One Day Every Knee Will Bow to Jesus | Have You Bowed Yours?
- Summary: The Bible clearly declares that at some point every knee will bow to Jesus and every tongue will proclaim His Lordship. Thankfully, multitudes will bow to Jesus and confess Him personally as Lord and Savior and thereby gain salvation and eternal life. Sadly, many others will reject Jesus and His Lordship in their lives and will at their death enter eternal damnation in the fires of hell.
In brief, the most crucially important question for you is this: will you bow to Jesus in faith and repentance now and gain eternal life? Or will you reject “Jesus Christ [who is] Lord” (Act 10:36) during your life and as a result be consigned to eternal hell fire decreed for all who deny Him? When you face Him as the Judge, you’ll then clearly see His Lordship over all things, but it will be too late for you. You’ll bow not in worship, but in terror and fear, as the Lord Jesus speaks these fateful and irreversible words: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire” (Matthew 25:41, KJV).
I made the choice to bow to Him and serve Him 54 years ago, and I have not regretted that decision one moment since. From the depth of my heart I call upon you who read this to consider what God’s Word says and to receive and confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. He will bless your life now. And after your time on earth you will experience His promise for all eternity that “In His presence is fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11, KJV).
Why Should I Bow My Knee to Jesus?
First and foremost, God Almighty in His Word (quoted just above) decrees that every knee is to bow to His exalted Son, Jesus Christ, and every tongue is to confess Him as Lord. Some might think: why does that matter to me personally? The Bible answer is simple. We are not here by accident. No, rather we are here because God created the world and all its inhabitants out of the goodness of and the desires of His heart — “For thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:11, KJV) [“by your will they were created” - NIV and some others]. This very moment, as you read this, you and I are alive on this earth entirely by the pleasure and will of God.
Most people alive today live each day oblivious to the reality that “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Psalm 24:1). No one on this earth is his or her own boss. To the contrary, as the apostle Paul wrote (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, Amplified Bible), “…You are not your own [property]. You were bought with a price [you were actually purchased with the precious blood of Jesus and made His own]. So then, honor and glorify God with your body.”
Because Jesus Came to Earth to Die on a Cross for Your Sins and Mine
We just read in God’s Word that all of us humans are bought with a price. That price was the agonizing death of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3). We are not our own property. We belong to God and to His Son Jesus, who paid the price for us. What was that price?
In the will of God, Jesus His Son came from heaven to earth to “seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10) and to save us from our sins (Matthew 1:21). Why was that necessary? Because God said that our sins and iniquities had separated us from Him and caused His face to be hidden from us (Isaiah 59:2). The only perfect remedy for our sins that God could accept was a perfect sacrifice — the blood of His Son Jesus shed on the cross for the sins of all mankind — “Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us” (1 Corinthians 5:7, NLT). Literally, in an agonizing death on a Roman cross, the Son of God paid the price to redeem all mankind from the damnation due to our sins — provided we honor Christ’s self-sacrifice by coming to God through Jesus Christ in “repentance toward God [for our sins] and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21, KJV).
Because Jesus Is “Lord of All,” Having Been Given All Authority in Heaven and Earth
In bowing our knee we acknowledge someone as superior to us. For example, over human history we find it common to see subjects bowing the knee to their kings and princes. Jesus is far, far above any earthly kings or princes. In fact, one of His glorious titles in the Bible is “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:16; see also 17:14).
After Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to His disciples, He said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” (Matthew 28:18). Having redeemed us from our sins by His death and resurrection, Jesus was granted all authority in the universe by God the Father.
The apostle Peter affirmed this in His stirring sermon on the Day of Pentecost — “God raised Jesus from the dead, and we are all witnesses of this. Now He is exalted to the place of highest honor in heaven, at God’s right hand… [36] “So let everyone in Israel know for certain that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, to be both Lord and Messiah!” (Acts 2:32-36, NLT). Peter later preached this truth to the Gentiles too, declaring: “Jesus Christ—He is Lord of all” (Acts 10:36, NKJV). There is nothing in heaven or earth that falls outside of the absolute lordship of the risen Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is fitting, and demanded by God, that we “bow the knee” to Jesus.
Because Jesus Is the Only Way to Salvation in the Eyes of God
Why bow to Jesus’ Lordship? Because He Himself in the Bible tells us, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). There are not “many roads to God,” as some falsely believe. There is only one way! And that way is to come to God in faith and repentance for sin through the one and only Savior, the crucified and resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.
Two thousand years ago the Christ-rejecting Jewish high priest and his fellow religious leaders of Judaism brought the apostles Peter and John before them to persecute them for preaching salvation in Jesus Christ. Not fearful of them, Peter boldly spoke “the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 4:8) and declared, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (vs. 12). Jesus, and Jesus only, is the Provider of salvation to those who will “bow the knee” and come to Him in faith and repentance.
Because Jesus Is the Only Mediator Between Man and God
But isn’t there some other way to salvation? Perhaps good works? Or just living a basically good life? NO! The apostle Paul aptly wrote that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). And as God in the Bible says, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God” (Isaiah 59:2). No one is exempt; all have sinned; all have been separated by sin from God.
So God Himself provided a worthy, perfect Mediator, Jesus Christ, to reconcile sinful mankind back to the perfect, holy God Almighty. Being perfect Himself, Jesus was and is the only qualified "Go-Between" (Mediator) to reconcile us back to God. So the Son of God came from heaven, was born of a virgin into humanity (Matthew 1:23), grew up and ministered truth to the world, then died a horrible death on the cross. By doing this, Jesus took on Himself the punishment due to all of us for our sins. And only He could do this, since only He could be the perfect “Passover Lamb” (1 Corin. 5:7) sacrificed on our behalf.
By His willingly offering Himself as the sacrifice for our sins, Jesus became the one and only perfect, sinless Mediator to bring us to God. The apostle Paul greatly praised Jesus for His doing this: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). He is 100% worthy of us bowing the knee to Him for His magnificent redemption of us from eternal damnation in hell to a wonderful eternity with Him and God the Father after our lives on earth.
Because at His Second Coming Jesus Will “In Flaming Fire Take Vengeance” on Those Who Have Rejected Him
There are eternal consequences to what each of us decides to do about Jesus Christ. We can bow the knee to Him now, in this life, and serve Him as Lord and Savior, and thereby gain eternal life with God after this life on earth. Or we can reject Jesus in our time on earth and face His eternal wrath in the punishment of hell fire.
The biblically prophesied (and certain!) Second Coming of Jesus Christ to earth makes the consequences of our decision abundantly clear. The apostle Paul describes that remarkable day of Christ’s return in 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10, KJV — “It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; [7] And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, [8] in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: [9] Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; [10] When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe.
There are only two eternal groupings: (1) the redeemed, the Lord’s faithful, spend an indescribable glorious eternity with Him; (2) those who have rejected the Lord spend an eternity of damnation in fiery punishment.
Will You Choose to Bow the Knee to Jesus Now in Your Time on Earth, Or Reject Him and Suffer Eternal Damnation in Hell?
God the Father loves the world and its people. In fact, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16, KJV). Think of the greatness of the love of God the Father for fallen sinners. It was so great that He sent His very best from heaven, Jesus Christ, to die in horrible agony on our behalf and take upon Himself the punishment due to our sins.
God’s appeal to you is simple and is well stated by the apostle Paul in Acts 20:21 — “that [we] must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.” What a wonderful offer: we repent for our sins and believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and we are born again as sons and daughters of God and reap the blessings of eternal life with the Lord after our years on this earth.
Bow the knee today to the wonderful Son of God Jesus, who died for your sins and rose again and awaits you in heaven, if only you will choose to repent and turn to Him in sincere faith. Don’t wait another minute. Eternal life in glory lies ahead. Make that choice and bow the knee to Jesus. If God has put that into your heart today, I encourage you to allow the late evangelist Billy Graham’s webpage helpfully guide you in a prayer to come to the Lord and receive His salvation and eternal life! You’ll find that help here. And then…welcome to the family of God and the blessed and certain prospect of eternal life!
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