What are we saying when we proclaim “Jesus Christ is Lord”?
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, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:10-11
Jesus = Savior
In Matthew 1:21 the Angel announces the Incarnation to Joseph and says, “Mary will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” This is a non-sequitur in English until we understand that Jesus (Iēsous in New Testament Greek) and its equivalent Joshua (Yeshua in Old Testament Hebrew) literally mean “God Saves.” It was Joshua that led the Israelites through the waters of the Jordan into the Promised Land (Joshua 3:14-17), prefiguring the Divine Savior who leads us through the waters of Baptism into our promised eternal inheritance – if we choose to follow Him.
The “every knee will bow” Philippians scripture echoes the profession of faith from the until-then pagan Rahab, who received God’s messengers before her town was besieged: “I know the LORD your God is he who is God in heaven above and earth beneath” (Joshua 2:11). Jericho was destroyed, “But Rahab the harlot, and her father’s household, and all who belonged to her Joshua saved alive” (Joshua 6:25). Matthew 1:5 reveals the key role Rahab was to then play in the life of the Savior.
Christ = King
The Bible tells us much about Saul, David, and the later kings that reigned over the divided kingdom. The king was “God’s Anointed one,” translated “Christ” (Christos in NT Greek) and “Messiah” (Mashiach in OT Hebrew). Thus Christ is not another name for Jesus, but a title that indicated he was the anointed heir to the kingship of God’s people.
Saul was anointed (1 Samuel 10:1) and the Spirit of God subsequently rushed upon him (1 Sam 11:6). David was anointed and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him from that day forward (1 Sam 16:13). God then promised David: “I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever” (2 Sam 7:12-16).
Three times in that short passage God promises the kingdom of David’s son will endure forever. He will be your own flesh and blood (see Matthew 1:6), and will be flogged with human hands. Clearly this is Messianic prophecy, written perhaps 1000 years before the Incarnation.
There are passages in each of the Gospel narratives which describe Jesus being anointed (see Matthew 26:7, Mark 14:3, Luke 7:37, John 12:3). His Spiritual anointing took place “When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him” (Matt 3:16). His Priestly anointing with myrrh and aloes took place at his burial (John 19:38-40). Thus when we are baptized, we are “baptized into Christ’s death, indeed we are buried with him into newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4). Like Jesus, at Baptism we are anointed, receive the Holy Spirit, and become Christians: “Little Christs” and heirs to the Kingdom.
Lord = God
Jesus is the long-promised Savior and King, but what is the deeper meaning of Lord? An earthly lord is one that has power or authority. However, in Isaiah 45:22-24 God tells the prophet, “I am God. There is no other. To me every knee shall bow, by me every tongue shall swear. Only in the LORD are righteousness and strength.” With that proclamation in mind its New Testament parallel of Philippians 2:10-11 takes on its true meaning. In the Old Testament the word LORD (large capital “L” and smaller capital O-R-D) stands in for God’s Divine Name “I Am Who Am” (Y-H-W-H, also known as the Tetragrammaton). Thus when we say “Jesus Christ is LORD,” we are saying Jesus is Savior, King, and GOD Himself, whose “kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).
Accordingly we must choose: Is Jesus our King? Or will we instead say, “We do not want this man to reign over us” (Luke 19:14)? Either way, every knee will bow – in heaven, on earth, and under the earth – and every tongue confess “Jesus Christ is Lord.” Amen! Alleluia!
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