Jesus: The LORD

I. The LORD in the Old Testament

As in English, the language of the Old Testament (Hebrew) has various ways to name or identify the divine being. The word Elohim is the one translated by the English word “God.” Another word, Adon, means “Lord, Master.” But there is a third term that is more important for us to understand because this term was given to us by God Himself.

In Exodus 3, Moses encounters God at the burning bush. God tells Moses that He has heard the groaning of the Israelites and has resolved to deliver them from slavery in Egypt. Moses is unsure of himself as the messenger for this God as asks Him who he should say sent him. God replies in the strangest way. He says to tell them that “I AM has sent you.” This single Hebrew word which we translate “I AM” forms the basis for the very name of God and it is a proper name in the same way that you and I have proper names. The Hebrew word is Yahweh and it was never said aloud. You might see this word represented by the four letters: YHWH. Whenever the word was supposed to be said (for example, when a person was reading Scripture in the synagogues), they would substitute the word Adonai for this word.

In the 2^nd century before Christ, when the rabbis translated the Bible from Hebrew to Greek (the most popular language of the day), they used the Greek phrase ego eimi to translate this holy name of God. The Greek phrase means “I (myself) am.” The Greek-speaking Jewish people were much more cavalier in using this Greek phrase, because it is not the exact words the God said to Moses. The Hebrew remained unutterable, but the Greek was often used.

In your English translations of the Old Testament, you’ll find the word “Lord” substituted for the occurrence of YHWH, but in a special way: LORD. This unique capitalization tells you that the Hebrew word being used in the original is the holy name of God: I AM. It means that first of all, God is a person (as opposed to being some abstract force). It is a covenantal name which shows that God has entered into relationship with the person addressed. This name means that God is ever reigning as the all powerful and sovereign ruler of the earth and he is also present with his people at all times and in all situations.

A second important Scripture for us to note is Deut. 6:4, which would have been the first verse that an Israelite child would have memorized. This verse functioned with the Israelites much in the same way that a creed functions with many Christians. It is a brief statement of belief. Not surprisingly, the lordship of God is emphasized throughout this verse, summarizing much of the message of the entire OT. Theologian John Frame has said this, “The first thing, and in one sense the only thing, we need to know about God is that he is the Lord. Surely no name, no description of God, is more central to Scripture than this” (The Doctrine of God, 21).

II. Jesus’ Usage of YHWH

Last semester, we looked at how Jesus is a prophet, not only in how we speaks the word of the LORD, but how (according to John 1:1) He is the word of the LORD. Yet here, Jesus places a great deal of distance between Himself and other OT prophets such as Elijah, Jeremiah, or Malachi. He does not claim to speak some external “word of the LORD,” but owns this idea personally by saying “I AM.”

In John 8, Jesus calls Himself ‘the light of the world’ and the Pharisees basically call him a liar. In their eyes, He is a mere man incapable of claiming such a title for Himself. He tells the Pharisees that they are judging by the wrong standards and don’t really know what they are talking about. He then predicts His own death and tells the disciples that if they want to have eternal life, they must abide in Him. The Pharisees rail Jesus for this, claiming to have Abraham as the father of their faith. They don’t need this Jesus; they have Abraham. Jesus denies them this privilege because Abraham rejoiced in seeing Christ. The Pharisees are flabbergasted at this saying because Abraham had been dead for 2,000 years at this point. How could Abraham have seen Jesus? Jesus resolves this paradox by saying, “Before Abraham was, I AM.”

To us, we may not see the resolution to the problem of time. The saying seems cryptic, almost stupid. What is Jesus saying here? Well, He is not saying that He has preexistence. He would have said, “Before Abraham was, I was” if this is what He was meaning. Rather, Jesus here claims to be YHWH, the very incarnation of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This story in John 8 is one of the most intriguing in the entire gospel because here we have Jesus identifying Himself with the God that the Pharisees claimed to revere and serve.

This is precisely how the Pharisees understood the statement because they intended to stone Jesus, the proper punishment for blasphemy according to the law (Lev. 24:16).

The implications of this identification were as clear to the audiences then as they are now: we have two options in dealing with this person—either he is a blasphemer and worthy of death or He is telling the truth and must be revered and served. This word-picture is nothing less than a full-scale equation of the man Jesus Christ with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

This “I AM” formula and the implications of it are the background of all the seven “I AM” statements that we will study over the next seven weeks. Each begins with that same Greek phrase (ego eimi) that is meant to signify to us the very name of God (Hebrew: YHWH) and the metaphor (bread of life, light of the world, good shepherd, etc.) that follows is meant to communicate some aspect of attribute of the way in which Jesus exhibits the rule and love of God to His people.

The Lordship of Jesus is perhaps the essence of Christianity. What does it mean when Christians say, “Jesus is Lord”? Are you aware that in the period of early church, if you said this phrase in public, you would be in effect signing your own death wish? Lordship means that it is to this person or thing that you owe your ultimate allegiance. The person or thing that you call “lord” is the person or thing you value most. It is the person or thing that dictates how you will act and whom you will serve in a given situation. The Greek word for lord used in the New Testament is the word kyrios. When this Greek word is translated into Latin, you get the word Caesar. In the Roman Empire, the Caesar was the most powerful person in the world (Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar, Octavian Caesar, etc.). And so when we call Jesus “Lord,” we are saying that he is the supreme authority over the life of the church and over believers. He is the one to whom we owe ultimate allegiance.

This idea of the Lordship of Jesus was so critical to the early church, because the lines were much more clearly drawn then than now. To say that the Roman Emperor was lord (Caesar) meant paying tribute to him and worshipping his gods (polytheism), but saying that Jesus is Lord meant forsaking all of these things, even if it cost you your life (and often it did). Today, it is common to hear people talk about Jesus being their Savior at one point in their life and then becoming Lord at another point in their life. However, these two ideas go hand-in-hand. If Jesus is your Savior, he must be your Lord. If he is not your Lord, he is not your Savior. So if you consider yourself a Christian, you must come to terms with this lordship over your life.

So here are a few points to think about in making the confession that Jesus is Lord, which is the most simple, but most encompassing statement that a Christian can make. I hope these will help you in seeing the gracious way in which Jesus Christ is our Lord:

1. Lordship does not mean that God is a distant and angry judge who just waiting to destroy you. Rather, the Bible describes God’s lordship in terms of being a loving Father to his children and a gentle Husband to his bride.

2. Confessing Jesus as Lord does not mean that you are claiming to be perfect or that your heart never looks to idols. None of us are perfect and all of us idolize things. What calling Jesus “Lord” means is that fundamentally, the desire of your heart is to serve Jesus Christ (and no other), even in the midst of your shortcomings and failures. It means that you are looking to him as your only hope in this life, as the only one who can lead you through this life and into the next.

3. Confessing Jesus as Lord does not mean that you are a robot or a puppet on a string. Rather, it means that you do not belong to yourself (you are not autonomous), but belong to God. This should bring us a great deal of joy because we can know that no matter what happens to us, God will care for us and guide us in paths of righteousness for his namesake.