Who is Lord?

This idea that we have to serve somebody works itself out in so many ways. In my context, the go-to question of youth ministers, when they heard about the consequences of someone's bad decisions, was to ask, "Ok, so, how's THAT working out for ya?"

Again and again, teenagers will seek to become responsible for themselves, making their own decisions. And their efforts to become mature, capable adults will include some mistakes. As they begin to rule their lives, some of these decisions will inevitably reflect incompetence, poor character, or both.

But none of us - whether we're a teenager or an adult - want to hear that we are doing a terrible job running our own lives. So youth ministers ask questions to get students to think about this from the inside out.

Now, I know that anyone taking this course is an exceptional person. You and I know how to handle our lives. We're mature, committed Christians, unusually dedicated to knowing God, loving God, and living for God. Who signs up for a course called First Love if they aren't the real deal?

So we have a problem. How can amazingly responsible, God-fearing Christians like you and me, find new insight in considering that Jesus is Lord?

There's a story of a person a lot like us in the Bible. He was born about the same time as Jesus. He was raised in a Jewish family, in an influential city, and was well-educated. Thanks to his strong devotion to God, incredible work ethic, and brilliant mind, he became a respected religious leader.

But in the most important sense, Saul of Tarsus was a blind man. And to communicate this spiritual truth to him, Jesus personally blinded him for three days. It was not until Saul surrendered his life to God that he gained back not only his physical sight but his capacity to know God and to understand spiritual truth.

Before knowing God, Saul had everything an intelligent religious person could want. But his life was in chaos. It was constricted by adherence to laws that he could not keep. His attachment to his ethnic identity and the depth of his religious commitment led to self-deception. Luke tells us that Paul, after approving of the stoning of Stephen, "was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison." Or, as Paul confesses in Galatians, "For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it…"

Paul's life was in chaos. Rage consumed his life. He was defying God. Because he didn't know God, he was enslaved to sin.

As Paul himself argues in Romans 6, "Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness."

As Anders Nygren explains, "There is a difference as wide as the heavens between the two forms of bond service spoken of. The service of sin is an actual bondage and the service of righteousness and of God is an actual freedom."

There are no alternatives: you gotta serve somebody. So we need to understand who we are serving. Who is in charge of our lives? How could we know if God is actually in charge? What would it mean for God to be the Lord of our lives? Who is this Lord?

Study the life of Paul in greater detail. Here are some passages to get you started: Acts 7:58-8:3, Acts 9:1-31, Acts 22:1-21, Acts 26:1-23, Galatians 1:11-24, Philippians 3:1-11. Then, write a short essay summarizing your findings and insights from studying his life. Answer this question: What difference did knowing Jesus as Lord make in Paul's life?