Lord of all, or not Lord at all?

"On another Sunday by the sea 24 years before, Hudson Taylor had committed his life to God for the evangelization of inland China. Now he reflected on the words of Jesus recorded in Mark 16: 15, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature". Until that day in Hastings he has never asked himself the question: "What did our Lord really mean by to every creature?" He'd worked for years carrying the gospel far and wide; he'd developed strategies for reaching inland provinces - but he'd never realized the plain meaning of Christ's words.

"How are we going to treat the Lord Jesus with reference to this command?" he wrote that Sunday. "Shall we definitely drop the title 'Lord' as applied to Him, and take the ground that we are quite willing to recognize Him as our Saviour, so far as the penalty of our sin is concerned, but are not prepared to own ourselves 'bought with a price' or Him as having any claim on our unquestioning obedience? Shall we say that we are our own masters, willing to yield something as His due, who bought us with His blood, provided He does not ask too much? Our lives, our loved ones, our possessions are our own, not His: we will give Him what we think fit, and obey any of His requirements that do not demand too great a sacrifice? To be taken to heaen by Jesus Christ we are more than willing, but we will not have this Man to reign over us.

"The heart of every Christian will undoubtedly reject the proposition, so forumlated; but have not countless lives in each generation been lived as though it were proper ground to take? How few of the Lord's people have practically recognized the truth that Christ is either Lord of all, or is not Lord at all! If we can judge God's Word, instead of being judged by that Word; if we can give to God as much or as little as we like, then we are lords and He is the indebted one, to be grateful for our dole and obliged by our compliance with His wishes. If, on the other hand, He is Lord, let us treat Him as such."

J. Hudson Taylor: A Man in Christ - Roger Steer
pp.315-316