What does it mean that Jesus is Lord?

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Here is the answer: # What Does It Mean That Jesus Is Lord? The lordship of Jesus Christ is one of the most far-reaching truths in Scripture, touching everything from His divine Person and His work on the cross to the daily surrender of the believer's will and the coming subjection of the entire universe. ## The Title "Lord" — Its Old Testament Roots The word "Lord" carries the weight of the divine name itself. Morrish's Bible Dictionary catalogues the Hebrew terms: *Adon* and *Adonai*, and the plural *Adonim*, are all translated 'Lord'; they occur frequently. These names — Adonai, Jehovah Adonai, and their compounds — speak of sovereign authority and ownership. When the New Testament applies "Lord" to Jesus, it is claiming for Him what the Old Testament reserved for God alone. ## God Has Made Him Both Lord and Christ The great declaration of Acts 2:36 is that the crucified Jesus has been publicly vindicated and enthroned. Edward Dennett traces how this truth first strikes the conscience: Peter proclaimed the word of God to them, and said, "Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." ... Peter was therefore speaking in the power of the Spirit, and that same Spirit clothed the word of God with mighty power, and the effect was that a multitude were born again, the change wrought upon them being indicated by the fact that "they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?" W. W. Fereday underlines the connection between resurrection and lordship: Christ, then, is risen. His claims, made when on earth, thus stand divinely vindicated. In contrast with John, He claimed to be the Christ, and was charged before Pilate accordingly. He claimed also to be the Son of God; and was accused of blasphemy in consequence. Resurrection demonstrated Him to be Lord and Christ; and Son of God (Acts 2:36; Rom. 1:7). ## Lord of All — His Universal Authority The lordship of Christ is not limited to the church or to Israel. He is Lord of all. F. B. Hole writes: He is the Lord, the Master, and great Administrator of the coming age, and it is the death of the Lord that we remember and show forth. ... In the coming age He will be Head of all and Lord of all and impress His own mark and character on the whole realm, blessed beyond compare, that will lie beneath Him. Hole also explains how this universal lordship was acquired through death and resurrection: The death of the Lord proved to be God's first great move, a move of overwhelming consequence ... By death the Heir has acquired a fresh title to the inheritance, the title which redemption gives. By death and resurrection the Lord has consolidated His sway in all spheres. He is Lord both of the dead and of the living. Hamilton Smith, drawing on the story of Joseph as a type of Christ, captures the breadth of this lordship: Such is the message that Joseph sends to his father foreshadowing the Gospel message which the believer carries to the world from Christ the Lord of all. It is an urgent message, "Haste ye." It is a message that proclaims the exaltation and glory of the Lord of all. It is a message of grace that says, "Come." ## Every Knee Shall Bow — The Confession That Jesus Is Lord Philippians 2 unfolds how the One who humbled Himself to death has been exalted to the highest place. W. Kelly traces the full arc: One who came down from infinite glory and made Himself nothing, and who now is exalted and made Lord of all, so that every creature must bow. This is put before the Philippians as the most powerful of motives and weightiest of examples for self-abnegation, in love, to God's glory. Kelly then draws out the vital distinction between the willing confession of believers now and the compelled confession of all in the age to come: Every soul that is now born of God bows his knee in virtue of the name of Jesus, and to Jesus. The Christian now confesses by the Holy Ghost that Jesus Christ is Lord; but this homage will be made good to an incomparably larger extent by and by. But then it will be too late for salvation. ... Neither is there any man that confesses Him to be the Lord by the Holy Ghost but a saved person. But there will be more than this by and by. When the day of grace is past ... the name of Jesus will be throughout the universe owned even by those who do it by compulsion, and who by that very acknowledgment confess their own eternal misery. Hamilton Smith likewise traces the path from humiliation to universal exaltation: "He humbled Himself," but "God also has highly exalted Him." If, with the lowly mind, He went down below all, God has given Him "a Name which is above every name," and a place of exaltation above all. ... every knee will bow to the Name of Jesus, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. ## Confessing Jesus as Lord — The Heart of Salvation Romans 10:9-10 links confession of Jesus as Lord to salvation itself. F. B. Hole explains: Because salvation is a term of such wide meaning, and includes deliverance from the world, amongst other things. We believe on Christ as risen from the dead with our hearts, and that means our justification before God. ... Our salvation is observable, for it is not so much a judicial fact as a practical fact — we are really saved from the power of world, flesh, and devil. The very first step towards a salvation of such a sort must be the confession of Christ as Lord, made with the mouth so that men may hear it. He illustrates this with Cornelius: Cornelius had turned from his heathenism to the fear of God very sincerely; but salvation came to him when he believed on and confessed the risen Christ as Lord. ## The Lordship of Christ in Daily Life To confess Jesus as Lord is not merely a doctrinal statement — it reshapes the whole of life. F. B. Hole puts it vividly: LORD, — TO COMMAND. The Gospel, of course, presents Him to us as Lord (2 Cor. 4:5). We not only believe with the heart to righteousness, but also confess Him as Lord with the mouth to salvation (Rom. 10:9-10). But some little time passes ere we realize what this means. Jesus is in the place of authority. It is His to command, ours to gladly obey, and that means *the surrender of our wills to His.* Hole describes the transformation this produces: The conversion of the Apostle Paul was an ideal one. He reached the point of surrender very speedily. While in the dust of the road to Damascus he acknowledged Jesus as his Lord, and his whole life was transformed. Most of us lag far behind him. Still, to that point all of us have to come. And the cost of this acknowledgment: One of the first results of a hearty acknowledgment of the lordship of Christ is that the convert gets plunged into a good bit of trouble and soul exercise, since his very efforts to do the will of his newly found Master bring him into conflict with his own will. ## Synthesis That "Jesus is Lord" means several things at once, each flowing from the other. First, by His resurrection God has publicly declared Jesus to be Lord and Christ — the One who has all authority in heaven and earth. Second, through His death and resurrection He has acquired the rights of lordship over the entire universe — He is "Lord of all," Lord both of the dead and the living. Third, the believer confesses this by the Holy Spirit as the very gateway of salvation — not merely a mental agreement, but a willing transfer of allegiance from self to Him. And fourth, this confession works itself out in daily life as the surrender of our wills to His, so that His word becomes our command and His glory our aim. The day is coming when every knee, willingly or by compulsion, will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The believer's privilege is to do so now, by the Spirit, and to find in that surrender not bondage but the deepest liberty.