What kind of Lord?
“Jesus is Lord.”
This is the first and most essential confession of a follower of Jesus Christ. St. Paul wrote in Romans 10:9-10, “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.” Saving faith clings to Jesus as Savior, yes, but also bows to Him as Lord and King and Master.
Pastor and author David Mathis asks this question at desiringgod.org, and his answer is worth meditating on:
What kind of Lord is Jesus? The kind who not only deserves our obedience, but wins our admiration. He is the kind of King we not only acknowledge with our taxes and military service, but with our adoration and delight.
He is not a selfish lord, but a self-sacrificing lord. He’s not a mean lord, but a kind one. He is not the insecure, cowardly Prince John who opposed Robin Hood, but the winsome, magnanimous King Richard, a king for whose return his subjects longed. He is not a lord like Scar, but like Mufasa. Not Denethor, but Aragorn. Not the White Witch, but Aslan.
He is the kind of Lord who is also our greatest treasure — a lord so good that we would sell all that we have to be his glad servants giving ourselves to the treasure he is (Matthew 13:44). He is our Pearl of Greatest Price (Matthew 13:45–46). Not only have we seen that he is powerful, but we “have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:3). He is not a lord we disdain, but one we admire. He is a giving lord, not an exacting lord (Matthew 18:27). He is “the Lord Jesus Christ himself . . . who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace” (2 Thessalonians 2:16).
He is not just “Lord,” but also “Treasure.” He is the kind of lord in whom we delight.
So, Providence parent, Jesus is Lord, the kind of lord whom we treasure and in whom we delight. If this is so, then the following is good news.
Jesus is Lord of your heart and of your mind. He is Lord of your body and your soul. He is Lord of your thoughts and your words and your actions and your choices. He is Lord of your hands and feet, your past and future, your private and public life. He is Lord of your job, your marriage, your home, every room in your home, your family, your friendships, your weekdays, your weekends, your phone. He is Lord of your children and your childrearing, your checkbook, and your church. He is Lord of your car and your commute, your neighbors and your neighborhood. He is Lord of what your eyes see, what your ears hear, and what your hands touch. He is Lord of your loyalties, your commitments, your decisions. He lays claim to all of you and invites you to submit everything you are and have to His gracious rule.
Jesus is Lord of Providence Classical Christian School. He is Lord of the headmaster, the teachers, and the board. He is Lord of our classrooms and play fields and hallways and parking lots and car lines. He is Lord of the curriculum and lessons and liturgies and school rules. He is Lord of the school’s philosophy and goals and practices and campus plans. He is Lord of both young and old students at work and play. He is Lord of their learning and loving, their teams and classes and houses, their work and imagination and creativity and relationships. He is Lord of every thought, every conversation, every assignment, every correction, every intention, every plan, every explanation, every fact, every truth, every book, every project, every paper, every test, every sentence, every spelling word, every math problem, every song, every desk, every jumping jack. He claims all of our school and invites us to submit it all to Him as an offering of worship and love.
Jesus is Lord!
To close with a few more words from Mathis,
What kind of treasure is he? Not a thing we buy and hide and rule over, but a person we gladly obey and to whom we happily give our allegiance. This is the kind of Lord-Treasure he is.
And Jesus not only stands above us and receives our worship, but he is the one who stooped so low for us and got beneath us to serve us. He is the kind of Treasure who did not regard equality with God to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking our form and being born in our likeness. And as human, he humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:6-8). This is the kind of Savior-Treasure he is. This is the kind of Savior for whom we would “count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).
Amen.