Lordship of Christ is not about redeeming culture or bringing culture under the authority of Christ, but it is about serving Christ in that sector of society. This means conducting oneself as if what they do, they do for Christ for He is the true sovereign (I Cor 10:31). This means the Christian will most often look considerably different from non-Christians in any sphere of society.

It is common to hear evangelicals speak of the Lordship of Christ which seems quite orthodox. In fact, it is a biblical concept. Christ is called Lord and in Ephesians Paul uses the term to speak of the unity of  those in the Christian Faith: “There is one body, and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all…” (4:4-6). Again, “no one can say Jesus is Lord exempt in the Holy Spirit” (I Cor 12:3) which means Christ is only Lord of those who have the Holy Spirit. Francis A. Schaeffer noted that all his books had a unifying theme, the Lordship of Christ which was connected to true spirituality. I think there is little misunderstanding about what it means for Christ to be Lord of my life, namely it is not me, but Christ who is sovereign over me. In Paul’s words, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). The idea of Christ as Lord is a relationship between individual believer and Christ in a living relationship. Believers are part of his Body, the Church, He is their life. Evangelical Christians often speak of the Lordship of Christ in relationship to what they call engaging culture. In this regard, many evangelicals often quote from Abraham Kuyper’s inauguration speech on October 20, 1880, at the Free University of Amsterdam. The title of the speech was “Sphere Sovereignty” stating that society is made up of different spheres of human existence. The quote that is isolated from that speech is: “there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all does not cry: ‘Mine!’” Here Christ’s sovereignty is over all the different spheres of human existence such as education, government, media and so forth. There seems to be two ways in which evangelicals use this phrase when speaking of cultural engagement.\

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