Post by stephen on Oct 7, 2018 16:18:24 GMT
“God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name” (Philippians ch2 v9).
The message of the New Testament centres upon what Jesus achieved, when he died on the Cross and was raised from the dead.
In recognition of this achievement, the New Testament identifies him as “Lord”.
If we want to understand this term, it’s worth considering when the New Testament calls Jesus Lord.
The interesting point is that the writers of the Gospels, or at least the writers of the Synoptic Gospels, do not use the title.
Yes, the people in the stories are addressing Jesus as “Lord” all the time, when they are not calling him “Teacher”.
“Lord, you can make me clean… Lord, let me first bury my father… Is it I, Lord?”
“You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am” (John ch13 v13).
In the narratives themselves, though, he is more likely to be called simply “Jesus”.
Whereas the terms “Lord” and “our Lord Jesus Christ” are common through the Acts and the Epistles.
This seems to reflect a sense that he becomes Lord as part of the event of the Resurrection.
“Let all the house of Israel know that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts ch2 v36).
For Paul, the Crucifixion, the fact that Christ was willing to offer himself in this way, is the reason why God has exalted him and bestowed on him “the name [‘Lord’] which is above every name”.
Yet perhaps this is less about becoming Lord than about being recognised as Lord.
Those who addressed him as Lord in his lifetime were recognising something about him which demanded acknowledgement.
But the presence of the resurrected Jesus evidently made this demand more strongly, so in that respect the Resurrection marked a turning-point.
Thus the confession of Thomas, “My Lord and my God” (John ch20 v28).
Thus Paul’s question on the Damascus road, “Who are you, Lord?”, recognising the presence of lordship of some kind even while uncertain about his identity.
The point of receiving the “name which is above every name” is that Christ is to be recognised by the world; “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians ch2 vv10-11).
It might even be the “new name” which Jesus claims for himself in Revelation ch3 v12; “new” to the extent that it was a consequence of the Resurrection.
What does it mean to say that “Jesus Christ is Lord”?
It speaks of a claim to authority which needs to be accepted.
It’s part of Paul’s definition of his preaching; “What we preach… is Jesus Christ AS Lord” (2 Corinthians ch4 v5).
It’s also part of the way that he defines the church; “…all those who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours” (1 Corinthians ch1 v2).
For only those who are prompted by the Holy Spirit are able to recognise Christ as Lord (1 Corinthians ch12 v3).
At the same time, it speaks of the power which lies behind his authority.
There is a spiritual power- “…when my spirit is present, with the power of the Lord Jesus” (! Corinthians ch5 v4).
But this is part of a power which enters even into the structure of things;
“We await a saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him to subject all things to himself” (Philippians ch3 v21).
This can be included in the meaning of Peter’s claim that Christ is “Lord of all” (Acts ch10 v36).
At the present time, the lordship of Jesus Christ is something recognised only by his own people, something invisible to the rest of the world.
That is why Paul says that he will be “revealed” at a later date (e.g. 1 Corinthians ch1 v7).
The time will come when “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians ch2 v11).
In the meantime, we are living during an age when Christ is Lord over a world mostly oblivious to his presence.
That is, the millennial kingdom of Revelation ch20, as Augustine understands it.
Finally, the custom of calling him “Lord” has the effect of assimilating him to the God of the Old Testament, who is given the same title.
It may be suggested that this is a verbal coincidence, the result of the word-choices made by the Septuagint translators of the Hebrew, and the English translators of both testaments.
But Paul associates the title with Christ’s part in the creation of the world;
“…one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist” (1 Corinthians ch8 v6).
He also uses a less ambiguous expression; if the rulers of the world had understood the mystery of God, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians ch2 v8).
And James also refers to “our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory” (James ch2 v1).
But “of glory” is a designation that belongs to the Old Testament God;
“Who is the king of glory?
The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle!” (Psalm ch24 v8)
This takes the identification beyond the point of coincidence.
It is clear that we cannot separate “the Lord Jesus Christ” from the God known as “The LORD”.
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N.T.S. stands for New Testament Salvation.
This thread is one of a series, and I wanted to mark the fact without making the title too cumbersome.
The series is a sequel to, and the consummation of, the older series on Old Testament remedies for sin.
In that series, sin is defined as a relationship problem; the human will is out of alignment with the will of God.