C, Lent 1 - Romans 10:8b-9 "Jesus is Lord"
If there is one sin, which single-handedly is destroying the church and our society, it is a sin where people deliberately seek to compete with each other.
This sin is one which every person loathes, both inside and outside the church, because this sin brings us into direct conflict with each other. In fact the more we loath this sin in others, the more we’re usually unconscious of it in ourselves. The more this sin is engrained in our being, the more we detest it in everyone else.
What is the sin? What is this ultimate sin that threatens your relationships with each other and with God? What is the number one complete anti-God state of being? Let’s ponder that for a moment and come back to it in a while!
In Romans ten, we hear, ‘“The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’ (Romans 10:8-9)
Jesus is Lord! Let’s all confess it together… Jesus is Lord!
What does it mean to confess Jesus is Lord and to believe in one’s heart that God raised him? What does saying it and believing it do?
None of us can say these words in a vacuum; without something already having happened in us. Before we can believe “Jesus is Lord” in our hearts — something must act on us from outside ourselves and our sinful human condition — someone from outside our anti-God state of being must come.
In fact it takes a sacrifice to say “Jesus is Lord” and to believe in our hearts he truly has been raised from the dead. When we say Jesus is LORD, what are we actually saying?
This sacrifice in saying and believing Jesus is Lord, is explained a little further by the words at the end of Romans 10:9, which tell us if you confess and believe, you will be saved.
In our human condition we once protested against this statement, saying in our anti-God state of being, “There is nothing wrong with me, I don’t need to be saved — I’m doing just fine!” And every time the old Adam is revived in us, up rises this old anti-God attitude.
But we need saving, because we don’t do fine by ourselves, there is something wrong with everyone born under Adam, and if left untreated all of us would be on the highway to hell. If we are to believe Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from the grave, we have to believe these horrible things about ourselves and humanity too.
So if Jesus is Lord over us, and we believe God has raised him, what is he as our Lord? What is a lord?
The upper house of parliament in
Lords are above us! They are masters over us. Is Jesus our master? What does a master require? To be under a master demands we are completely obedient to his rule and laws, or else! So when we say “Jesus is Lord”, are we saying he is our master and we are obedient?
If Jesus is our master, why do we struggle to be obedient? In fact, when we admit to being sinners, we admit to being disobedient.
So over what is Jesus master? He became master in his perfect obedience and in his innocent death. When we say Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts, God raised him from the grave, we believe Jesus is master over sin and death.
If in saying Jesus is Lord, and we think of him as our master, under whom we are to be obedient, then doesn’t our continual sinning show this confession of Lord to be a lie?
Therefore, this still leaves the question, how is Jesus our Lord? In summarising the second article of the creed in the Large Catechism Luther says this: the little word “Lord” very simply means the same as Rescuer. That is, he is the one who has led us back from the devil to God, from death to life, from sin to righteousness — and keeps us there. (LC, 2nd Art, 31)
He is the one who has mastered sin and death for us. Jesus humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. He placed himself under God and his word and in his death and resurrection brought all glory to God and saved us. So Jesus is Lord because Jesus is our Rescuer and saves us from our disobedience leading to death and destruction.
Now back to the sin, which separates us from each other and God. In his humility Jesus resisted the devil’s temptations in the wilderness for forty days. If it was you or me, with all the power and authority of God, we would have competed with the devil, and tried to conquer him. But Jesus doesn’t do this here.
He could have done what the devil had said. In fact, he could have completely throttled him! But if he did, why would he have done it? Instead he went the way of humility; which led him to the cross and to death. He went in full obedience to the Father, and God raised him from death and made him master over sin, death, and the devil.
When we face the temptations of our old Adam, the world, and the devil, the worst sin takes over, and we fall into the temptation that we can do it ourselves. This sin is the opposite of humility. Our sin is pride.
In humility Christ put pride aside and suffered in obedience to God. When we are moved by pride we fall straight back under the masters of sin and death. Pride made the devil fall from God’s grace. Unlike Christ, Adam’s pride led him and Eve to listen to the devil and eat, and then turn away from the word of God. It is pride making us think …we are ok …we are better than others …we can do enough to be masters of our own destiny …and to even say, “Lord, Lord, look what I’ve done!”
But the Rescuer comes to us and saves us. He places the Spirit in us to make us holy and shine on Christ who is in us rescuing us. He continually wills us to sacrifice pride, all the other sins, and the sinful nature that guts our humanity and separates us from God. When we confess Jesus is Lord, we humbly hang our sin on Jesus’ death and believe in our hearts he will raise us from the grave too.
In humility the Holy Spirit gives you the words, Lord Jesus Christ, Lamb of God, have mercy on me. God hears the Son in you, he sees the master over sin and death in you; God sees the cross and forgives you all your sins for Jesus’ sake. Jesus is Lord! Amen.
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