the Lord

The past several years during the month of December, I have written on Jesus’ different names or titles as a way of meditating on this Christmas season and who Jesus was and is beyond the baby in a manger. Luke 2:11 is a well-known verse during the Christmas season.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Previously, I’ve written on Jesus’ titles of Savior and Christ. Today, I want us to meditate on His title of “the Lord”.

The Greek word kurios or lord commonly was spoken as a polite, higher up sir. It was also used for a slave’s master. Rome applied this title in a divine way to Caesar. Although these uses are in the New Testament, the title is also given to Jesus but in the highest sense possible which is why many in the early church refused to call Caesar kurios.

“The old Greek version of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint translates the Hebrew Yahweh and adonai as kurios. Yahweh is the revealed name of God in Hebrew and Adonai is one of His titles; thus, kurios, or “Lord,” is the most important title for God in the Septuagint, which is quoted throughout the New Testament.”^[1]

Applying this background from the Septuagint, the Lord is a majestic title communicating Jesus’ absolute sovereignty, authority, and divine power. He is God Almighty. For us, with the complete Word of God, this may not seem like a big deal. We know who Jesus is, but think back two thousand some years ago. God had been silent for four hundred years. God’s promise to Abraham of all nations being blessed through his descendants was around two thousand years before the birth of Jesus, and the original promise of a Messiah in Genesis 3 was about four thousand years before.

Now, an angel of the Lord is declaring to lowly shepherds in a field that a Savior, Christ (or the Messiah) who IS God is born as a baby. Scripture doesn’t tell us if the shepherds comprehended all that this baby was – the almighty, sovereign, covenant God. What we do know is that they made haste to find Mary, Joseph, and the baby in a manger, and returned to their fields glorifying and praising God.

Let’s look at a couple more key verses about Jesus the Lord.

“because, 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

Maybe you have heard some professing Christians say they have accepted Jesus as Savior but not yet as Lord. Romans 10:9 makes it abundantly clear that salvation and submitting to Jesus as Lord cannot be separated. If we are to be saved, we must submit to Jesus’ lordship over all things including every aspect of our lives.

If we return to the word kurios in its usage as a slave’s master, there is a word tied to it throughout the New Testament – doulos or slave. If there was a master, there was a slave. Slaves had no personal rights. They existed to serve the master. We think of slave in negative terms which is right in our society because of the past history (and some current) of how slaves are treated. However, doulos in the New Testament is primarily associated with those who truly followed Jesus.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living.

Romans 14:7-9

John MacArthur put a helpful summary together: “The fundamental aspects of slavery are the very features of our redemption that Scripture puts the most stress on. We are chosen (Ephesians 1:4-5; 1 Peter 1:1; 2:9); bought (1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23); owned by our Master (Romans 14:7-9; 1 Corinthians 6:19; Titus 2:14); subject to the Master’s will and control over us (Acts 5:29; Romans 6:16-19; Philippians 2:5-8); and totally dependent on the Master for everything in our lives (2 Corinthians 9:8-11; Philippians 4:19). We will ultimately be called to account (Romans 14:12); evaluated (2 Corinthians 5:10); and either chastened or rewarded by Him (Hebrews 12:5-11; 1 Corinthians 3:14). Those are all essential components of slavery.”^[2]

Now, you may still be bristling at being called a slave, but consider your Master, the Lord Jesus. He is not an earthly, sinful ruler. He loves you with a love that will never be removed from you (Romans 8:31-39). He is kind, merciful, gracious, compassionate, just, faithful, sovereign, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and every other attribute of God. His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30). Jesus the Lord has disarmed the rulers and authorities, put them to open shame, triumphing over them (Colossians 2:15). You need not fear the enemy or death or anything because the Lord Jesus triumphed in His death, resurrection, and ascension.

Although Colossians 1:15-20 doesn’t refer to Jesus as the Lord, it is an unequivocal testament to His lordship. In these verses, we see Jesus’ majesty, sovereignty, divine power, and authority.

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷ And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.^[3]

Philippians 2:9-11 tells us that because of Jesus’ willing obedience throughout His life and even to death on a cross: “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus ever knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Reflection

1.    If Jesus is the Lord, we must obey Him. We have been bought with a price. What is an area of your life where you have been unwilling to obey, where you have wanted to be lord over your life instead of Jesus? Take time to confess this sin of rebellion and plan how you can choose obedience going forward.

2.    Why is it actually a source of great joy and freedom to know Jesus is the Lord?

3.    How does Jesus as the Lord give you comfort, hope, and joy?

^[1] “Jesus Is Lord: Reformed Bible Studies & Devotionals at Ligonier.Org.” Ligonier Ministries, Ligonier Ministries, 15 July 1008, learn.ligonier.org/devotionals/jesus-lord.

^[2] MacArthur, John. “Why Do We Call Him Lord?” Grace to You, Grace to You, 6 Mar. 2024, www.gty.org/blogs/B160406/why-do-we-call-him-lord. 

^[3] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Col 1:15–20.