Jesus is Lord. What does this phrase mean? In this article, we’re taking a look at the lordship of Jesus Christ, and what it means for our lives.
Jesus is Lord.
We hear that phrase often; it’s painted on roadway signs and plastered on church marquees all over the nation.
But what does it really mean?
Philippians 2:9-11 tells us,
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every 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. [Philippians 2:9-11, ESV]
Not only is Jesus Lord, Scripture tells us that there will come a day when every person will assent to His lordship.
Clearly, the lordship of Jesus is important. It’s fundamental to who He is, and how He relates to us as human beings.
Here are three aspects of Christ’s lordship over our lives.
1. Jesus is Sovereign
Jesus Christ is God. He is a member of the Trinity, which consists of three separate persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Each is separate, yet also God. They are different, yet the same. The Trinity is a mystery which has been pondered by theologians and scholars of the most brilliant sort for thousands of years. I would venture to say that no human being has ever had a perfectly correct understanding of the Trinity.
The best we can do is approximate.
We can know that there is a Trinity, yet still be unable to fully grasp the nature of the Trinity. It is a mystery that will remain partially hidden to us until we go to be with the Lord.
But I digress. Jesus is God, which means that He is sovereign.
What does “sovereign” mean? From Merriam-Webster, the term ‘sovereign’ is defined as follows:
- Possessed of supreme power
- Unlimited in extent; ABSOLUTE
- Enjoying autonomy; INDEPENDENT
In other words, sovereignty goes beyond merely being “powerful.” A person is sovereign if he or she possesses absolute, unequivocal, unchallenged authority and independence.
Throughout much of the Middle Ages and into the Enlightenment, kings and queens in Europe were often referred to as “sovereigns.” Today, independent countries are referred to as “sovereign nations.” This means they have unchallenged and absolute authority to govern the lands within their borders.
Sovereignty is exclusive. It’s pre-eminent. It’s paramount. If someone or something is sovereign, it possesses the highest possible level of authority.
Jesus, therefore, possesses the “highest possible authority.” Let’s ponder that statement for just a moment.
Today, we have sovereign nations. The United States is a sovereign nation. No other nation – not Mexico, nor Canada, nor Russia, nor India, nor any other country – has the right to govern territory within the American border.
That right is exclusively reserved for the government of the United States.
The government has charge over the land; therefore, it is the highest authority in the land. But does the government of the U.S. truly own the land? Furthermore, does the government own the people?
No.
Can the government compel anyone to do anything it wants? No.
Even if the U.S. were a totalitarian dictatorship, like North Korea or the now-defunct Soviet Union, it would still be imperfect in its wielding of power.
Why do totalitarian states set up prison camps?
Because people tend to disobey. Even the most powerful and far-reaching governments the world has ever created cannot enforce perfect obedience on their people.
Thus, the “sovereignty” of any person or any government will be imperfect. It won’t be truly absolute. A king may declare himself sovereign, but he can be disobeyed. He can be attacked by other kings. His authority does not extend perfectly to the furthest reaches of the earth.
But Jesus’ authority IS absolute.
Jesus, being God, is the Creator of all things. Nothing exists that was not created through Him (John 1:3). Therefore, Jesus’ sovereignty is true sovereignty. It’s absolute.
Try as you might, you cannot escape His might.
You can float out into international waters and be free of national government. You can build a rocket, fly to Mars, and declare yourself free from all authority in the world. Odds are, the world will not be able to seriously challenge you from your new perch.
But try as you might, you can never escape God’s grasp. Go to the depths of the ocean, and you’ll find Him. Fly to Mars, and you’ll find Him. Launch yourself to another solar system at the speed of light, and once you arrive, you will be no further from the grasp of God than when you started.
Jesus is sovereign. His authority is absolute. It is based on His ownership of all things.
Nothing – yes, NOTHING – exists apart from His direct creation. Every star you can see, every planet you can visit, every mountain peak and every valley and every prairie you can walk through – all was made by His hand.
He owns all things, including you. You can’t escape Him. You cannot challenge Him. His authority is supreme, never-ending, and all-encompassing.
Jesus is sovereign. This is the basis of His lordship. As the late S.M. Lockridge so eloquently put it, “His lordship is based on His ownership.”
2. Jesus is Just
We have established that Jesus, being God, is all-powerful. Nothing exists apart from Him, and nothing is outside the scope of His rule and reign. This is Jesus’ sovereignty.
But what about the character of Jesus Christ? Throughout history, we have seen examples of sovereign rulers and sovereign nations that have abused humanity to extents hardly imaginable.
We have examples of genocide, of mass murder, of exploitation, and of horrendous injustice. The character of a sovereign person or government is crucial. Is Jesus a “just king” or an “unjust king?”
The answer: He is just. In fact, there is no authority more just than His authority.
Jesus is fair. He is just. He is righteous, correct, and perfect. He is infallible. He is the cornerstone upon which all notion of equity exists.
True justice does not exist apart from Christ.
What do I mean by this?
I mean that Jesus sets the rules, and He enforces the rules as they ought to be enforced. It’s as simple as that.
Christ is just. He invented justice.
Any concept that we have of justice is just a reflection – and an imperfect one at that – of the true standard set down by our Lord.
At the end of time, all men and women who have ever lived on the earth will be called forth to give an account of their lives. Hebrews 9:27 and Romans 14:12 guarantee this. It’s also talked about in 2 Corinthians 5:10 and Revelation 20:12.
Everyone – male and female, Jew and Gentile, believer and unbeliever – will stand before God and be judged. And this justice will be perfect. There will be no attorney, no jury, and no painstaking gathering of evidence. All the evidence will be held in God’s hands, because God sees and knows everything perfectly. All thoughts and all actions will be laid bare.
And His sentencing will be perfectly just.
There will be no abuse of power. There will be no corruption. The judge, the lawyer, the plaintiff, and the criminal of this life will stand before Christ as equals. Christ is the perfect judge, the “Judge of judges” if you will, and His sentencing is perfectly correct.
Some people will be sent to eternal damnation (Revelation 20:11-15), and others will be sent to eternal life (Matthew 25:46).
What determines one’s fate? It is not his or her actions in this life. Rather, it’s this: did that person repent of his sins and believe upon Jesus?
Herein lies the most wonderful aspect of Jesus’ justice: He freely gives pardon. We are all guilty apart from Him, but if we turn to Him and believe in Him – trusting Him for forgiveness – then we receive forgiveness. We are declared ‘innocent.’
There are men in this world that have done despicable things which no human court could ever forgive. There are men who have murdered, abused, and slaughtered. Many of these men have been sentenced to life in prison or even death.
But let’s just say that the worst of the worst – a killer, a rapist, an abuser – leads a life of crime and is then sentenced to death for his atrocities. Yet right before his execution, he repents of his sins and believes upon Jesus.
That man is going to Heaven.
There are also men who have done great deeds, who have given to the poor and made the service of humanity the entire thrust of their lives, who will be judged and found guilty by God. Why? Because they never repented and believed upon Jesus.
This is the most perfect aspect of the justice of Jesus. It doesn’t work like our justice. We judge based upon deeds – and we should, because society would fall apart if we didn’t – but God ultimately judges based upon one thing: have we given our trust to Him?
Apart from Christ, we stand condemned. With Him, we stand absolved.
This brings us to the third aspect of Jesus’ lordship:
3. Jesus is Good and Merciful
We need not fear, because Jesus is merciful. And He is good.
Ponder this for a second: the Creator of the universe, the ultimate and supreme authority, is a good authority. He’s the best possible authority. We could not have asked for a better God and a better Savior.
Up to this point, we have shown that Jesus is sovereign and that Jesus is just. But Jesus is also merciful, and He is full of love.
This great power – a sovereign king, a just king, far above our ability to comprehend – freely offered His life for our salvation.
Allow me to be blunt, and to ask a question: who in your life would you die for?
If you’re like most people, you might say that you’d die for your kids. You might say you’d die for your spouse, your siblings, or your best friends. Perhaps there is nobody in this world that you would die for.
My point is this: people don’t die for those they care nothing about. Speaking as a typical human, I would not be inclined to die for a random stranger. I would not be inclined to die even for an acquaintance.
But what about an enemy? What about someone diametrically opposed to me? Would I die for such a person?
If someone were to come to you, spit on you, and tell you how worthless you were, would you turn around and sacrifice yourself for that person?
My guess is no. We would have a tough enough time not fighting back. We would have a tough enough time simply holding our tongue and being civil in return. I doubt we’d be filled with such genuine affection for that person that we would freely offer to die for them.
Where am I going with this? Well, Jesus showed His ultimate mercy for us in that He died for us. But Scripture tells us that Jesus Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6-8).
In other words, He died for His enemies. Those who are without God are against God, and those who sin are sinning against Him. When Christ came to the world, He was hated and spit upon and driven out of cities. He was ultimately captured, beaten, mocked, and murdered.
Yet what did He say during his crucifixion? “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34).
That’s right; He was showing sacrificial love to the very men who drove nails into His flesh.
Few of us could imagine even coming close to such a display of sacrificial love and mercy. And we’re humans. We’re flawed. We’re imperfect, and we have all done things that are deserving of punishment.
But as for Jesus? He was the only person who ever lived a perfect life. And He was also the only person who ever offered His life in genuine love for those who hated Him. He deserved that the world would die for Him, but He flipped the narrative and died for the world.
This is mercy. This is love. This is the most tangible, visible, marquee-flashing-on-the-side-of-the-road sign of Christ’s mercy and grace.
He is good. He is merciful. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, perfectly just, and impartially merciful. He is entirely good and complete in love.
This is our Savior and our Lord.
How We Respond
The very nature of Jesus’ lordship demands that we respond. We cannot simply file this away in the back of our minds. We cannot pass ‘go’ and collect 200 dollars.
Jesus is worthy of our time. He is worthy of our respect.
And He is Lord.
Therefore, we must submit to Him as Lord of our lives. We must not only acknowledge His lordship in thought, but we must actively submit to Him in deed. Scripture says,
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. [1 John 5:1-3, ESV]
From this, it is clear that we are called to obey God’s commandments. Our first and foremost response to the lordship of Jesus ought to be love, and love for God is keeping His commandments.
There is a lie creeping into the culture – and even into the Church – that we do not have to submit to Jesus. This lie is very widespread. And it is damaging. It is damaging to the faith, to the Church, and to those who believe it.
To put it bluntly, we must submit to Jesus. It is absolutely necessary and absolutely imperative.
We are to come to Christ on His terms, not our own. We are to come to Him with a listening ear, a willing spirit, and a humble heart. We are to come to Him reverently, for He is worthy of all our respect and all our worship and all our honor.
The idea that one can simply believe in Jesus for “life insurance” so that they don’t go to Hell when they die is horribly incorrect. That’s not Christianity; it’s a product of the Western consumer mentality.
Remember: Jesus is all-powerful. He is all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-loving. And that same Christ died for you. That same Jesus Christ died for your personal sin.
What must we do in response? Treat Him as holy. Honor Him as set apart and in a tier all His own. We must submit to Him and take His yoke upon us. Scripture assures us that His yoke is easy, and that His commands are not burdensome.
Not only has our Savior been incomprehensibly merciful towards us, He continues to be so in that He is not burdensome. His yoke is easy! His commands are not unreasonable! He is deserving of all our obedience, and it is not unreasonable and impossible to obey Him.
Today, dear Believer, I encourage you to submit your life ever the more fully to Jesus. We all have areas in which we are not fully surrendered to the Lord. We all have areas which we want to wall off from Christ and declare, “Mine!”
But only trust Him; submit fully to Him. Surrender yourself more and more fully to Christ. He is worthy of it. Christ loves you more than you could ever know, and He desires that you would simply lay down your ambitions, your strivings, your desires, and your fears to embrace Him.
Run to Jesus, who is our Lord and our Savior.
God bless.