The Lordship of Christ Over Every Square Inch

Or, Sphere Sovereignty, Ordered Loves, and the Nature of Reality

This (almost puritanically long) title was given to me for a talk at a conference, which I am glad to take a swing at. By my count there are at least five parts in the title that demand our attention, and, if we do it right, our affections. The five parts are like five piñatas bursting with some kind of smoked meat; it'll be hard not to hit something tasty and full of protein for our faith.

So the goal for what I'm about to say is to show how comprehensive our confession of faith is, and to give us confidence in that confession.

Second Introduction

It will take us two weeks to knock the piñatas down, and before the main course meat, I do want to give us a sort of shish kebab appetizer.

Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. Masters, treat your bondservants justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven. (Colossians 3:22–4:1 ESV)

A few observations. The theology we’re talking about—about the Lordship of Christ—affects how we see reality, and it is practical for our most mundane, and potentially frustrating, work on earth.

the Lord is always attentive, not only when others aren’t watching, but even when others can’t see our hearts, and this is not a threat, it is good.
the Lord has given, and upholds, different assignments in our relationships (and consider the entire paragraph, 3:18-4:1), and this is not a punishment, it is good.
everyone answers to the Lord, servant and master, which means we can always please Him whether or not the other human is pleased, and this is not a burden, it is good.
the motivation for our work transcends what we can see immediately in front of us, and this is not a hindrance, it is good.

One relationship is determinative above all, our relationship to the Lord Christ. He cares directly. This is given as encouragement. Paul’s point wouldn’t be as relevant if everything was going great. Knowing that Jesus is Lord means we can deal with directions from (lawful) authorities that we think are dumb, and not feel the need to be dismissive or discouraged. The repetition/reminders that Christ is Lord would almost be obnoxious, except we need this kind of reminding. This is truth that does good work for slaves, and by application for everyone else.

The Lordship of Christ

These are fighting words.

Jesus is Lord. It is the most basic confession of the Christian life. "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). In context, in first-century Rome, this claim was a political heresy. Jesus rules over Caesar. The promise of salvation for our sins and eternal life in Jesus is good news, and it's also good news that Jesus is the Lord of lords.

A few decades ago, in our 20th/21st century context, the statement that "Jesus is Lord" was a controversial statement among Christians. John MacArthur was at the forefront of the Lordship Controversy, "unleashing one verse at a time" to show that Jesus rules over our individual lives (The Gospel According to Jesus came out in 1988). It is as obvious as the Great Commission; Jesus has all authority in heaven and earth, and to be His disciple requires learning "to keep/obey everything He's commanded" (Matthew 28:18, 20).

Friends, it is not fantastic that in the church we've had so many pastors and theologians arguing against Jesus' lordship as if somehow this ruins grace. That's affected two things. First, it's tended to narrow the definition of grace to mean a covering for sin alone instead of a covering and a catalyst for obedience. Second, it's tended to imply that Christ only cares about a narrow portion of our hearts.

But since Jesus is Lord, there are no neutral spaces, in our hearts, or homes, or anywhere under heaven, which is, you know, a big area. It's actually been a lot of effort to get Christians to stop acting like there are religious and other compartments in their personal lives, and so it shouldn't surprise us that there are Christians acting like there are a bunch of public parts in culture where Christ doesn't matter. Some of us have even convinced ourselves that there are areas of public life where Christ doesn't belong.

Do we really need Jesus to do math or practice medicine? (If the state is Lord, then 2+2=5 might be the new math.) The price of oil is the same for Christians and Muslims and atheists, right? Aren't science and faith as un-mixable as oil and water? Doesn't religious liberty mean that we should be left alone to talk about Jesus when we want, but not that we should want to talk about Jesus when it comes to defining religious liberty in the first place?

This was what I thought as a young Christian and as a young pastor. I got through seasons at three Bible colleges and graduated from the Master's Seminary still thinking that the lordship of Christ was relevant for my soul/the souls of men and irrelevant, maybe even unhelpful, almost everywhere else.

Over Every Square Inch

Little did I know how much this quote/phrase would cause me so many and better problems.

Who knows how many times you've heard it. I remember first hearing "every square inch" late in 2004 in a message that John Piper gave about “Sex and the Supremacy of Christ.” I used the quote myself in a sermon about Solus Christus a few months later. It’s a quote from the Dutch pastor/politician, Abraham Kuyper. It's quite a quote, and there is a solar system worth of suns that shine from it.

"There is not one square inch in the entire domain of human existence, over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry, 'Mine!'" (488)

That is good; that'll preach. It's also just the second half of the original sentence, and also, it's not a great translation. The sentence begins:

"Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not one square inch..."

Hermetic means airtight or watertight, so all our thoughts can't help but touch all our other thoughts (there are no disconnected or isolated thoughts, let alone neutral ideas).

George Camp was the first to translate this from Dutch into English, and it was picked up and repeated by some mid-20th century theologians, but it is a disservice. I happened upon the better translation in 2011 in a footnote in the introduction to a book by Kuyper about worship. I can't stop thinking about it.

Our "one square inch" is the Dutch phrase een duimbreed (pronounced: "uhn-DOYM-brayt"). In God’s providence we have a lady who was born in Holland and raised speaking Dutch, and she and her sister were having dinner at our house the week I first read the footnote. Trying to not give anything away, I asked them to tell me what een duimbreed means. Before using any words, one of the sisters held up the thumb on one hand, and with her other hand pointed back and forth, from one side of the thumb to the other. I said, "so, a thumb's-width?" She said, yes, exactly.

There is not one thumb's-width in the cosmos that is not claimed by Christ.

A little further investigation has revealed that een duimbreed is often part of a Dutch idiom that is similar to our phrase, "wouldn't give/budge an inch." It's not just a measurement, it's militant, it's fighting words. The entire field is Christ’s, and He doesn’t yield any part.

"Square inch" is fine, but as the kids say, meh. An inch doesn't exist, it's a way to measure things that exist. A thumb exists. It's meat and blood and bones.

You have never picked up anything that Christ doesn’t own, or thumb-texted anything that Christ does not govern. Trump has never given a rogue thumb's up. Presumably Jesus never hit His thumb with a hammer even as an apprentice carpenter to Joseph, but our Lord Himself has thumbs. He knows and claims every thumb and thumb's-width in creation.

(For more verses that establish this, just without the use of the word “thumb,” think John 1:3, Colossians 1:15-17, Romans 11:36, Hebrews 1:3, Psalm 24:1).

I am emphasizing this because the sovereignty of God is easy to keep in two dimensions. The category is up in the clouds with Plato's perfect ideals, and less in a handful of Aristotle's dirt. I did not grow up a Calvinist, but when I did ask Calvin into my heart (that’s just a fun way to say it, not a soteriological confession), I was still a dualist. I have preached Kuyper's quote to honor Christ's lordship without actually honoring the fullness of Christ's lordship. No more!

The truth of this is exhilarating. It is as exhausting as it is exhaustive. It means that what you do with your thumbs matters, not just when you're flipping pages in your Bible.

Conclusion

Do you happen to know the context of when Kuyper said this? More about this next time.

But these truths are gifts to increase our thankfulness. “You are serving the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:24).

Charge

What we believe fuels how we behave; ideas...