THURSDAY April 25th
Romans 8:37-39
‘No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.’
As we come to the end of this chapter, (I will turn to it again tomorrow) today I want to consider the last four words ‘Christ Jesus our Lord’.
This is such a comprehensive title, Christ – reveals that he is the sent one, the anointed one, the promised and long waited for Messiah. Jesus is the earthly name which his parents were instructed to give him at his birth, it is the equivalent to the Old Testament Joshua which means God is salvation and Lord which is self-explanatory, to include that he is the exalted one.
But Paul includes the word ‘our’, signifying that as we have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we not only see him as the exalted Lord, but we allow him to become Lord in our lives. He is Lord, he is MY Lord. In the great exaltation passage in Philippians 2, we are reminded that God has exalted him and given him the name which is above every other name, so that every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
The day is coming when EVERY knee will bow and EVERY tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and it will not be optional. But praise the Lord, that for each of us who have come to know Jesus we willingly confess in the here and now that Jesus Christ is Lord, we often declare it, either in prayer, through the reading of Scripture and the singing of songs, we can think of the little chorus, He is Lord, He is Lord, he is risen from the dead and he is Lord, or perhaps Jesus is Lord, creations voice proclaims it, songs that declare his Lordship, then there is a song that we use where we are personally declaring Jesus to be our Lord, Jesus MY Lord will love me forever.
But there is a vast difference to singing and saying the words than to allowing it to truly be the reality in our lives, Jesus needs to be, he must be Lord of our lives, that is that in coming to faith, we rely on him not just to be our Saviour, but we allow him to be Lord over all things. It is the surrendering of our lives over to that which he has a right to demand from us, it is putting him first in all things, it is giving him priority in our daily lives and in our weekly agenda. He is either Lord of all or not Lord at all, is a phrase that is often quoted, and we need to ensure that if we declare he is Lord that we allow him to be Lord. This should affect every choice and decision we make every day, in our own lives, in our families and homes, in our education and employment, in our relationship towards the family of God and for fellowship.