11th August 2023

The Lordship of Jesus

…‘Jesus is Lord’…
Romans 10:9 (NIVUK)

In the ancient world the title ‘Lord’ could be used in a variety of ways: to a subordinate, it could mean ‘sir’; on the lips of a slave, it could mean ‘master’; and to a group of students, it might mean ‘teacher’. But there is a deeper theological meaning at play in both the Old and New Testament scriptures.

In Luke’s birth narrative of Jesus, the title, ‘Lord’, is used of God himself (Luke 2:9, 15, 22-24, 26, 29, 39), and so when the angel announces, ‘Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord’ (v.11), the context must convey some connotation of divine lordship. 

For the Apostle Paul, the term ‘Lord’ is a favourite name for Jesus, occurring over 200 times in his writings. Now, the significance of this is that ‘Lord’ (Greek: kyrios) was the name given to God in the common speech of the Greek-speaking Jews. It occurs over 6,000 times in the Greek version of the Old Testament: the Septuagint, and in the Greek-speaking synagogues it would be used for the sacred name YHVH when reading the scriptures out loud. ¹

Time and time again Paul took the word ‘Lord’ from the Old Testament scriptures referring to YHWH as Lord and applied it directly to Jesus as Lord. One example of this is, ‘…everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved…’ (Joel 2:32), which Paul uses in our passage in Romans, “…if you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’… you will be saved…for, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ ” (Romans 10: 9, 13).

In view of this, it’s not surprising to find Paul stating that what God alone has, Christ has: the kingdom of God, is the kingdom of Christ (Ephesians 5:5); the Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9); the gospel of God is the good news of his Son (Romans 1:1-7). 

It is hard to conceive of a clearer means by which Paul could indicate that he was aligning Jesus with the Lord of the Old Testament. For Paul, ‘Lord’ is the incomparable name of Jesus. It reveals at once his place in the Godhead and the divine plan of salvation. The confession that Jesus is Lord meant the acknowledgement that Jesus shares the name, the nature, the holiness. the authority, the power, the majesty, and the eternity, of the one and only true God.

What does all this mean for us today? Simply that the lordship of Jesus is not to be a mere academic exercise, it must be real in our lives. That means our Christian life must be one of total surrender to his lordship. That includes everything – nothing omitted. We must let Him into every part of our lives: our leisure and hobbies, our finances, our families and other relationships, business practises, schools, and colleges, even in how we deal with the queue in Tesco’s or slow learner driver in front of us. 

The same is true corporately as a church. Jesus must be Lord over every aspect of our congregational life: our preaching, our praise and worship, our prayers and testimonies, our stewardship of the gifts and resources God has given us,  and how we deal with others. May we as individual Christians and church communities be equipped by the Holy Spirit to make and live the great confession: ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’. 

Prayer
Loving Father, we ask your forgiveness for the times we have denied Jesus’s lordship in some way. May we surrender all to him, and live with Jesus as Lord over every aspect of our lives. In Jesus’s name, we pray, Amen.

Study by Barry Robinson

¹  Archeology of the Greek language at the Time of Christ (bible.ca)

About the writer:
Barry Robinson is a minister in Grace Communion International and Regional Pastor for Southern England.

Local congregation:
Grace Communion International Camberwell
The Salvation Army Hall
105 Lomond Grove
Camberwell
London SE5 7HN

Local congregational contact:
Barry Robinson
Email: camberwell@gracecom.church 

Word of Life contact:
wordoflife@gracecom.church