The world is full of idols. Someone once said, the heart of man is an idol-making machine. We will put absolutely anything on a pedestal and worship it. It can be important things, like family, or career, or philanthropy. But it can be foolish things too, like sports, or entertainment, or celebrities. We buy tickets to see these idols, we put up posters of these idols, and we even tell other people about our idols in the hopes that they might join us in our idol worship. Sound harsh?
God says in the Bible to have no other gods before him, and to not make idols and worship them. That does not just mean to carve an image out of wood or stone and bow down to it. It means to treasure something and commit your heart to something above God. The first commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. No one can say they have done that. We place so many things above God, and even worse, we actively rebel and disobey God by worshipping and serving those things. We have sinned against a holy God, and we have no excuse. The heart, mind, soul, and strength that he has given us has been squandered on lives lived for self.
Our idols are our lords. We obey them, we serve them, we worship them, and we tailor our lives to suit them. Idol worship is a heinous sin, and God rightly sentences all sinners to judgment apart from him for all eternity (forever). If you don’t want God in life, then you won’t have him in the afterlife either. The only other place for souls is hell and the lake of fire. We need to be saved.
The verse above is telling us to do something to be saved. It doesn’t say to replace your bad idols for good idols; to abandon partying and drugs for a life of pious religion. Religion is as much of an idol, because it is putting your trust in a set of rules to follow. That can never save anyone. “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight…” (Romans 3:20). The verse above is not telling us to achieve, but to submit. It says to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, meaning, make Jesus your Lord. When we are born, we do not declare him Lord. As we live, we call so many other things Lord. But to be saved, you need to believe that he is Lord.
Why is he deserving of the title Lord? Firstly, he never had a beginning, and he will never have an end (Revelation 1:8). Secondly, he never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). Thirdly, he died on a cross to bear God’s punishment on behalf of all sinners (1 Corinthians 15:3). Lastly, he rose again from the dead, proving his power over death itself (Revelation 1:18). That is why the verse above, after telling us to declare Jesus as Lord, goes on to say that we must believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead. He is the only one worthy of our worship. He is Lord of all (Acts 10:36). Is he your Lord today? Make him your Lord, and he will be your Saviour.