Jesus is Lord
The saying "Jesus is Lord" serves as a statement of faith for millions of Christians
who regard Jesus as both fully man and fully God. It is also the motto adopted by the
World Council of Churches and by Kenneth
Copeland Ministries.
Interpretation as a creed
Various Christian sects have argued over how to tell whether one is a Christian or not. They wrote creeds that acted as a sine qua non for membership within the fellowship. The statement "Jesus is Lord" has been described as the most basic Christian creeds in existence.
Romans 10:9 of the New Testament Christian Bible says, "That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus as Lord,' and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved."[1]
It is important to distinguish between the statement that Jesus is a Lord or Messiah figure versus stating that Jesus is LORD (all caps), the popular Hebrew euphemism for the tetragrammaton.
Interpretation as a political statement
The statement "Jesus is Lord" has been interpreted to assert that Christians should be involved in political process of their times. During the first century the phrase Jesus is Lord was intended by early Christians as a political contrast to the popular greeting amongst Roman citizens —- Caesar is Lord. This statement meant that Jesus himself and the early Christians were seen as a political threat. In the Roman world Caesar had come to view himself as Lord and was not open to being challenged. The statement that "Jesus is Lord" in its context was a statement that was viewed as political subversion, a direct challenge to the prevailing establishment and therefore meant that politics and religion were inextricably linked.
References
- Sources consulted
- Endnotes
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