What does it mean to say Jesus is Lord? Let’s talk about it on Deeper Waters.
When we read Romans 10, we read about how we are to say “Jesus is Lord.” This is often thought to be a baptismal statement in that the person would say it as they were being baptized. The reality is that no Jew or Greek would say this unless they were ready to accept the consequences.
If you were a Jew, to say Jesus is Lord was a way of putting Jesus in the divine identity and saying that He is in some sense, YHWH. A Jew would know that if this was not true, it would certainly constitute blasphemy and God was not too pleased with blasphemers.
A Greek on the other hand would know that this was about Caesar. To say Jesus is Lord was to say that Caesar was not. That would put you on the outs with the Roman Empire and in the league of who, another one who was a threat? No. In this case, it would have you be siding with a crucified criminal and saying “That’s who I choose to follow instead of you Caesar!”
Caesar would not be pleased.
Today, we have really lost sight of the Lordship of Christ. We have often reduced Jesus to a buddy or good friend and someone we might go and have a drink with or something, but too often when we do that, we fail to treat Him as the sovereign Lord of the universe.
I was discussing this last night in a Facebook group with the concept of people saying “Jesus is my boyfriend.” As I pointed out, the reason you have a boyfriend should be (And this implies you’re a girl of course) is because you want to see if he’s marriage material. If you plan to marry him, then that means that eventually one day you’ll be sleeping with him.
Sorry, but you are not going to be sleeping with Jesus.
Now I was told many girls who say this are just saying “I’m not interested in dating. I just want to focus on Christ for now.”
That’s fine.
But why not say just that?
The first Christians did say Jesus is Lord after all. Why can’t we? (By the way, for those concerned, I have no interest in a debate on Lordship salvation, though I do think all Christians should say Jesus is Lord.)
The Lordship of Christ means that Jesus is our king and it doesn’t just mean He will be king in the future, although His rule will be much more manifest. It means that He is king right now and He is king because God vindicated His claims by raising Him from the dead.
What would it mean for you if you started living knowing you are living in a world where Christ is King right now?
“What?! Are you serious?! Have you seen what is going on in our world right now?! How can you possibly say Christ is king?!”
Because Scripture says it. In Psalm 110 we read
“The Lord says to my lord:
“Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.”
The right hand is the place of rule and Christ will rule regardless of having enemies right now. As He walked this Earth, He proclaimed the Kingdom of God was present and this was while demonic activity was around, His enemies were plotting against Him, and He got Himself crucified. In all of that, He was still saying the Kingdom of God was there.
As we go out in the world today, we are ambassadors of the King and we are to live that way. We are to treat Jesus even more seriously than we would treat any earthly ruler today. (Considering some of our earthly rulers, for many of us that’s not saying much sadly.) Jesus is the divine sovereign of the universe and when we treat Him like that instead of like a buddy buddy type, then we’ll start seeing more of His reality in our lives.
In Christ,
Nick Peters