The following student report was submitted by Ambassador League Agent Joshua F. during the 2009-2010 League.
Mission: Research on the Lordship of Christ
"If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9) How many times have you heard those words? How many times have I heard those words? But there’s a difference between hearing words, and actually knowing what they mean. How many times have we not heard or at least recognized the "Jesus is Lord" part for what it is? Everyone may have a vague understanding of what it means, but many will never dig deeper. I will first use Scripture to show that Jesus is Lord. Then I’ll try to explain what that means for us.
One of Merriam-Webster’s definitions for "lord" (and there are many) is: One having power and authority over others:
a : A ruler by hereditary right or preeminence to whom service and obedience are due. If you’ll go with me to Matthew 3:17, you’ll see that God, the Supreme Ruler (as He's known) identifies Jesus as His Son. Therefore, we as Christians being Christ’s inheritance according to Ephesians 1:18, Christ is King hereditarily as well.
b : one of whom a fee or estate is held in feudal tenure c : an owner of land or other real property. Jesus is King and he has a kingdom; the Angel Gabriel told Mary as much when he told her she was going to give birth to Him (Luke 1:32-33).
Obsolete: the male head of a household. Though the meaning is obsolete, Jesus is this as well. If we jump back to Ephesians (Chapter 1, Verse 22) we see that he’s the head of the church. And aren't we the family and "household" of Christ?
Last but not least, the Bible repeatedly refers to Christ as "Lord" and "Lord Jesus". In 1 Corinthians 2:8 for example, where Jesus is called "Lord of Glory". And in Acts 4:33 He is referred to as "Lord Jesus") so even without Webster we see that He is Lord.
Now if you’ll look back to the first part of the definition (before "a" and "b" were even mentioned) it says "One having power and authority over others." That means He can tell us what to do. And believe it or not that's news to some people. Too often we Christians forget that Jesus didn't just save us because we realized he was God. He also saved us because we confessed Him as Lord. That’s the first of two parts many skip over. Many believe that he rose from the dead but not all confess Him as Lord. Remember back in the last verse from Ephesians (1:22); it says He's in charge of us. And not just the parent saying to the older sibling, "You’re in charge while I'm out for fifteen minutes" kind of 'in charge'. We're so far below Him that we're under His feet! In Matthew 28:18 He summed it all up when He said very plainly, "All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Me." We can’t just look at Him and say, "You're Lord, now I'm going to go do whatever." We have to do what He tells us to do! If we ignore what he's told us to do we're like the driver who's driving past the speed limit and when the police car tried to pull him over just looked out the window and said "Hey, you're a cop, I'm a driver - you can pull me over and give me a ticket. But I'm still driving," just a whole-whole-whole-whole LOT worse! This is Christ we're talking about here!
If Jesus is Lord, how then shall we live? The answer is like what He says goes. Like he’s really in charge of us. But there are no "likes" or "ifs" about it. Jesus is Lord.
