…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. (Romans 10:9-10, ESV)
In every generation, one player seems to rise above all the rest. Consider Harry Vardon, Walter Hagen, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Greg Norman, Tiger, and Rory.
As an up-and-comer, it is reasonable to believe Scottie is the early favorite to wear the crown of golf’s next dominant player. We will have to wait and see if Scottie can stretch his current dominance over a decade.
And it was not as if these men were competing against “rank amateurs.” Each of these dominant players had to compete against formidable opponents— Hogan had to duel with Byron Nelson and Sam Snead. These men were indeed in a “class by themselves.”
Speaking of, the late coach of the Houston Oilers, Bum Phillips, was once asked by a reporter, “Is Earl Campbell in a class by himself?” This Stetson-hat-cowboy-boot-wearing coach replied, “I don’t know if he is in a class by himself, but it sure don’t take long to call the roll.”
If there were ever a “class of one,” we would not find it on the merely human plane of existence. That recognition can only belong to Jesus Christ!
For centuries, some scholars have tried in vain to reduce the historical Jesus of Nazareth to an exceptionally erudite rabbi, a misguided but prescient prophet, or an outstanding ethicist.
However, none of these reductionistic characterizations comes within a million miles of accurately describing or accounting for the greatness of Jesus, the Messiah.
The attempt by so many to reproduce a view of Jesus from within a naturalistic view of the world fails repeatedly. When they begin with the presupposition that there is nothing outside the world of time and space, invariably, they must shoe-horn Jesus into a class of other recognizably great humans—that list is an exceedingly long roll call.
But when one turns to Scripture and the portrayal of him found in the writings of prophets and apostles, they will quickly see Jesus is in a “class of one.”
When the Word of God says that “Jesus is Lord,” it is not merely classifying him in a category from the Middle Ages, as in the feudal Lord of the Manor; instead, it declares Jesus is God!
The word “Lord” (Kyrios) is the Greek translation of Yahweh, the Hebrew word for God. Therefore, to declare him as Lord is to declare Jesus is God. As such, he has all divine authority, sovereignty, and power.
Furthermore, recognizing Jesus as Lord, one rightly understands that he reigns over all the Cosmos; creation, history, and humanity are divinely governed by “God the Son.”
Or, put more simply, when we hear prophets and apostles declaring that Jesus is LORD, we should understand them to mean that Jesus is “God come into human existence.” In other words, we are not dealing with a mere mortal.
The One who existed from all eternity— before space and time— the One who created the world, and the One who entered his own creation to die in our place, taking the punishment for our rebellion and betrayals, is the LORD.
When we recognize Jesus as Lord—God the Son—the relevance of that reality should not be lost on us. We must simultaneously bow before him as Lord to claim him as Savior. Or, to put it more provocatively, Jesus cannot be our Savior while we deny his Lordship over our lives.
Proper recognition and submission to Jesus as Lord means nothing else takes priority over our lives; our ultimate allegiance, affections, and adoration find their rightful place at the footstool of his throne.
He is King, after all!
Prayer: May we see you as you truly are!