The Bible Study Hour

Dr. James Boice: Is it possible for Jesus Christ to be your Savior and not your Lord? Many people think so. What then is the difference between calling him Lord and calling him Savior?

Dr. James Boice: Welcome to The Bible Study Hour, a radio and Internet ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. James Boice, teaching you to think and act biblically. Today, we continue our new series in the book of Romans, part one, an introduction, by looking at why Jesus Christ is both Lord and Savior. So what is the difference between calling Jesus Christ Lord and calling him Savior? And why is it so essential to our faith that he be called both? Let's turn now to Romans chapter 1, verse 4, and find out.

Dr. James Boice: One of the good things about the new international version is the way in which it handles the word order of the opening verses of Romans. It holds the words Jesus Christ our Lord to the end of verse 4, where they form a natural and effective climax. This is the way the words occur in the Greek text. The older King James version of the Bible does not follow the Greek text at this point, and inserts the words earlier with a different emphasis.

Dr. James Boice: Now, I make a point of this because those words, Jesus Christ our Lord, or what is perhaps the more common form of that, Jesus Christ is Lord, formed the earliest Christian confession. Those words were only two in Greek, kurios Iesous. Those two words were regarded as so important that if a man or a woman would make that confession, he or she was automatically considered a fit candidate for baptism.

Dr. James Boice: This is because, as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12:3, "No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit." That is, no one can say that and really mean it, understanding it. And, as Paul also says in the 10th chapter of Romans, verse 9, "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."

Dr. James Boice: To those of us who live today and who read these ancient records, it's hard to understand how those few words could be so important to the early church. And yet they were important, and rightly so, and the reason is that they are simply overflowing with meaning. That's why Paul puts them in the position of emphasis that they do have here at the beginning of this great epistle.

Dr. James Boice: Now, they're important because of what they imply. First of all, they imply that Jesus Christ is God, and secondly, they imply that he's the Savior. Let's take those one at a time. The reason this confession, Jesus Christ is Lord, implies that Jesus Christ is God is due to a fact of the translation of the Old Testament Scriptures as it existed at the time of Jesus Christ.

Dr. James Boice: About 100 years before the time of Christ, the Old Testament was translated into Greek. And when the Old Testament was translated into Greek, in that version we know as the Septuagint, a version which was known to most of the Jewish people in this time and from which most of the New Testament writers quoted when they quoted the Old Testament, when the Old Testament was translated into Greek, the word that was used to translate the great Hebrew name for God, Jehovah or Yahweh, was the word Kurios, which means Lord.

Dr. James Boice: That's why when we read the Old Testament in most of our versions, we don't find the word Jehovah or Yahweh. We find the English word Lord instead, a translation of that Greek term. Now, all of the New Testament writers knew this. The disciples of Jesus Christ and the apostles understood that the word Kurios was used in the Old Testament to refer to God himself. And yet, knowing this, and without any apparent hesitation, they took this word and applied it directly to Jesus, calling him the Lord. In other words, it was a way of saying, in verbal shorthand, that he was to be identified with the God of the Old Testament.

Dr. James Boice: We have to be careful at this point because the word Lord had a variety of meanings, as many words do, and as we read the gospels, particularly, it doesn't always mean this. We have a bit of a parallel in our English word sir. You can use that word sir and mean nothing more than a polite form of address. You can say, "Yes, sir," or something of that nature.

Dr. James Boice: Now, sometimes when you read the Gospels, apparent unbelievers will approach Jesus and call him Lord. It doesn't mean that they had a sudden revelation of who he was. It just means that they were being polite to him because he was a distinguished rabbi. And yet, just as with our word sir, that word Lord can also have a greater meaning. If we speak of Sir Winston Churchill, we're not merely being polite. We're using the word as a title. It conveys honor when we use it that way.

Dr. James Boice: And sometimes when you come to the word Lord in the Gospels, it has this more exalted sense. It means master when it's used like that. The disciples of Jesus will come to him and say, "Yes, Lord, what will you have us to do?" They mean master. We are your disciples. You are our Lord. And then just as it has that high meaning, so in a special way, we don't have a parallel here with our word sir. In a very exalted sense, this word Lord means Jehovah, as I've already indicated.

Dr. James Boice: One great text that shows that is the confession of Thomas that occurred after the resurrection of Christ. First, when the others told him about the resurrection, he refused to believe it. He said, as many of our contemporaries would say, "Dead men don't rise. He's dead, and that's the end of it." When Jesus appeared to him, he was overwhelmed, and he recognized in the bare fact of the resurrection, the truth that Jesus had been teaching all along, namely that he was far more than a man, that he was God come in the flesh, the God-man, and Thomas responded properly by falling on his knees and confessing, "My Lord and my God." When he used that title Lord in that context, he obviously was indicating his belief in Christ's deity.

Dr. James Boice: Psalm 110:1 is another text. This was applied by Jesus to himself on an occasion recorded in Matthew 22. He was talking to his enemies. He asked them who they thought the Christ, that is, the Messiah, was to be. They weren't receiving him as the Christ. Well, who do you think the Messiah is to be, he said. And they replied correctly, the son of David.

Dr. James Boice: The only problem was, they were thinking of the Messiah, the son of David, as a mere man. And Jesus wanted them to see beyond this on the basis of what the Old Testament itself taught, so he referred them to this psalm, Psalm 110:1, the verse incidentally from the Old Testament that is most quoted in the new, perhaps some 25 or 30 times.

Dr. James Boice: Here's what he said: "How is it then that David, who wrote the psalm, speaking by the Spirit, that is, inspired, not making a mistake, calls him," that is the Messiah, "Lord?" For he says, "The Lord," that is God the Father, "said to my Lord," that is the Messiah, "Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet." And then he asked this question, "If David calls him Lord, how can he be his son?" That is, a mere son.

Dr. James Boice: If the Messiah was a mere fleshly descendant of David, then he would not be as great as his father David who preceded him. But if David calls him Lord, and if that's by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit so the profession is correct, then the Messiah to come must be more than a mere man. A descendant of David? Yes, that's true. Paul says in the early verses of Romans that he's descended from David according to the flesh, but more than that, he must be God incarnate, the God-man, even Jesus Christ.

Dr. James Boice: I said that that verse is quoted many times in the New Testament. Acts 5:31 does it. Peter is speaking. He tells the Sanhedrin, "God has exalted him," that is Jesus, "to his own right hand as Prince and Savior." Paul wrote in Colossians 3:1, "Since then you have been raised with Christ, set your heart on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God." Or again, in the book of Hebrews, the author of that book refers to the text three times. The first time in verse 3. "Jesus, after he had provided purification for our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on High."

Dr. James Boice: The fourth text I'd like you to think about is that great Christological hymn that we find in the second chapter of Paul's letter to the Philippians. Paul is doing something practical at this point. He's telling what our attitude should be, but he refers to the attitude of Jesus as a pattern. And this is what he says: "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross."

Dr. James Boice: Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 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.

Dr. James Boice: Now, what is that name that is above every name? When we read the English text, it seems to suggest to English readers that the name is Jesus, but that's not what this is talking about. The name that is above every name is the name Lord. That's the confession that's made at the end. Every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And the reason that name is above every name is that that's the name for God. It's the Greek equivalent of the Old Testament word Jehovah. Everyone is going to bow before Jesus and confess that he is the Old Testament God.

Dr. James Boice: Now, when we take those texts and by them understand the meaning of that word Kurios, we begin to understand why they were so important to the early church, and why they were willing to die rather than make that confession of some other. One great case is the case of Polycarp, who was the Bishop of Smyrna. He was martyred on the 22nd of February in the year 156 because he wouldn't take that word Lord, Kurios, and ascribe it to Caesar.

Dr. James Boice: When he was being taken to the arena where he knew he was going to be required to say Caesar is Lord and offer incense, some of the men of the city, the leaders of the city, who had great respect for him because of his age and reputation, tried to dissuade him from what they regarded as an irresponsible and obstinate refusal. They said, "What harm is there in saying Caesar is Lord and burning incense and saving yourself?"

Dr. James Boice: Polycarp wouldn't do it. And when he came to speak his position in the arena before the tribunal, he said, "For 86 years I have been Christ's slave, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my king who saved me?" If Polycarp had called Caesar God, then Jesus could not have been God for Polycarp, and Polycarp could not have been a Christian.

Dr. James Boice: Those who wrote down his story apparently shared his convictions because they concluded his story by saying, "Polycarp was arrested by Herod when Philip of Tralles was High Priest and Statius Quadratus was governor, but our Lord Jesus Christ was reigning forever. To him be glory, honor, majesty, and eternal dominion from generation to generation. Amen."

Dr. James Boice: Now I said as we began that there are two implications of this word Lord when applied to Jesus. One is that Jesus is God. The second is that Jesus is the Savior. The reason this word Lord points to Jesus' work as Savior is that his work on the cross was more than mere substitution. Generally, we think of the cross that way, and we do so rightly because that's a dominant idea in the Bible. Jesus died in our place as our substitute, bearing the punishment for our sins. It's the great principle of substitution. It must never be forgotten.

Dr. James Boice: But sometimes when we begin to talk that way, we think of Jesus somehow as being a victim. And that's not at all what the Bible teaches. When the Bible talks about his work of substitution, it never talks about it as the work of a martyr, one who was victimized for his high stand, but rather as one who is victorious even as he gave up his life. Because it's by his sacrifice that the power of sin over us has been destroyed and the dominion of the devil Satan has been broken.

Dr. James Boice: We have a problem here in the evangelical church today. And since we talk about the work of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, it's important to speak to it. It's that there are some people who in their zeal to defend what they regard as the purity of the Gospel, separate Christ's work as Savior from Christ's work as Lord. They say you can have Christ as Savior without having him as Lord. And the way they defend it is to say, "Well, if you add anything to the finished work of Christ or to simple faith by which we're to believe in his work and appropriate it to ourselves, then you've created another gospel."

Dr. James Boice: And another gospel falls under the anathema that Paul gives in the first chapter of his letter to the Galatians. One writer says, "Faith alone and faith plus commitment cannot both be the Gospel, and one of them is wrong." Well, there are two problems with that. One is with the definition of faith. Faith plus commitment is what the Bible means by faith.

Dr. James Boice: The apostle James has a great deal to say about faith, and he points out rightly that there is a kind of faith. He calls it a dead faith that the devils have when they believe that Jesus is the Christ and the Savior but don't commit themselves to him. He says that faith like that isn't going to save anyone. The devils are not saved by that kind of merely intellectual acknowledgment.

Dr. James Boice: No, he says a saving faith, a living faith is a faith that commits itself to Jesus. I like to say that faith has three elements: it has content, which means that you must believe in something; it has an element of heart response, what John Wesley talked about when he referred to his heart being strangely warmed as he first understood the message of the Gospel; and then thirdly, it involves commitment.

Dr. James Boice: It's what Thomas was indicating when he fell at Christ's feet, saying not merely, "Lord and God," or "You are Lord and God," but rather, "My Lord and my God." That's what faith is. So, if you don't have that kind of faith, you really don't have the faith the Bible talks about when it says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll be saved."

Dr. James Boice: But then secondly, there's a great error that concerns the person of Christ himself. No real Christian would ever want to add anything to the finished work of Christ. If we think that somehow we're able by our good deeds to add to what Jesus Christ has done, or by our devotion or our prayers, or anything else, somehow contribute to our own salvation, we don't understand what salvation is. We're not saved. We're really trusting ourselves and not Jesus. We want to point men and women, and ourselves among them, to Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, entirely.

Dr. James Boice: And yet the point I make is that it is the Lord Jesus Christ to which we point them. A Jesus Christ who is not Lord is a false Christ of the imagination, and a false Christ is not going to save anybody. The Christ that saves is the Lord. And therefore, if we have him as Savior, we must have him as Lord. And if we have him in our hearts, we must obey him as Lord. If we don't do that, we're indicating that we're no true disciple.

Dr. James Boice: Now I've talked about the meaning of that great confession: Jesus Christ is Lord. I suppose it would be possible for us at that point to sit back and say, "Well, we understand that theologically, isn't that wonderful?" That is a great confession, and we understand why people are wrong if they don't confess Jesus' deity and recognize that he is the Savior of people from sin.

Dr. James Boice: That would be good, that's important, but it's not good enough. Because you see, the fact that Jesus is Lord must mean, as Paul indicates by his use of the pronoun our, that it has something to do with us and the way we live. Some years ago, John R.W. Stott was preaching here on the sovereignty of God the Son, and he said, as he talked about Christ's Lordship, that it has at least six important implications. Let me just review them for you.

Dr. James Boice: First of all, Stott said, it has an intellectual implication. And what that means is that Jesus Christ is a teacher, and he must be Lord of our minds. You recall that one of the ways he invited disciples to him when he was here on earth is to say, "Come, follow me, and I will teach you. Enter my school and learn of me." He's to be our teacher today.

Dr. James Boice: Well, we say, how does he do that? In the days of his flesh, he was there in person with the disciples. He said, "Follow me." And as they followed him, he began to teach them spiritual things. How does he teach us today when we're not in his presence physically? Well, the answer is that he teaches us through Scripture. And that's why our view of Scripture is so important. This is not some esoteric thing that theologians or some pastors ride as a hobbyhorse, as if they just want everybody to adopt their particular outlook on the books of the Old and New Testaments.

Dr. James Boice: This is important because if Jesus Christ is to be our Lord, the only way he can be our Lord, Lord of our mind is through Scripture. If you say to yourself, "Well, these books are just human books written by normal men like ourselves, with some truth and with some error, and therefore I can pick and choose what it is I want to believe," Jesus Christ cannot be Lord of your mind. You're still Lord of your mind yourself.

Dr. James Boice: But if this is Jesus speaking, if this is God's book, then it indicates what we're to believe and how we're to think. You say, "Well, I don't like that. I've been taught to think for myself." That seems very foolish to me. Well, yes, of course, we're to think with ourselves. God has given us minds. We're to exercise the minds, but one rational way of thinking is to realize that if this is God's book and if God is speaking, and if God is the God of truth, as he must be if he is God, then it is eminently rational to trust what this God says.

Dr. James Boice: You and I have distorted views of reality. We have prejudices that concern others and misunderstandings that involve even ourselves. It's here that we find out what we really are as God's creatures, and what he wants us to be, and who runs the universe, and such things.

Dr. James Boice: Secondly, there is an ethical implication. It's not only that Jesus must be Lord of our minds, he must, as John Stott said, be Lord of our wills and moral standards also. You recall that the Lord said to his disciples on one occasion, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?" It was a great anomaly, you see. They came to him, apparently acknowledging that he was the authority for them, but they went and did their own thing.

Dr. James Boice: The apostle John was thinking along the same lines when in his first letter he gave this as one of the great tests of how we know that we're Christians. There's an intellectual test, it has to do with what we believe. There's an emotional or relational test, it has to do with how we respond to one another, if we love the brethren, but in addition to those two tests, there is this moral test. John said it's if you obey Christ's commandments that you can know that you're one of his disciples.

Dr. James Boice: So, when we talk about Christ's Lordship, we talk not merely about his Lordship over what we think, we talk about his rule over what we do as well. Third, there's a vocational implication. And that means simply that Jesus is Lord of our time. He has the right to direct us in our professions, our jobs, our careers.

Dr. James Boice: The apostle Paul is a great example at this point. Before he met the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus and bowed before him, the apostle Paul had a very good understanding of what his career would be. He was going to rise high in the intellectual, religious, and social strata of the Judaism of his day. He was, as we would say, a man on the way up. He was going to make it and make it big.

Dr. James Boice: And then he met Jesus, and Jesus redirected all of that. Jesus spoke to him on the road, and the first thing he said to him after he had revealed himself as Jesus, the one whom Saul was persecuting, was this: "Get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."

Dr. James Boice: And Paul did get up. He did go into the city. He was told what he should do, and he did it. And years later, when he was appearing before King Agrippa and giving his testimony, he referred to what Jesus had told him on that occasion, and he quoted Jesus as saying, "I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God."

Dr. James Boice: And after he had given that testimony, the apostle Paul concluded, "So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision." Now, that's what's required in our lives where our vocations are concerned. None of us are going to be called to be apostles. That's something that happened once in the early history of the church. Not many of us, at least a small percentage of us only are called to what we term religious work, full-time religious work, but we have various occupations, and we must see those as coming under Christ's Lordship.

Dr. James Boice: Whether you work in a church or a factory, in a hospital, in a law firm, in a small business, whether you're a homemaker or a builder of homes, whatever it may be, Jesus is to be your Lord in that occupation. And you're to do what you do there in obedience to him.

Dr. James Boice: The fourth implication of the profession Jesus Christ is Lord is ecclesiastical. That means that Jesus is Lord of the church. When we recognize that, we are kept from two mistakes. One is the error of disorder. It's when everybody assumes that they have the right to do whatever they individually think wise, and everyone goes off in their own direction. You have chaos, no organization at all. To recognize that Jesus is Lord is something that draws us together and enables us to function together as Christ's body.

Dr. James Boice: But then it also keeps us from the error of clericalism. It's the error which has been very strong in some periods of church history, in which those who are ordained to a special kind of ministry say, "Well, we're the ones that are to run the church and do the work, so we do it, and the people are only there to support us in what we do." It's a great mistake, and the church has always suffered where that has happened. All God's people are ministers in the church of Jesus Christ. And the proper relationship between laity and clergy is one of service. We are here to serve the world, and the ministers in particular are to serve the people in their teaching.

Dr. James Boice: The fifth implication is political. That is to say, Jesus is not only Lord of each one of us as individuals, or Lord of the church as the Christian fellowship, but he's Lord over the political process as well. Part of our task as Christian people is to speak as God's representatives in history to this world. We're to say there is a God, and all are responsible to him, whether they acknowledge his existence or know who he is or not. And we're to tell them that Jesus Christ is Lord and judge, and one day they are to answer for him in terms of what they do with the power that's been entrusted to them.

Dr. James Boice: I have to say at this point, however, that we must remember two things. First of all, that when we speak to the world, when we speak especially to those in positions of political power, we are speaking to them to remind them that they are responsible and will answer to Jesus Christ, not to us. Above all, not to the church. It's not a case that the church is to dominate it over the political process. When that happens, it's always been a disaster for the state as well as for the church. We have to recognize that we, like they, are but servants of the Lord, and so we together answer to the one who is our master. That's the first thing we have to remember.

Dr. James Boice: And then secondly, we have to remember that we are not called upon to impose our values or beliefs upon the world by any means of force. Sometimes the church has done that, and the great danger for Christians is they get involved in the political process, is the danger of thinking that if only we can get enough Christians elected, we can vote through all the rules that will support Christianity and put down everything else.

Dr. James Boice: We mustn't think that way. That's triumphalism. It's resorting to the world's means. It's trying to accomplish by force what we are afraid we can't accomplish by persuasion or by the work of the Holy Spirit. Our impact upon the world is to be by example and by testimony, reminding the world of what the Bible says. And then as God blesses, see that unfold in what we trust will come in our time, namely a revival as men and women in large numbers turn from sin to embrace Christ's rule over their lives.

Dr. James Boice: There's one final implication, and that's global. When we talk about the political system, we think naturally of our own country. We want to stress God's Lordship there. That's important. But it's not only here that Christ is Lord. Christ is Lord of all the nations. And it's on the basis of his authority over all the nations, even nations that will not recognize him, that he sends his people into all the world with the Gospel.

Dr. James Boice: It's the Great Commission, you see. "All authority has been committed unto me in heaven and in earth. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."

Dr. James Boice: We need to close with the question which is implicit in the words the apostle Paul uses when he says Jesus Christ our Lord. The question is, is he your Lord? The question is, have you made a personal commitment to him? If he is your Lord, then no other can be Lord in your life. If you have made that kind of commitment to him, then it will make all the difference in how you think, what you do, and how you apply your life and talents in service to others and to Jesus Christ. Let us pray.

Dr. James Boice: Father, we ask you to bless this study and the implication of these words to each of our hearts and do that deeply. It's very easy for us to make the profession, saying Jesus Christ is Lord, and think of it only as a theological affirmation. Now, our Father, we ask you to give us grace to go beyond that and see it as it impacts our lives in all these many different ways. Grant that we might actually live for Christ and demonstrate by the way we live and by what we say, that we are his servants and desire above all things to follow him. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Dr. James Boice: You have been listening to The Bible Study Hour, a ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. James Montgomery Boice. We appreciate your ongoing support of this broadcast ministry. The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals exists to promote a biblical understanding and worldview. Drawing upon the insight and wisdom of Reformation theologians from decades, even centuries gone by, we seek to provide contemporary Christian teaching that will equip believers to understand and meet the challenges and opportunities of our time and place.

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