Latest / Reformed Thinking / Jesus Is Lord: The Cosmic, Saving, and Demanding Claim of Christ’s Lordship

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Jesus Is Lord: The Cosmic, Saving, and Demanding Claim of Christ’s Lordship · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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It's a It's really good to be back in the studio with you.
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Yeah, it's good to be here. We have a topic today that I
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have to admit, I think it's going to surprise a lot of
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people. It's something we see every
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single day in the church, something we might say or sing
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without even really thinking about what the words, what they
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actually mean. It's good to be here, and you're
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absolutely right. We're looking at a phrase that
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has almost become, I don't know, like background noise for a lot
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of Christians. Yeah, exactly.
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The confession is Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord simple 3 words.
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On the surface, that sounds like the basics.
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It sounds like you know Christianity one O 1.
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It does. If you go to a Christian
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bookstore, it's on bumper stickers, it's on bookmarks, you
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hear it in almost every modern worship song.
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I think my first reaction looking at this stack of sources
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was just to nod and say OK sure, Jesus is Lord.
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I agree. What's next?
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And that is the common reaction. I think it's fair to say we've
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we've domesticated this phrase, we've tamed it.
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How do you mean? Well, we've turned it into a
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kind of religious sentiment. When most people today say Jesus
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is Lord, I think they often mean something like Jesus is my
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spiritual friend. Or maybe Jesus is the one I pray
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to when I'm having a hard time. It feels safe, it feels
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comfortable. It feels very comfortable.
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But the material we're digging into today, it argues the
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complete opposite. The sources we have, and these
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are some heavy theological treatises, some deep historical
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analysis, they argued that this three word sentence is actually
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the most explosive, dangerous and demanding creed in the
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history of the world. That's a huge claim.
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It is a sleeting giant, and I think the goal of this
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discussion is to wake that giant up.
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If we do our job right today, and if we're faithful to these
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texts, I don't think anyone listening should feel
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comfortable by the end of this hour.
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We really want to try and recover the original weight of
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that statement. The sources argue that this
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isn't just a religious claim. It's, well, it's a declaration
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of war. It is a total declaration of
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war, a war against any and every rival authority, and that
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includes the state, it includes the culture, and maybe hardest
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of all, it includes our own personal autonomy.
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We're going to see that this confession, Jesus is Lord.
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It makes a claim on every single square inch of the universe and
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every second of our lives. So that's the mission for this
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deep dive. We want to strip away that
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cultural lightness, that that comfortableness and see what
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this really truly means. We have a great outline ahead of
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us. We're going to look at the
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history, which involves high treason and the Roman Empire.
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We are definitely going to look at the linguistics, specifically
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the Greek and the Hebrew connections and.
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We're definitely going to spend some time on the grammar.
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Now I know that sounds technical, but I promise you
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there is some Greek grammar in the New Testament that actually
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changes how you understand your own salvation.
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Wow. OK.
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And then we're going to get into the really hard stuff, the
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practical applications regarding things like politics, gender,
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suffering and the, you know, the future of the world.
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Yeah, all the easy topics. Right, so let's start with the
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history. The source is open by setting
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the scene, and it is not a quiet Sunday school classroom.
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We're in the Roman Empire. To understand the phrase Jesus
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is Lord, you absolutely have to understand the air that the
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first Christians were breathing. We tend to think of the word
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Lord as you know, a purely religious word.
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Like Amen or Hallelujah? Exactly.
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But in the 1st century, Lord or curious in Greek was a
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politically charged hand grenade.
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It was a loaded term. Because it was a title that was
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already taken it. Was taken by the most powerful
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man on earth, the Roman emperors, especially by the time
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of demission. They demanded the title Dominus
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at dace, Lord and God. Lord and God.
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Yes, the political glue of the entire Roman Empire was the
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Imperial cult. It wasn't enough to just pay
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your taxes and obey the laws, you had to demonstrate your
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loyalty to the state by actively participating in emperor
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worship. The.
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Sources described this this scene where an ordinary citizen
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would have to go before a Roman official, take a pinch of
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incense, burn it to Caesar and say the phrase kaizar curios.
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Kaizar curios Caesar is Lord. And that was it.
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That was the Pledge of Allegiance.
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It was. The Pledge of Allegiance.
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But it was a pledge with divine stakes.
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It was a totalizing claim on your life.
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Caesar was claiming to be the provider of peace, the provider
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of security, the ultimate authority over your life and
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your death. He was the savior of the state.
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And then you have this, this tiny, strange group of people.
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They're following a Jewish Carpenter who was executed,
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crucified by Roman soldiers. And they stand up in the middle
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of this vast totalitarian empire.
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And they say no, no, they say ayesus.
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Curious Jesus is Lord. And that is why the sources are
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so clear that this was high treason.
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I mean we have to get this. The Romans were polytheists.
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They generally did not care if you had a private God or some
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PED deity you worshipped at home You.
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Could add Jesus to the shelf with your other gods.
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You. Could add Jesus to the pantheon
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if you wanted to. They didn't care.
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But the moment you said Jesus is Lord you were making an
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exclusive claim. It contains an implicit and no
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one else is. Right.
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You are saying that if Jesus is the Lord, then by definition
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Caesar is not. Precisely.
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If Jesus is the supreme ruler, the curious, then Caesar is at
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best a subordinate manager. He's a middle manager who will
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one day have to give an account to the real boss.
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That is a terrifying thought for a state that wants to be God.
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It's the most terrifying thought.
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It meant that the believers ultimate allegiance had been
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transferred. It was no longer to the empire,
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it was to Christ and his Kingdom.
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I really love how the sources frame this.
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It makes you realize that the gospel, at its very root, is
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subversive. It challenges the structures of
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power. It is the most subversive
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message ever preached. Now, it's not an anarchic
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subversion, it's a subversion of higher authority.
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It looks at the state and says you are not the highest reality,
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God is and. That's why they were thrown to
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the lions. That's.
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Why? They were thrown to the lions.
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They weren't killed for being religious.
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They were killed for being political traitors who served a
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rival king. But the sources go even deeper
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than just the Roman context. They take us back to the Jewish
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roots of the faith, and this is where the linguistics for me get
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really, really fascinating. We need to talk about the
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Septuagint. This is absolutely critical.
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We have to remember the apostles and the New Testament writers.
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They were Jewish. Their Bible was the Old
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Testament, right? But by the 1st century, many
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Jews lived outside of Israel. They lived all over the Roman
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Empire, and they spoke Greek. So they used a Greek translation
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of the Hebrew Old Testament. It was called the Septuagint and
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scholars often just abbreviate it as the LXX.
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So when Paul or Peter are quoting the Bible, they're
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usually quoting for this Greek translation.
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That is correct most of the time.
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Now here's the crucial connection.
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In the original Hebrew Old Testament, God has a personal
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covenant name. It's spelled with four letters
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YHWH. Tetragrammaton.
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Yes, we usually pronounce it Yahweh.
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It is the sacred name God revealed to Moses at the burning
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Bush. I AM WHOIM.
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In the Jewish people held this name in just incredible
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reverence. Such reverence that by the time
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of Jesus they would not pronounce it out loud.
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They were terrified of breaking the commandment about taking the
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Lord's name in vain. So when they were reading the
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scrolls aloud in the synagogue and they came to the four
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letters YHWH, they would verbally substitute a different
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word. What word was that?
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They would say Adonai, which is a Hebrew word that means Lord or
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master. OK, so that was the spoken
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tradition. So what happened when the
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scholars translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek for the
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Septuagint? They had to make a choice.
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How do you translate YHWH? And the choice they made
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consistently was to use the Greek word curious.
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Lord. Lord, so every single time you
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would see YHWH in the Hebrew text, which is nearly 7000 times
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the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint puts the word curious
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so. Curious becomes the standard
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accepted placeholder for the personal sake of name of God
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Himself. It effectively becomes the
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divine name. In Greek.
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It is the word that designates the one true creator of the
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universe, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
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All right. So now Fast forward to the New
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Testament. You have Paul, you have James,
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you have Peter. These are devout, strict Jewish
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monotheists. They know the shame of by heart.
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Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is 1.
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It's the bedrock of their entire worldview.
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And yet they start calling Jesus of Nazareth curious.
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That is the aha moment. That's the explosion.
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When Testament authors call Jesus curious, they're just
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calling him Sir or showing respect to a great teacher.
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They are deliberately, consciously placing Jesus into
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the linguistic space that was reserved exclusively for Yahweh.
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It's an. Intentional identification.
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It's a. Shocking one the sources.
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Give us some specific examples of this that are just.
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They're really hard to argue with.
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I want to look at Romans 10.13. This is a.
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Smoking gun it really is, Paul writes in Romans 10, verse 13.
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For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
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Now, in the context of Romans 10, he is clearly, undeniably
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talking about Jesus. You call on Jesus to be saved,
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but. Paul is quoting an Old Testament
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verse. There he is.
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Quoting word for word from the Septuagint version of Joel 2.32.
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And if you go back and open the book of Joel in the Hebrew Old
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Testament, the text says everyone who calls on the name
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of Yahweh will be saved. Wow.
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Paul takes a verse that is exclusively about the covenant
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God of Israel, Yahweh, and he applies it directly without any
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apology or explanation to Jesus of the.
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Implication is just massive. He is identifying Jesus as
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Yahweh. There is.
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No other way to read it. There's just no escaping it.
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He is saying that the saving name and the saving power of
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Yahweh are now located in the person of Jesus Christ.
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To call on Jesus is to call on Yahweh.
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The sources. Also point us to Philippians
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chapter 2, verses 9 through 11. Therefore God has highly exalted
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him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so
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that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven, and
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on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that
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Jesus Christ is Lord. And that again is another direct
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allusion to the Old Testament. It comes from Isaiah chapter 45
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verse 23. And in that passage in Isaiah,
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it is Yahweh Himself who is speaking.
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What does. Yahweh say He.
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Says by myself, I have sworn to me, every knee shall bow, every
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tongue shall swear allegiance. And in that same chapter Yahweh
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says that he will not share his glory with another.
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And yet Paul takes that very act of worship, every knee bowing,
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every tongue confessing, and says it will be directed to
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Jesus. So Jesus is Lord is not just a
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title of authority like Jesus's boss, it is a claim of full
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deity. It is.
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The strongest possible claim of deity that a 1st century Jew
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could make it means Jesus is the God of Israel who has visited
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his people in the flesh that. Really does set the stakes for
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this entire discussion. We're not just talking about a
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human leader or a moral teacher. We're talking about the creator
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of all things. We are.
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I want to zoom in on Romans 10.9 now because one of our sources
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does this very detailed, really helpful breakdown of the grammar
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of that specific confession, the verse.
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Of course is if you confess with your mouth Jesus says Lord, and
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believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you
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will be saved. It is probably one of the most
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famous verses in the entire Bible.
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It is. But the source argues that the
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Greek structure, the way the words are put together, tells us
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something incredibly profound about what we are actually doing
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when we make that confession. It mentioned something called a
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double accusative of object complement.
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I know. It's a mouthful, it is.
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We promised we'd explain the jargon.
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So what on earth does that mean? It sounds.
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Incredibly complicated, but the concept is actually quite
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beautiful and simple. In the Greek sentence confess
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Jesus as Lord, the verb confess has two objects, objects that
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it's acting on Jesus and Lord. OK, and the grammatical rule
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here is that in this specific construction, the first object
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is the second object. The grammar itself creates an
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equivalence. Jesus equals Lord.
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OK, so it links them together as the same thing, yes.
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But here's the big theological payoff.
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This construction implies that your confession does not make
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Jesus Lord. It recognizes the fact that he
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is Lord, that is. A very, very important
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distinction, I think. Sometimes we hear language in
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the church, even well meaning language like you need to make
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Jesus the Lord of your life, we hear.
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That all the time. And the grammar of the New
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Testament actually pushes back on that idea.
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It says you cannot make him Lord.
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He already is Lord. He is Lord of the entire
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universe whether you believe in him or not.
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So he is. Lord of the Atheist.
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Lord of the Buddhist Lord of the.
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Stars, Lord of the angels, Lord of the demons.
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His Lordship is an objective fact.
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So when you confess him, you are not electing him to a position,
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you are not giving him a promotion.
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You are finally recognizing an ontological reality.
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It's like walking. Outside on a summer day and
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saying I confess that the sun is hot.
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I didn't make the sun hot for saying that.
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I am just acknowledging the facts so that I don't get burned
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that. Is a perfect analogy.
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You are aligning your subjective understanding with the objective
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reality of the cosmos. You are surrendering to the way
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things actually are. You're ceasing your rebellion.
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The. Source also highlights the verb
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tense that's used for confess. It says it's in the Aris
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subjunctive. What does that tell us?
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Right. So the ARS tense in Greek often
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views an action as a complete whole, almost like a single
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snapshot. It stands in contrast to the
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present tense, which usually implies A continuous ongoing
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action, and the source argues that using the aerist here
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implies A decisive, definitive stance.
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So it's. Not just a casual remark,
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something you say off the cuff, no.
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Not at all. It implies something more like a
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binding legal declaration. It's a moment you stake your
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flag. It suggests that there's a
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moment where you cross the line. You were a rebel in a foreign
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Kingdom, and now you have sworn allegiance to the true king.
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It is a fundamental change of citizenship.
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It is a. Once for all change of status
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you become a subject of a new Kingdom, correct?
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And it's a defining moment that then shapes the entire entire
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rest of your life while we're. Looking at these specific texts,
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we absolutely have to talk about the puzzle of Psalm 110 verse
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one the sources brings up, because Jesus himself used it to
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completely stump the religious leaders of his day.
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Oh. This is one of my favorite
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interactions in the Gospels. It's so brilliant.
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Jesus turns to the Pharisees and he asks them a question.
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He says, What do you think about the Messiah?
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Whose son is he and they? Give the standard correct
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answer. They say he is the son of David,
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which is. True, the Old Testament
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prophesied that the Messiah had to come from David's royal line.
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It's. True, but it's not the whole
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truth. It's not.
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The whole truth. So Jesus quotes Psalm 110.1 to
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them. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at
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my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
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And then Jesus asks them the killer question.
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If David then calls him Lord, how can he be his son and to?
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Really understand the force of that question.
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We have to understand the culture of that time, right?
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In the ancient world, and honestly even in many cultures
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today, the father is always superior to the son.
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The ancestor is always greater than the descendant.
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A great grandfather would never ever bow down his great grandson
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and call him master. It would be culturally
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impossible, possible, shameful. So if the Messiah is just
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Davidde human son, just another king in the family line, David
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would never ever call him Lord. Exactly.
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But David does, and the source breaks down the original Hebrew
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to show us why this is so powerful.
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The text says the Lord and the Hebrew there is YHWH, the
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covenant God said to my Lord, and the Hebrew there is Adoni,
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which means my sovereign, my Master.
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So. Yahweh, God the Father is
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speaking to someone else who also has divine authority.
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Someone David calls his own sovereign.
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That's. It David is eavesdropping in a
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sense, on a conversation within the Godhead.
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He is seeing his future descendant in a prophetic
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vision, and he recognizes that this descendant is also his
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sovereign Lord. The only way this puzzle works
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is if the Messiah is the God man he is.
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David's son according to the flesh, but he's David's Lord
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according to the Spirit perfectly.
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Said it connects the human lineage with divine authority.
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It proves that the Messiah isn't just a political Liberator who's
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going to kick out the Romans. He is the divine king who is
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installed in power by God himself.
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It just. Creates a category that the
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Pharisees weren't ready for. They wanted a human king, a
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military military hero, and Jesus is showing them that the
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Messiah is the Lord of glory who sits at the right hand of Yahweh
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it. Completely reframes their whole
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expectation and that. Leads us perfectly into the next
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section of our deep dive, the Person of the Lord.
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The sources make a theological distinction here that I think is
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really helpful to clarify a lot of things.
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They talk about essential lordship versus mediatorial
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lordship. Can you break that down for us?
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It is a. Vital distinction to keep our
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theology straight and avoid a lot of historical heresies.
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So essential Lordship refers to what Jesus possesses by his very
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nature, by his essence, so. Because he is God.
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Because. He is God.
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As the eternal Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, He
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is God. This goes right back to John
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1.1. In the beginning was the Word,
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and the Word was with God, and the Word was God and.
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Colossians 1.16 For by him all things were created right.
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As God, Jesus has always been Lord.
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He didn't become Lord when he was born in Bethlehem.
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He didn't become Lord when he rose from the dead.
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He has been the sovereign Lord of the universe from eternity
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past because He shares the same divine essence as the Father and
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the Spirit. OK.
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So that is his buy right of who he is.
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He is God, therefore he is Lord. So what is Mediatorial Lordship?
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Mediatorial lordship is the lordship he's made or given as
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the God man, the mediator, specifically because of his work
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of redemption. We see this very clearly in Acts
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chapter 2 verse 36 where Peter says on the day of Pentecost,
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let all the House of Israel therefore know for certain that
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God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you
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crucified that. Phrasing God has made him Lord
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can be really confusing if you don't have this distinction.
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It could sound like he wasn't Lord before that moment.
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Exactly. And that's how Colts and
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heresies get started. But acts talking about his
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office, his role as the risen king, not his essential nature.
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Think of it this way. The son of a king is always
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royalty by nature, right? That's his essential status.
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But if the king sends his son to go quell rebellion in a distant
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province, and the sun goes and he fights the battle, and he
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feeds the enemy and he restores peace, he returns home with a
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new title. He is now the victor and the
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ruler of that province by right of conquest.
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That is his mediatorial rule. That helps a lot.
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Yeah. So it's the reward for his work.
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It's an earned authority. It's an earned.
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Authority as the God man and it ties directly into Philippians 2
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which we mentioned earlier. The text says that Jesus emptied
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himself, that is. A very controversial phrase.
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What does it mean that he emptied himself?
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Did he stop being God? No.
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Absolutely not, and the sources are very clear on this.
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That is a heresy called canoticism.
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God cannot stop being God. It does not mean he lost his
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divinity. It means he emptied himself of
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his glory and his privileges. He took on the form of a
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servant. He added a human nature to his
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divine nature. He veiled.
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His glory he veiled. His glory, yes, and he lived a
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life of perfect, humble obedience.
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He suffered. He died on a cross.
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He humbled himself to the lowest possible point, and because he.
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Did that because he. Humbled himself, the text says.
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Therefore God has highly exalted him.
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The name Lord in this context is the trophy of His victory.
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He is the second Adam who succeeded Where the first Adam
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failed. The first Adam grasped at
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equality with God and fell. The second Adam already had
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equality with God, laid it aside to serve, and was then raised up
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to rule. So he.
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Is Lord because he is God by nature, and he is Lord because
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he won the war as our representative.
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He won. The war and now he has the right
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to rule the nations as the victorious God, man, King.
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Now the Reformed tradition, which our sources are very much
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grounded in, often organizes Christ's work into 3 distinct
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offices. The threefold office or munis
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triplex that's. Right.
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The Westminster Confession uses this framework.
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It says Jesus executes the office of a prophet, of a priest
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and of a king. And the sources argue you can't
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really understand his lordship without using these three
20:20
buckets. You can't just say he is Lord
20:22
abstractly. You have to ask, well, how does
20:24
he Lord over us? OK.
20:25
Let's walk through them. 1st The office of Prophet A.
20:28
Prophet in the Old Testament is someone who speaks God's words
20:31
to the people. Jesus is the ultimate prophet.
20:34
He doesn't just bring a message from God.
20:36
He is the message from God. He is the word made flesh.
20:39
So what does? That mean for his lordship over
20:41
us it. Means we do not have the right
20:43
to edit his words. If Jesus is Lord and prophet,
20:46
then his teaching is absolutely binding.
20:48
That is a. Hard one for our culture today
20:51
we really like to pick and choose we.
20:52
Do we like the Jesus who talks about love and forgiveness?
20:55
But we might want to take a red pen to the Jesus who talks about
20:59
hell or judgment or specific sexual ethics.
21:03
But the Lordship of Christ as prophet means we submit our
21:06
intellect, our reason, and our feelings to his revelation.
21:10
We don't stand over the Word and judge it.
21:12
We sit under the Word and we let it judge us.
21:14
OK. Then there is the office of
21:16
priest. So a priest represents the
21:18
people before God. He offers sacrifices for sin.
21:22
The source draws really heavily from the book of Hebrews here,
21:25
and the key image, the key posture, is that Jesus sat down
21:29
at the right hand of God. Why is the posture of sitting
21:32
down so significant? What does that tell us?
21:35
Well, think about the Old Testament Tabernacle and temple.
21:37
There were no chairs in the holy place.
21:39
The priests never sat down when they were on duty.
21:42
And the reason is that their work was never done.
21:43
Sin just kept happening. So the sacrifices had to keep
21:46
happening day after day, year after year.
21:48
But Jesus. Sat down.
21:50
He sat. Down.
21:51
Why? Because on the cross, he cried
21:53
out. It is finished, he offered
21:56
himself once for all. The payment was complete.
21:58
The debt was paid in full. There's nothing to add.
22:01
The sources explicitly mention the Roman Catholic Mass here as
22:05
a point of contention. From their theological
22:07
perspective, they. Do, and we should be clear.
22:09
We are reporting the Reformed argument here.
22:12
The Westminster Confession argues that the Mass, by
22:14
suggesting A perpetual sacrifice or a representation of that
22:18
sacrifice, unintentionally undermines the finished work of
22:21
Christ. The argument is that if he is
22:23
Lord and his work as priest is perfect and complete, then he
22:27
now intercedes for us based on a purchase that is already fully
22:30
paid. We don't need to add to it, we
22:31
simply rest in it and. Finally, the office of King this
22:35
is. The office of Rule and dominion,
22:37
the Westminster Confession says he executes this office by
22:40
subduing us to himself, by ruling and defending us, and by
22:43
conquering all his and our enemies.
22:45
This. Leads to the law gospel
22:47
distinction. The source discusses how does
22:49
his kingship relate to law and gospel.
22:51
It's a. Great question.
22:52
Well, as King, he issues commands.
22:55
That is his law and his law, if we're honest, it crushes our
22:58
pride because it shows us that we are rebels.
23:00
It sets a perfect standard that we cannot possibly meet on our
23:03
own. It exposes our spiritual
23:05
bankruptcy. But then.
23:06
The gospel comes in the gospel. Comes in and tells us that this
23:10
very same king died for his rebellious subjects.
23:13
He obeyed the law perfectly in our place.
23:16
So His Lordship as King first breaks us by showing us our sin,
23:20
then it saves us by showing us His grace, and then it defends
23:22
us for all eternity. As King, He protects His people
23:26
from all their enemies that. Is a really beautiful transition
23:29
into the next major section of the source material,
23:32
soteriology, which is the doctrine of salvation.
23:35
The sources tackle a massive and sometimes very heated
23:38
controversy here. It's often called Lordship
23:41
Salvation, this is. Really the meat of the argument
23:43
for many people today. The sources are directly
23:45
addressing a teaching that became quite popular in the 20th
23:48
century, a teaching often called the carnal Christian theory or
23:51
sometimes easy believe ISM OK can.
23:53
You unpack that this is the idea that you can have Jesus as your
23:56
savior to get you out of hell, but you don't necessarily have
24:00
to obey him as Lord in your daily life.
24:02
That's. The idea it suggests you can
24:04
split Jesus in half. You can take the priest part the
24:07
forgiveness of sins, but you can politely decline the king part
24:11
the call to obedience and submission.
24:14
The sources argue that this is a theological monster. 1/2 Christ
24:18
does not exist in the Bible and the.
24:20
Sources are very, very firm on this.
24:22
They argue that you cannot receive Christ as Savior without
24:25
also submitting to him as Lord, They say.
24:27
It's impossible. He is a whole person.
24:29
If you welcome the king into your home, you are by definition
24:33
welcoming his authority. You don't get to tell the king
24:35
he has to sleep in the garage, but I can.
24:36
Hear a listener thinking? Wait a minute, hang on.
24:39
If I have to obey Jesus to be saved, isn't that just workspace
24:43
salvation? Isn't that legalism?
24:45
And that's a serious charge it. Is a serious charge, and it's a
24:48
crucial misunderstanding the sources try so hard to clear up.
24:53
We have to define our terms very carefully.
24:55
They defined faith not as mere intellectual ascent.
24:58
It's not just agreeing with a set of historical facts, like
25:01
agreeing that George Washington was the 1st president.
25:03
So what is? Biblical faith, then biblical.
25:05
Faith is whole soul, trust and submission.
25:08
It is a desperate, clean reliance on Christ for
25:10
everything. And they define repentance not
25:13
just as feeling bad about your sin, but as a fundamental change
25:16
of allegiance, a turning away from your old master sin and
25:20
turning to your new master, Christ the.
25:23
Source points to Romans chapter 6 to really make this point.
25:26
Romans. 6 is the definitive answer to the charge of
25:29
legalism. In this debate, Paul asks the
25:31
rhetorical question, What shall we say then?
25:34
Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
25:37
And his answer is this thunderous?
25:39
By no means. How can we who died to sin still
25:42
live in it? And he talks.
25:44
About slavery, which is a very jarring image for us it.
25:46
Is, but it's his central metaphor.
25:48
He says salvation is a transfer of slavery.
25:51
You used to be a slave to sin. That was your master.
25:53
But now, through faith in Christ, you have been set free
25:57
from that master and have become a slave to righteousness.
26:00
OK. So let's be crystal clear here.
26:02
At least the source clarifies this is not legalism.
26:06
Your obedience, your works, they do not buy your salvation.
26:10
We are justified by faith alone in Christ alone.
26:14
However, the sources argue that the inevitable fruit of that
26:17
justification is obedience. So.
26:19
Obedience is not the root of salvation, it is the fruit of
26:23
salvation perfectly. Said that's the line.
26:25
If the root is alive, there will be apples on the tree.
26:28
It's not the apples that make the tree alive, it's the life in
26:31
the tree that produces the apples.
26:32
But if there are no apples year after year, you have to conclude
26:35
the tree is dead. Exactly.
26:36
If you say Jesus is Lord, but you consistently and
26:39
unrepentantly ignore everything he tells you to do, your actions
26:43
are contradicting your confession as Jesus himself
26:46
asked in Luke chapter 6 verse 46.
26:48
Why do you call me Lord Lord and not do what I tell you that
26:51
question? That question haunts me
26:53
sometimes. It's such a piercing question.
26:55
It is. Meant to be.
26:56
It's meant to strip away all the hypocrisy and self deception.
26:59
Moving. From the individual believer to
27:01
the the really big picture, let's talk esotology, the study
27:05
of the end times. The sources have a very specific
27:08
take on the scope of christ's Kingdom.
27:11
They. Do and they frame it with this
27:14
helpful theological tension of the already and the not yet.
27:17
What does it? Mean already and not yet
27:19
already. Right now Christ is ruling.
27:22
He ascended into heaven. He is seated at the Father's
27:25
right hand. The Bible says he has all
27:27
authority in heaven and on earth.
27:28
He reels the church spiritually from heaven.
27:31
This is what the source is called, the mystery form of the
27:33
Kingdom. The Kingdom is here, but it's,
27:35
you know, it's largely invisible to the naked eye in terms of
27:37
global politics, but it. Was not yet yes.
27:41
And this is obvious. The world is still filled with
27:43
rebellion. Sickness and death still happen.
27:45
War still happen. And this is where the second
27:49
source in our stack is very specific about a premillennial
27:52
expectation for the future. Can you?
27:53
Explain that term premillennialism for the
27:56
listener who might not be familiar with it.
27:57
Sure. Premillennialism is the belief
28:00
that Jesus will return physically to this earth before
28:04
that's the pre the literal thousand year, that's the
28:07
Millennium reign on earth. And the source explicitly
28:11
rejects what is often called replacement theology or
28:13
supersessionism. That's.
28:15
The idea that the church has spiritually replaced the nation
28:19
of Israel and fulfilled all the Old Testament promises in a non
28:22
literal way, right? The source we're looking at
28:25
argues strongly against that. It argues that the promises God
28:27
made to King David about a literal throne and a literal
28:30
Kingdom have to be taken literally.
28:32
So the. Source argues that Jesus must at
28:34
some point in the future, sit on the literal throne of David in
28:38
the literal city of Jerusalem. Yes.
28:40
And the theological argument behind this is about
28:42
vindication. Think about it.
28:44
Christ was rejected on this word.
28:45
He was mocked and beaten on this earth.
28:47
He was judged by a corrupt human court on this earth.
28:50
He was killed in a physical body on this earth.
28:53
So he. Needs to be vindicated on this
28:55
earth. Exactly.
28:56
He must win and reign on the very same stage where he was
29:00
rejected, the source argues. He won't just float in the
29:03
clouds forever. He will return to govern the
29:05
nation's with a rod of iron. He will establish actual
29:08
tangible justice on this planet that.
29:10
Adds a whole lot of weight to the lordship claim.
29:13
It's not just he rules my heart, it is literally he is going to
29:18
run the world it creates. A geopolitical horizon for our
29:21
faith. Jesus is Lord is a statement
29:24
about the future government of the entire earth.
29:26
And that gives us profound hope that the chaos and injustice we
29:29
see all around us has an expiration date.
29:31
OK. Now we get to the part of the
29:32
deep dive where the rubber really meets the road.
29:35
The sources apply this doctrine of lordship to some very
29:38
prickly, very modern issues. They call these provocative
29:41
applications. Let's start with the church
29:43
itself. There's this analogy in the text
29:45
of the church's furniture. I love this analogy.
29:48
It's very visual and very simple.
29:49
The argument is this, if Jesus is the hangs the house and the
29:52
house is the church, then we are just the guests or maybe the
29:55
servants in that house. We do not have the right to
29:58
rearrange the furniture and. This is a direct critique of
30:01
pragmatism in the church, isn't it it?
30:03
Is absolutely. Pragmatism is the philosophy
30:06
that basically says if it works, it's good.
30:09
In the church context, this often manifests as the seeker
30:12
sensitive model. We do whatever we think will
30:15
bring the most people in the door.
30:17
We change. The music we soften the message
30:19
about sin and judgement we shorten the service we had more
30:22
entertainment and the. Source argues that if Jesus is
30:25
Lord, he determines how he is to be worshipped.
30:29
He determines the message. We don't use marketing
30:32
strategies to soften the blow of the gospel.
30:34
We preach the Word. We administer the sacraments.
30:36
We practice Church discipline because the King said so.
30:39
To change the method to suit the culture is a profound insult to
30:43
the master. It is implying that his way
30:45
doesn't work. And they extend the same logic
30:48
to gender roles as well. This is where the text gets very
30:51
controversial. For modern years it.
30:52
Does and we have to be honest and just report what the sources
30:55
say, whether we find it comfortable or not.
30:57
They assert a position of complementarianism.
30:59
What is the? Core argument there based on
31:02
lordship they. Argue that rejecting biblical
31:04
gender roles, specifically male leadership in the church and in
31:08
the home, is a rejection of christ's lordship over creation
31:11
design. The argument presented is that
31:14
if he is Lord, he is Lord of Genesis 1 and two, he gets to
31:18
say how men and women function in relationship to one another.
31:21
He is the architect, we are the building.
31:23
It's not about what is popular or culturally acceptable.
31:26
It is about obeying the architect's blueprint.
31:29
So the. Modern push for egalitarianism
31:31
from this specific perspective is seen as a form of rebellion
31:35
against the Lord's created design, that is.
31:37
How the source frames it, It frames it fundamentally.
31:40
Who gets to decide? Then there is the section on
31:42
identity. Politics.
31:43
There's a buzzword everywhere right now.
31:45
How does Jesus as Lord intersect with things like critical race
31:47
theory and intersectionality? According to the text, the
31:50
source takes a very hard line. Here it rejects the entire
31:53
framework of critical Race theory.
31:55
The argument is that the primary fundamental defining identity of
31:58
a Christian is Doulos Christos, slave of Christ.
32:01
That goes right back to Galatians. 3.28 It does.
32:04
There is neither Jew. Nor Greek slave, nor free, male
32:07
nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
32:11
The source argues that our shared submission to the same
32:14
master obliterates the animosity of social stratifications.
32:17
It's meant to be a radical kind of unity.
32:19
A supernatural unity. The source argues that we
32:21
shouldn't view ourselves primarily as members of an
32:24
oppressed class or an oppressor class based on our race or our
32:27
economics. We should view ourselves
32:29
primarily as fellow slaves of the same gracious king.
32:33
If I am a slave of Christ and you are a slave of Christ, we
32:36
are brothers in a way that transcends every other label.
32:39
The source sees identity politics as a rival religion
32:42
that demands a different kind of allegiance and creates division
32:45
where Christ created unity and finally under.
32:48
These applications, the ultimate clash.
32:51
Personal autonomy. This is the God of our age.
32:54
It is the air we breathe in the West.
32:56
My body, my choice. I define my own truth.
32:58
You do. You live your best life.
33:00
The source sets First Corinthians.
33:01
Chapter 6, verses 19 and 20 directly against this entire
33:06
cultural mood or do you not know that your.
33:09
Body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have
33:12
from God. You are not your own, for you
33:14
are bought with a price that is the ultimate countercultural
33:18
statement. You are not your own.
33:19
It changes everything about how we.
33:21
View ourselves everything. It means I don't own my
33:23
sexuality. I don't own my money, I don't
33:26
own my time, I don't even own my vocational choices.
33:29
If I was bought by a master, my body is his property, So what I
33:33
do in the bedroom is his business.
33:34
Yes, and what I do with. My wallet is his business.
33:38
How I speak to my spouse is his business.
33:40
What I look at on my phone is his business.
33:43
There is no such thing as a private life for a Christian.
33:46
It is all under the jurisdiction of the Lord.
33:48
That sounds incredibly demanding.
33:50
And it is if you just stop there, it might feel completely
33:53
crushing. But the sources, they don't end
33:56
on the demand. They pivot to the deep comfort
33:59
that is found in this very sovereignty.
34:01
And this is so important pastorally.
34:02
We absolutely need to hear this. If Jesus wasn't Lord, if he was
34:07
just a nice teacher, a good moral example, He couldn't help
34:10
you when you get a cancer diagnosis.
34:12
He couldn't help you when you lose your job.
34:14
He would just be a sympathetic bystander, wringing his hands.
34:17
But because he is Lord. Because he is the Lord of
34:20
Providence. Because He is sustaining the
34:22
entire universe by the word of His power.
34:24
As Hebrew says, your suffering is not random.
34:26
The molecules in your body are obeying His command.
34:29
The trajectory of your life is in His hands.
34:31
This is where Romans 8 point. 28 comes in and we know that for
34:35
those who love God, all things work together for good.
34:38
That verse only works. If Jesus is actually in
34:41
sovereign control of the all things, if he is not Lord, if
34:45
he's not in control. That verse is a well meaning but
34:48
ultimately empty lie. The source points out that the
34:51
doctrine of lordship saves us from the black hole of fatalism.
34:55
Fatalism being the. Idea that the universe is just
34:57
cold and random and meaningless, right?
34:59
And it also saves. Us from a shallow, flimsy
35:02
optimism. Instead of either of those, we
35:05
embrace the rule of a good and wise king.
35:08
The one who loves us enough to die for us is the very same one
35:11
who is holding the universe together.
35:13
That is the only solid Rock You can stand on when the waves are
35:16
crashing over your head. It is profound comfort to know.
35:19
That the hands on the wheel of the universe have male scars in
35:21
them. That is a beautiful way to put.
35:23
It we can trust His sovereign power because we know His
35:26
sacrificial heart, we are coming to the end of our time.
35:29
Yeah, and the sources, they wrap up with a final summons, they
35:32
really emphasize a sense of urgency.
35:34
The conclusion is very stark. The Lordship of Christ is not
35:37
optional. It's not a secondary tier of
35:39
Christianity for the Super spiritual.
35:41
You don't make him Lord, you bow to him as Lord.
35:45
And the dichotomy they present. Is incredibly simple.
35:47
It is you either bow your knee. Now in repentance and find a
35:50
gracious Savior or you will bow your knee later in judgement and
35:54
find a righteous judge. But everyone bows.
35:57
Philippians 2 guarantees it. That's the take away.
36:00
It is unavoidable. It is, and it leaves us.
36:02
With that provocative closing thought about the Masters House
36:05
that we touched on a little earlier, right, I'm going to
36:07
leave the listener with that final.
36:08
Image Imagine you walk into your own home after a long trip, put
36:12
the key in the door. You walk in and you find a
36:14
stranger there. He's in your living room.
36:18
He's rearranging your furniture. He's painting your walls a color
36:21
you absolutely hate. He's changing all your house
36:24
rules. You would be outraged.
36:26
You would call. The police, you'd say, get out
36:28
of my house, This is my house and the question the source
36:31
leaves us. With is this how much more
36:33
offense does the Church 'cause when we try to edit the masters
36:36
commands, when we try to make the gospel more palatable to the
36:40
culture, or the worship more entertaining, or the ethics more
36:43
modern? We are rearranging the furniture
36:45
in a house we do not own. We are guests and servants.
36:49
Not the owners. We need to remember whose name
36:51
is on the deed. That is a sobering thought to.
36:53
Leave on Jesus is Lord is a dangerous, demanding confession,
36:59
but it is the only one that saves.
37:01
Thank you for diving deep with us today.
37:03
It was a pleasure, a real. Privilege, and to our listener.
37:07
Thanks for joining Reform Thinking.
37:09
Go read the sources, open your Bibles, and we will see you on
37:12
the next deep dive.