This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, His Unquestioned Lordship.
Who is baby Jesus? There are many wrong answers, and one right answer.
For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
It is one thing to say, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” It is another thing to mean it.
What did the word “Lord” mean to the shepherds in Luke 2? It meant Jehovah, God Almighty. When the angel said, “A Savior which is Christ the Lord,” he meant, “He is co-equal and co-eternal with the Almighty.”
The name Jesus means, “Jehovah saves.” That name Jehovah is used 7,000 times in the Old Testament, and the King James Version of the Bible translates it as “Lord.”
When a pious Jew was reading Scripture and came to that word, Jehovah, he would bow his head and worship. He would never even pronounce the word, he held it in such awe. And here is an angel saying, “There is born a Savior who is Christ the Lord.”
In the Bible, Jesus is called “Lord” far more than He is called “Savior.” Jesus is called “Lord” 747 times in the New Testament.
The question is not, “Will you make Him Lord?” Jesus is Lord.
Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.
The question is, “Will you submit to His Lordship?”
You cannot receive what Jesus gives (salvation) and refuse who Jesus is (Lord). Jesus is what kind of Savior? “A Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (see Luke 2:11).
You cannot come to Jesus and say, “I’ll have a little salvation today, but no Lordship, thank you.” Confessing Jesus’ Lordship is the only way to be saved. (See Romans 10:9-10.)
Why did Jesus step out of Heaven? Why did He settle the dust with His blood?
For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Have you bowed the knee to Jesus Christ?
We cannot confess Christ as Lord and serve any other master. He Himself said, “No man can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24a).
“Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child” (Luke 2:17). The shepherds’ lives were now transformed. They had a testimony. Their lives were drastically changed and narrowed.
Think what it meant, in that day, for these shepherds to worship baby Jesus. Think what it meant for a Gentile to say, “Christ is Lord.”
Rome held sway over the world. The emperor was Caesar, and to the Romans, he was a god.
So for a person to say, “Jesus is Lord” was costly, because they were saying, “Caesar is not.” That is why so many Christians were put to death. They could have gotten along splendidly if they had put Jesus in a niche in the Pantheon with the other gods. But they said,
Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
After you bow the knee to Christ, there is only one question to ask. It is what Paul asked on the road to Damascus: “Lord, what do You want me to do?” (Acts 9:6b). This simplifies Christian service. The best advice ever given was what Mary said to the servants the day Jesus turned water into wine: “Whatever He says to you, do it” (John 2:5b).
Your life is to please Jesus. If you please Jesus, it does not matter whom you displease. The way to please the Lord Jesus Christ is to obey Him.
What is Lordship? The Lordship of Jesus Christ means He comes first. “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).
We need not fear what Satan does when we know who Jesus is. There is one fear that removes all other fears, and that is the fear of God. Baby Jesus was born to take away fear.
Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Emphasis added.)
The word “Christ” comes from the Greek word Christos, which is a translation of the Old Testament word “Messiah.”
Why did the Messiah come? To crush Satan’s kingdom. The first prophecy in the Bible is this:
So the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field….And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”
This is a strange passage. The old rabbis used to scratch their heads, because “seed” comes from the man, not the woman. Notice that Adam is not mentioned in Genesis 3:15 at all. So here is a woman who will have a descendant: a virgin-born child, who would crush Satan’s head.
Confessing that Jesus is Lord subdues Satan. “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death” (Revelation 12:11). Your testimony is, “Jesus Christ is Lord. I belong to Him and He belongs to me.”
Why the Virgin Birth of Jesus? Why did He take on flesh and blood? Christ Jesus was incarnated so that He could die.
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil…
When you say, “My sin is under the blood of Jesus Christ; He is my Lord and Savior, and I will follow Him anywhere, at any cost,” then you will find out that the devil cowers. Satan trembles at a holy Christian.
Be on the offensive. Satan will try to mold you into this world’s system. But when you not only believe in your heart but also confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you will get bolder and bolder.
Luke 2:10-11,17; Acts 2:36, 4:12; Romans 10:9-10, 14:9; Matthew 6:24,33; Acts 9:6; John 2:5; Genesis 3:14-15; Revelation 12:11; Hebrews 2:14
But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: “As I live, says the LORD, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”
Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
…He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
