
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like a cultural Country Club, who has the theological
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vocabulary down perfectly but lives in hidden functional
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autonomy Monday through Saturday, this text is a severe,
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blaring alarm. False assurance is a cruel,
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deadly comfort. It lulls you to sleep on the
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very edge of eternal judgement. If you are sitting in a Pew
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calling Him Lord Lord, but flatly refusing to submit your
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private life to Him, your house will be completely ruined when
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the final storm hits. The urgent call here is to
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repent, abandoned yourself, righteous masks, and flee to
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Christ to beg Him for a new heart.
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This raises an important question regarding the second
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audience, which is the weary, struggling St.
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There are many sincere believers who battled daily within dulling
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sin, who feel a heavy sting of Luke 6, verse 46, and who might
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feel completely crushed by this demand for obedience.
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They suffer from scrupulosity, constantly wondering if their
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faith is real because they still fail.
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The texts offer immense, beautiful comfort here.
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Christ's terrifying words are aimed at settled, unbothered
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hypocrisy, not the daily, agonizing battle of the
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regenerate heart. There's a vast cosmic difference
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between a person who falls into sin and intensely hates it, and
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a person who lives in sin, enjoys it and defends it.
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If you grieve your sin, if you hunger and thirst for holiness,
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and if you continually return to Christ for fresh mercy, your
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obedience is real, even if it feels agonizingly slow and
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imperfect. You do not obey to become a
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child of God. You obey because you already are
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a child of God. When you fail, your new nature
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does not allow you to run away from His Lordship.
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It compels you to run directly to His mercy seat.
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The third application the sources highlight is for the
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Church as a corporate body. Specifically regarding church
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discipline and how we define modern discipleship, the sources
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call for a massive structural reform in our church culture.
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We cannot continue to measure pastoral success by crowd size,
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entertainment value, novelty, or emotional intensity while
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completely tolerating unrepentant lives in the pews.
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Meaningful church membership and biblical church discipline are
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not acts of cruelty or fair cycle witch hunts.
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They are profound acts of true biblical love.
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They treat human souls as eternal and view sin as deadly.
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A healthy church must be a place where objective obedience to the
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Word is the norm, where genuine repentance is honored, and where
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hidden hypocrisy is exposed and addressed gracefully but firmly.
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That corporate pastoral application naturally flows
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right into the administration of the sacraments, specifically the
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visible word, the Lord's Supper. The text highlight the solemn
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biblical duty of the minister to fence the table.
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The table is a means of grace for the penitent believer, but
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it is a place of severe physical judgement for the unrepentant
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hypocrite, As Paul outlines clearly in First Corinthians 11.
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If you are sitting in the Pew hiding an unrepentant sexual
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immorality, nursing bitter pride against her brother, or
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following worldly pragmatism while refusing to submit to
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Christ, clear commands, eating the bread and drinking the wine
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is eating and drinking judgement upon yourself.
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You are actively trampling the blood of the New Covenant.
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But for the weary, penitent St. who is crying out for the grace
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to obey, the table is a feast of immense hope.
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It physically reminds you that your standing depends entirely
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on the perfect, finished obedience and substitutionary
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death of Jesus Christ. As you feed on Him by faith, the
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Holy Spirit nourishes your soul, mortifying your sin and
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quickening your spirit to walk in grateful, joyful submission.
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As we bring this deep dive to a close, let us synthesize what we
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have covered. The overarching truth we pull
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from these dense sources is that true saving faith always erupts
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into a life of genuine affection for the Savior.
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We do not look to our own meager works to save us.
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We look entirely away from ourselves and fix our gaze
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securely on the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ, but
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precisely because we are united to Him by faith, our lives will
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inevitably begin to look like His.
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Our verbal confession of Lord Lord will be validated, proven
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and vindicated by the fruit of a submitted life.
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I want to leave you, the listener, with a final, slightly
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different thought to Mull over as you go about your week.
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We live in an age of digital avatars, deep fakes, and curated
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online personas. It has never been easier to
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project an image of pristine orthodoxy.
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We can post the right quotes, argue the best theology in a
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comment section, and construct a digital footprint that screams
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Lord, Lord to everyone watching. But artificial intelligence and
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algorithms cannot replicate the unseen subterranean work of the
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Holy Spirit. Consider what happens when the
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digital screens go dark, when the mass of storms of cultural
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pressure or sudden personal tragedy eventually hit your
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offline life. Will the structural integrity of
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your daily hidden off screen obedience be strong enough to
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weather the flood? Or will you find that you have
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spent your life building a magnificent digital house on the
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sand while your actual soul remains in rebellion to the
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King? That is a brilliant, terrifying,
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and necessary question to consider in our modern age.
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We want to thank you for joining us for this theological deep
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dive into the source material on reformed thinking.
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We encourage you to examine your own bedrock, to flee from the
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exhausting illusion of autonomy, and to rest in the glorious
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reality that the King who demands your obedience is the
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self same Savior who supplies the grace to fulfill it.
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Until next time, keep your gaze fixed on the Word.