Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Jan/92

Contributor - Thomas Meyer

Title - Jesus Christ Is Lord

Topic - Jesus Christ

Wherefore God also Hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father.

As we stand at the beginning of another year, I wonder how confidently we are wishing one another a happy New Year? Can we really be sincere in this traditional expression of goodwill, knowing what we know about conditions in our world? How can we be optimistic about the future, when first and foremost on our minds and hearts are all the tensions and uncertainties of our troubled world? Who can say with any certainty, what will happen to our comfortable standard of living, considering the economic situation of our own country, and that of the world at large?

We are no doubt grateful, and still somewhat amazed at the downfall of communism in Eastern Europe, and the resultant easing of political tensions between the super powers, but how do we deal with the economic chaos that was left behind? Humanly speaking, and from a realistic point of view, we have every reason to look ahead with a great deal of fear and anxiety. The situation in our world for 1992 looks far from promising!

And yet, if by God's grace we may confess that we are Christians, we can continue our journey with confidence - we have a firm hope for the future, because, as our text tells us, "JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!" In fact, ours is a promising future, because, in spite of how things may look at the present, the victory belongs to our Lord Jesus Christ, to Whom has been given all power in heaven and earth. I am always encouraged by that well-known hymn:

Christ shall have dominion over land and sea,

Earth's remotest regions shall His Empire be;

They that wilds inhabit shall their worship bring,

Kings shall render tribute, Nations serve our King.

Christ shall have dominion over land and sea,

Earth's remotest regions shall His Empire be.

Our text is a prophecy concerning the ultimate victory of Christ over all His enemies, but it is also a testimony to the present reality of the Lordship of Christ. Just as we say that God's Kingdom has come and is coming, so we can speak of the Lordship of Christ as both a present reality, and a future hope. From both perspectives, our text offers great comfort and encouragement to every person, who knows himself to belong to Jesus Christ!

As a prophecy, our text is the New Testament equivalent of the Old Testament prophecy found in Psalm 1 10: 1, where David prophesies:

The Lord said unto my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

Again and again, this Old Testament prophecy is quoted and referred to in the New Testament, and it teaches that He, who is called David's Lord, the Messiah, will one day reign over all things, and that all His enemies will be defeated. Jesus Christ will be completely victorious - our text confirms this, and, at the same time, expands this promise, by giving us a fuller revelation of His Lordship. Not only will Christ reign over all creation, but His Lordship will be openly acknowledged by all.

The glorious prospect of the future is that Christ will reign without opposition, and that He will be worshipped and acknowledged by all God's rational creatures - the angels in heaven, mankind on the earth, and even the demons under the earth. The behever's hope is for a future in which "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea," and our Lord Jesus will be Lord of lords, and King of kings - His rule will be absolute and complete, with no more rivals to His throne! The challenge of our text is therefore to keep up faith and courage, knowing that the Lord is on our side, and He is the declared winner - He is Lord!

But, perhaps, of greater relevance and more practical importance to us for the moment, is that our text points to the present reality of this Lordship of Christ. The message is not that Jesus should be, or ought to be Lord, but that He already is!

"JESUS CHRIST IS LORD! He has already overcome the world - He has already conquered the evil one - He has already received all authority in heaven and on earth - He is Lord now! As the book of Revelation tells us in Chapter 19, He is the King of kings, and Lord of lords, Who travels through history on His white horse conquering and to conquer, until His last enemy is defeated.

Sometimes we hear people talking about "making Jesus Christ Lord", as if Jesus is up for election, and waiting for us to cast our vote in His favour. But Jesus is not running for Lor , e is Lord! This world is not a democracy ruled by popular vote; the Lordship of Christ is a fact, which every Christian must accept and acknowledge!

"JESUS CHRIST is LORD!" This title "Lord" is a name for God - it is the Old Testament word "ADONAI", meaning the sovereign God. Applied to Jesus Christ, it is an acknowledgement that He is God. This is in accord with Jesus' own testimony when He said: "He who has seen me has seen the Father." The Lordship of Christ is an underlying assumption, which the whole creation, sooner or later, must come to terms with. In time every knee MUST and WILL bow, and every tongue MUST and WILL confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and our text challenges us to live in touch with this truth.

The fact that Jesus Christ is Lord has far reaching implications for our lives. On the one hand it means, that He is sovereign, that He rules as God rules, that He controls even the smallest things of life. On the other hand it means that He has the right to be the determiner of our choices. We are confronted here with a great source of comfort, but also with a great responsibility on our part.

At the beginning of a new year, facing an uncertain future in a world that is filled with fear, hatred, and anxiety, how comforting it is to know that we belong to Jesus Christ, Who so controls all things and all events, that not a hair can fall from our head without His will. Of course, that is not to say, that the Christian life is an escape from the world's troubles - if that were so. God could have taken us out of this world.

The Lordship of Christ does not guarantee the believer an escape from temptations or from suffering. These things are part of our life, as we can all testify, but we have victory in them, and we have peace in our hearts, because we know that all these things are under the controlling head of Him Who loves us, and Who does all things well. As the Apostle Paul tells us: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

How comforting it is to know that no blind fate, or some other impersonal force, determines what happens to us, but a personal God, Who loves us, and directs our lives in accordance with His perfect plan. For the believer, life is never meaningless - there are no tragic events, all of life has meaning and purpose, because God is accomplishing His purposes in our lives. We certainly won't always know why things happen, but we do know that God knows, and that is enough. The Psalmist says: "Be still and know that I am God" - that is the direction of our faith! If God so loves us, that already He has offered up His only Son for us, shall we not trust Him to save us completely, and let Him guide and direct our steps?

To accept by faith the Lordship of Christ is to acknowledge His sovereign rule in all of life. As the hymn writer says it so well:

Every joy or trial falleth from above, traced upon our dial by the sun of love, we may trust him fully all for us to do; they who trust him wholly find him wholly true. Stayed upon Jehovah hearts are fully blest, finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest.

But there is a corollary to this truth, namely, that we, on our part, must allow Christ to be the determiner of our choices! The question we need to ask ourselves is this: Will our lives be in touch with the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord? Will we allow His Word to be our only guide for faith and practice? To be truly reformed is to accept both, the sovereignty of God AND our personal responsibility! The decisions we make are never forced upon us, they are an act of willing obedience before God.

Whoever or whatever determines our choice at any time, is, by that very fact "LORD" of our life at that moment. It is our personal responsibility to seek God's will in all our decisions, so that indeed Jesus Christ is Lord of our life! Romans 6:16 is very helpful at this point. Here Paul writes:

Know ye not, that to Whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Those who confess Jesus Christ as Lord must take full responsibility as to who, or what, determines their decisions or actions! The challenge of Joshua still stands: "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve ... !" Have we answered God at this point? Have we said with Joshua: "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord"? Do our lives bear this out, or are we still serving ourselves most of the time?

The emphasis in our day is away from submitting to the Lordship of Christ - instead, we are encouraged to free ourselves from responsibilities so that we can "find ourselves," as the expression goes. In other words, we are told to look out for number one! But that involves the denial of the Lordship of Christ in our lives. In fact, it is a denial of the spiritual fact, that we belong to Jesus Christ. To belong to Him is to love Him and our fellow man. And to love our fellow man is to know that there is no true happiness and fulfilment in life apart from serving God by serving others!

If, by God's grace, we may rest in the comfort that we belong to Jesus Christ, and if through the working of His spirit we are willingly submitting to His Lordship in our lives, then we may confidently expect to see God's hand of guidance in our lives. Then we may also expect to hear His voice, speaking to us along the way, saying: "This is the way, walk in it!"

What does the future hold in store for us? We don't know that any more than anyone else, but we do know Him Who holds us and the future in His hand. Our hope, our confidence for the new year is the glorious fact that "JESUS CHRIST is LORD!" With great assurance and peace in our hearts we can face the new year because we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us and gave Himself for us!

For 1992 may God's spirit lead us to confess with heart and mouth, in word and deed, that "JESUS CHRIST IS LORD!" With the Church of all ages may our lives praise God by saying: 0 come, let us worship and bow down: Let us knee] before the Lord our maker. For He is our God; and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand.

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