Man — referring especially to His coming again in glory spoken of in Daniel 7:13; — Son of Cod (I John 4:15); Alpha and Omega, Saviour; the Annointed One; and the list involves several hundred terms. Since we know that Jesus Christ is Cod, why is the name Lord the name which is above every other? Why not some familiar title God will one day give Him? The most important reason is that this title identifies the Lord Jesus Christ with God Himself. This truth is eas ily seen in both the Creek and Hebrew usage of the word. The Greeks used it as citizens of Rome to acknowledge the divinity of Caesar. It was an imperial title, never used of the emperors until they were thought to have become gods through a religious sacrifice and ceremony. Christians who would not say these words were later singled out and executed. A believer in those days insisted that Jesus was Lord and not Caesar. The same meaning is present when the word occurs in Hebrew, only more so. It is one of the great names for Cod in the Old Testament, as well as in other Jewish writings. In He brew speech it replaced the per sonal name of God since no Jew ever pronounced the word Jehovah even when reading the Scriptures. Against this background it is easy to see that not only in popular speech but also in Jewish literature Jehovah became synonomous as the personal name of Cod. Conse quently, when the early Christians who lived in the New Testament period made their confession that Jesus Christ was Lord, they were actually confessing He was the God of Israel. This should be our happy
... that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of Cod the Father." While the name of Jesus was given to Him at H:<; birth, now Cod gives Him an even greater name which is that of Je hovah. We might illustrate it in this manner. Suppose that a king was about to bestow an honor on a subject who had never previous ly distinguished himself at all. The only names the person had re ceived from anyone were things like "scroundrel," "crook," "good- for-nothing" and the like. Because of his distinguished service to his sovereign he had done something deserving the monarch's recogni tion. The honor would not be to title him with "sir" and use one of his former names. He would be known by his proper calling, if not even higher. Suppose there were another subject who was a brave knight of the realm who had al ready distinguished himself and been properly decorated on many occasions. Rising to high honors already in the land, how could the king show him even further appre ciation? The ruler would have to reach for the highest title at his disposal, if not to create some thing special to do him justice. While the analogy is admittedly weak, it does picture for us what God did for His Son, our Saviour. He was abased by man but now honored by His heavenly Father. The glory of this new title must be measured against all of His other wonderful names and attributes. Think of the titles already appropri ately bestowed upon Christ. There are such things as Messiah, Son of
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