The Apostles’ Creed: God The SonSample

Jesus as Lord: Romans 10:9, 13

When the New Testament calls Jesus Lord, it is translating the Greek word kurios. Kurios was a rather common word meaning ruler or master, and it was even used as a polite form of address, like the English word “sir.” As such, kurios was frequently applied to mere human beings, as in Matthew 10:24, Luke 12:36-47, Ephesians 6:5-9, and many other places.

At the same time, the New Testament also used the word kurios as a name for God, as in Matthew 11:25, Luke 1:16, Acts 2:39, and many other passages. Given this range of meaning, why should we think that the use of the word kurios in the New Testament implies that Jesus is divine? Why shouldn’t we think that it simply refers to his earthly authority or honor?

Consider what Paul wrote in Romans 10:9, 13: 

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... [F]or, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:9, 13).

In verse 13 of this passage Paul quoted Joel 2:32 in order to prove that everyone who calls on the name of Jesus will be saved. But in this verse from Joel in the Hebrew Old Testament, the name of the Lord was Yahweh, the proper name of God. Put simply, when Paul said that Jesus is Lord, he meant that Jesus is Yahweh, the Lord and God of the Old Testament.

Other New Testament passages that equate Jesus with God in the Old Testament include Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3 and John 1, where Jesus is the Lord from Isaiah 40 whose path John the Baptist has prepared. We see the same dynamic in Hebrews 1:10, where the Lord Jesus is the God that Psalm 102:24-25 credit with creating the world. The list could go on and on.

Now, this is not to say that every time people in the New Testament called Jesus “Lord,” they recognized his divinity. Sometimes they simply intended to show him human respect. But when the church formally confesses that Jesus is Lord, as we do in the Apostles’ Creed, we are affirming the biblical teaching that Jesus Christ is God, and that as God he is a full member of the Trinity, with the same divine attributes as the Father and the Holy Spirit.