Confessing “Jesus is Lord” – Brad Jersak

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Confessing “Jesus is Lord”

The Bible makes four profound claims about confessing “Jesus is Lord” that defy doctrinal certitude but function to invite faith. 

Romans 10:9 — Those who confess “Jesus is Lord” will be saved.

  • “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.”

1 Corinthians 12:3 — No one can confess “Jesus is Lord” except by the Spirit. 

  • “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.”

Matthew 7:21 — Some who confess “Jesus is Lord” will not enter the kingdom. 

  • “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” 

Philippians 2 — Everyone will ultimately confess “Jesus is Lord.” 

  • “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that as the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”

A close reading of these four passages may raise eyebrows, and for literalists, probably also their dander, because a simple harmony is not possible. Indeed, forcing them to fit violates the biblical text far more than standing pat in puzzlement. Yet even if what the verses say is difficult to hold together, what the verses do (letting them do their work) may prove highly beneficial.

First, to those like the Philippian jailor who ask, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul answers, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household” (Acts 16:31). While we hear other criteria describing ‘saving faith’ across the New Testament, Paul’s answer here is similar to the saving confession of Romans 10:9, likely recited in conjunction with NT believers’ baptism. The verse functions to assure those who know their need for grace and turn to Christ that they do indeed belong to him and will experience his life—and that abundantly (John 10:10). 

The second passage, from Paul’s Epistle to Corinth, answers another question. Against the backdrop of divisive chaos in their charismatic services, some believers were using their gifts as occasions to create social and spiritual hierarchies. Others were manifesting charismatic gifts that were reminiscent of their pagan backstories. Through chapters 12-14, Paul brings a word of correction that begins with their unifying foundational confession, “Jesus is Lord,” and functions to steer them back to Jesus’ fundamental spiritual practice: unselfish love. 

Unfortunately, even the assurance of our confession and the unity it should invoke does not allow for “Jesus is Lord” to function as a hollow slogan that licenses presumption or false claims of discipleship. Jesus’ warning about some who say, “Lord, Lord” to him alerts us to charlatans who misuse the phrase as an incantation or even an opportunity to deceive the vulnerable. Pasting it as a banner over a huckster’s ministry doesn’t magically guarantee the presence of the kingdom, so Jesus says, “Beware. Beware of false teachers and beware of becoming a false disciple.” In this passage, his words function as a call beyond claims and into doing the will of his Father.

Typically, Jesus’ warnings may slide off the greasy hubris of haughty people while deeply unnerving those who least need to worry, especially the anxious among us. Gratefully, the Spirit of God knows our hearts better than we do. As John the Beloved wrote, even “If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:20). God knows, for example, that the solution to our anxiety is not in reviving our unreliable certitude. Instead, it is by leading us back to trust, to gazing on Jesus, to seeing the crucified and exalted (as in Philippians 2). And the fruit of that vision is the revelation that one day, “Every eye shall see him” (Revelation 1:7), and when we do, Paul proclaims that every tongue will joyfully confess, “Jesus is Lord.” Again, the passage functions not to renew complacent claims but to center our confidence in Christ alone.  

To recap, despite the difficulty we would have in juggling what these four beautiful verses say, we can experience them as God’s powerful message to us as they function to invite us to faith, restore us to love, warn us of presumption, and reassure our faith that Jesus is indeed Lord of all, or as Dame Julian once said as she beheld the Lord Jesus, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”   

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