“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
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BELIEVE THAT JESUS IS LORD? WHAT IS THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS?
THE APOSTLE PETER, IN HIS FIRST SERMON RECORDED IN ACTS, STATES, “GOD HAS MADE THIS JESUS WHOM YOU CRUCIFIED BOTH LORD AND MESSIAH.” Acts 2:26
JESUS’ LORDSHIP IS SOMETHING THAT WAS GIVEN TO HIM BY GOD. AS A CHRISTIAN YOU MIGHT ASK – BUT JESUS IS GOD, SO HOW DOES GOD MAKE GOD LORD? JESUS ASKED THE LAWYERS OF HIS DAY, THE PHARISEES, THE SAME QUESTION IN A DIFFERENT WAY.
“WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE MESSIAH? WHOSE SON IS HE?” THEY SAID, “THE SON OF DAVID.” HE SAID TO THEM, “HOW THEN DOES DAVID BY THE SPIRIT CALL HIM ‘LORD,’ SAYING, ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES UNDER YOUR FEET’? IF DAVID THEN CALLS HIM ‘LORD,’ HOW CAN HE BE HIS SON?” Matthew 22:42-45
CHRISTIANS FIND IT DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND THE TRUE HUMANITY OF THE MESSIAH, AND JEWS FIND IT DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND THE TRUE DEITY OF THE MESSIAH. THE ANSWER TO THIS MYSTERY IS FOUND IN UNDERSTANDING THE RADICAL NATURE OF THE INCARNATION OF GOD.
THE APOSTLE JOHN STATES THAT THE WORD, OR LOGOS, BECAME FLESH. John 1:14 IT DOES NOT SAY THAT JESUS BECAME FLESH, BUT THAT THE WORD BECAME FLESH. WHAT IS THE WORD OF GOD? ONE’S WORD IS THE EXPRESSION OF HIS OR HER BEING. JOHN GOES ON TO SAY, “WE BEHELD HIS GLORY, GLORY AS OF THE ONLY BEGOTTEN FROM THE FATHER, FULL OF GRACE AND TRUTH.” HUMAN SONSHIP IS AN IMAGE OF THE ETERNAL SONSHIP FOUND IN THE BEING OF GOD.
I RECENTLY COMMUNICATED ON FACEBOOK WITH AN ISRAELI JEW. HE, AS MANY JEWS, BELIEVE THAT CHRISTIANS WORSHIP THREE GODS. PERHAPS MAN MADE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES DO ENCOURAGE SUCH IMPRESSIONS. “THREE PERSONS” OF THE GODHEAD IS AN EXPRESSION THAT CAN MISLEAD. AS HUMANS, WE ARE BODY, SOUL AND SPIRIT. WOULD YOU THEN SAY THAT WE ARE THREE PERSONS? I ASKED THE JEWISH MAN IF HE BELIEVED THAT HE WAS MORE THAN A BODY, WHICH HE DID. I THEN SAID, IF WE AS HUMANS HAVE A COMPLEX BEING, DARE WE SAY THAT OUR CREATOR HAS A LESS COMPLEX BEING THAN OURS?
THE WORD BECAME FLESH, AND AS THE ANGEL GABRIEL SAID TO MARY, “THE HOLY CHILD SHALL BE CALLED THE SON OF GOD.” THE ETERNAL WORD OR EXPRESSION OF GOD’S BEING, THE ESSENCE OF SONSHIP, THE ONE WHO WAS WITH HIM FROM ALL ETERNITY, OF GOD’S VERY BEING, WAS GIVIN TO THE HUMAN RACE FOR ALL TIME AND ETERNITY.
PROVERBS 8 IS A WONDERFUL PROPHETIC PASSAGE SHEDDING LIGHT ON THE MYSTERIES OF GOD’S BEING BEFORE CREATION. VERSE 22 – “THE LORD POSSESSED, (NOT CREATED), ME AT THE BEGINNING OF HIS WAY, BEFORE HIS WORKS OF OLD. FROM EVERLASTING I WAS ESTABLISHED.” THE CHAPTER GOES ON TO SPEAK OF GOD’S CREATIVE PROCESS CONCLUDING WITH, “THEN I WAS DAILY HIS DELIGHT, REJOICING ALWAYS BEFORE HIM, REJOICING IN THE WORLD, HIS EARTH, AND HAVING MY DELIGHT IN THE SONS OF MEN.”
NOW LET US LISTEN TO THE APOSTLE JOHN’S WORDS. “IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD, AND THE WORD WAS WITH GOD, AND THE WORD WAS FULLY GOD. THE WORD WAS WITH GOD IN THE BEGINNING. ALL THINGS WERE CREATED THROUGH HIM, AND APART FROM HIM NOT ONE THING WAS CREATED THAT HAS BEEN CREATED. IN HIM WAS LIFE, AND THE LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MANKIND.” John 1:1-4 THE WORD BECAME FLESH. THE ONE THROUGH WHOM EVERYTHING WAS CREATED BECAME WHAT HE HAD CAUSED TO BECOME!
THE INCARNATION SHOULD NOT OFFEND US BECAUSE WE ARE TOLD IN GENESIS THAT WHEN GOD DESIGNED ADAM, HE WAS DESIGNING HIMSELF. ADAM WAS JUST THE OUTLINE. JESUS IS THE FULL IMAGE.
UNDERSTANDING THE INCARNATION, THE BEING OF JESUS, IS THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE WRITTEN WORD OF GOD. ONLY THE LIVING WORD CAN EXPLAIN THE WRITTEN WORD. “FOR THE TESTIMONY ABOUT JESUS IS THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY.” Revelation 19:10
OUR ANCIENT ENEMY, A FALLEN ANGEL, DOES NOT WANT US TO SEE JESUS. BECAUSE WHEN WE SEE JESUS WE ARE SEEING WHAT MAN REALLY IS. WE ARE SEEING WHAT WE ARE MEANT TO BE IN HIM. SATAN WANTED THE PLACE THAT GOD HAS GIVEN HUMANITY. BUT GOD DID NOT CREATE ANGELS IN HIS OWN IMAGE, NOR HAS HE PUT THE WORLD TO COME UNDER THE CONTROL OF ANGELS. Hebrews 2:5
IN JESUS, GOD FINALLY HAD A MAN WHO REALIZED ALL THAT GOD WAS SEEKING WHEN HE MADE ADAM. AT JESUS’ BAPTISM AND TRANSFIGURATION, GOD TESTIFIED THAT THIS WAS HIS BELOVED SON IN WHOM HE WAS WELL PLEASED.
THE WRITER OF HEBREWS SUMMARIZES THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS SO COMPLETELY – FOR HE DID NOT PUT THE WORLD TO COME UNDER THE CONTROL OF ANGELS. INSTEAD, AS PSALM 8 STATES, “WHAT IS MAN THAT YOU THINK OF HIM OR THE SON OF MAN THAT YOU CARE FOR HIM? YOU MADE HIM LOWER THAN THE ANGELS FOR A LITTLE WHILE. YOU CROWNED HIM WITH GLORY AND HONOR. YOU PUT ALL THINGS UNDER HIS CONTROL.” WE DO NOT YET SEE ALL THING UNDER HIS CONTROL, BUT WE SEE JESUS, WHO WAS MADE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS FOR A LITTLE WHILE, NOW CROWNED WITH GLORY AND HONOR BECAUSE HE SUFFERED DEATH, SO THAT BY GOD’S GRACE HE WOULD EXPERIENCE DEATH ON BEHALF OF EVERYONE. Hebrews 2:5-9 NOTICE HOW MAN IS DEFINED THROUGH JESUS. HE IS ONE OF US AND WHAT HE IS AND HAS REALIZED BELONGS TO US, NOT TO ANGELS BUT TO HUMANITY.
WHEN THE APOSTLE PAUL VISITED ATHENS GREECE, WHERE ALL KINDS OF GODS WERE WORSHIPED, HE TOLD THEM THAT THE “UNKNOWN GOD” THAT THEY ALSO WORSHIPED IS THE ONE WHO MADE THE WORLD AND EVERYTHING IN IT, WHO IS LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH AND GIVES LIFE AND BREATH AND EVERYTHING TO EVERYONE, THAT HE IS NOT FAR FROM EACH ONE OF US, FOR IN HIM WE LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING. PAUL EVEN QUOTED ONE OF THEIR POETS WHO SAID, “FOR WE TOO ARE HIS OFFSPRING.” PAUL GOES ON TO SAY THAT SINCE WE ARE GOD’S OFFSPRING, WE SHOULD NOT BELITTLE OURSELVES BY WORSHIPING THINGS THAT ARE BENEATH US. HE THEN TELLS THEM, “ALTHOUGH GOD HAS OVERLOOKED SUCH TIMES OF IGNORANCE, HE NOW COMMANDS ALL PEOPLE EVERYWHERE TO REPENT, BECAUSE HE HAS SET A DAY ON WHICH HE IS GOING TO JUDGE THE WORLD IN RIGHTEOUSNESS, BY A MAN WHOM HE DESIGNATED, HAVING PROVIDED PROOF TO EVERYONE BY RAISING HIM FROM THE DEAD.” Acts 17 GOD’S SON, THE SON OF MAN, IS NOW THE CRITERION OF HUMANITY.
GOD HAS MADE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN HUMAN SON BOTH LORD AND MESSIAH. JESUS HAS REALIZED GOD’S ETERNAL CALLING AND DESTINY FOR THE HUMAN RACE. OUR SIN NO LONGER HAS THE POWER TO BAR US FROM GOD’S PRESENCE BECAUSE JESUS OPENED FOR US THE HOLY OF HOLIES, BY CONQUERING BOTH SIN AND DEATH.
“THEREFORE, BROTHERS AND SISTERS, SINCE WE HAVE CONFIDENCE TO ENTER THE HOLY PLACE BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS, BY A NEW AND LIVING WAY WHICH HE INAUGURATED FOR US THROUGH THE VEIL, THAT IS HIS FLESH, AND SINCE WE HAVE A GREAT PRIEST OVER THE HOUSE OF GOD, LET US DRAW NEAR WITH A SINCERE HEART IN FULL ASSURANCE OF FAITH, HAVING OUR HEARTS SPRINKLED CLEAN FROM AN EVIL CONSCIENCE AND OUR BODIES WASHED WITH PURE WATER.” Hebrews 10:19-22
BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART THAT GOD HAS RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD. PROVERBS 4:23 WARNS US TO GUARD OUR HEART WITH ALL DILIGENCE FOR FROM IT FLOW THE SPRINGS OF LIFE. OUR PHYSICAL HEART DISTRIBUTES OUR LIFE BLOOD. OUR SPIRITUAL HEART IS THE SOUL OF OUR BEING. GOD SENT HIS MESSIAH NOT JUST TO SAVE US FROM THE ROMANS, AS THE JEWS HAD HOPED, OR TO SAVE US TODAY FROM ISIS OR ANY NATION SEEKING OUR DESTRUCTION. GOD WANTS TO SAVE OUR SOULS FOR ALL ETERNITY, TO PUT A NEW HEART WITHIN US, A HEART LIKE UNTO HIS OWN.
“WHAT DO YOU SEEK?” ASKED JESUS OF THOSE FIRST TWO DISCIPLES WHO BEGAN TO FOLLOW HIM. John 1:38 AM I SATISFIED WITH MY SINFUL BROKEN LIFE? DO I WANT THE BIRTH FROM ABOVE? IF I DO, JESUS HAS GIVEN US THE PROMISE THAT IT IS THE WILL OF HIS FATHER, WHO RAISED HIM UP, THAT ALL WHO SEE THE SON AND BELIEVE IN HIM WILL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE AND WILL BE RAISED UP WITH HIM. John 6:40
“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.”
Rosemary E. Hyslop September 9, 2018