God the Father & the Lord Jesus Christ

One of the challenges of familiarity is that assumptions are made that don’t get to the heart & truth of things. Often reading the Bible, there are passages that just don’t register... the words each make sense, that it is true is acknowledged & accepted. . . but one leaves the passage knowing there is more there, so much more. What has registered is frustration and the lack of understanding, not the life of the word. One can continue to try and press into the verse thru study aids and much thinking, without ever finding the life in the passage. Life only comes in the Spirit and life from the word only comes from spiritual understanding. The invitation of God is that in Christ we come into knowledge and understanding, and the hope of Paul in Colossians 2 is that God’s people would reach the riches of these things – the assurance, the strength, the hope that comes from knowing Christ “. . . in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” One of those passages that didn’t register to me is Ephesians 4:5,6 : “. . . one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Lord and God had become interchangeable titles and in praying, Lord and God meant the same thing. . . it became an assumption. But the passage presents them separately. So does 1 Corinthians 8:6: “ yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” “One God. . . and one Lord. . .” doesn’t register when they are interchangeable. It remained a jumble of things. . . the Lord God, Jesus is God, Christ is the Lord. While all true, the confusion didn’t help understanding of the passages. And even when it registered that there was more to the passages, and there was hunger for more, the best at the time was to live with the mystery. Most of Paul’s letters to the churches have a similar greeting: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Peter opened his: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” At the start of his letter, James describes himself as “. . . a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. . .” And as you survey the entire New Testament, Lord is a position reserved almost exclusively for Jesus. “Lord God” is found in the New Testament. . . in quotes of Old Testament passages, and in Revelation at the summing up of all things. Yet throughout the entire testament Jesus Christ is proclaimed as Lord, and that as distinct from God the Father: “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” “every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” “thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” “God raised the Lord and will also raise us up” “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” “we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ” “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” “do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” “may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you” “according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” “the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus” “May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord” Just a sampling, but what becomes manifest is the Lordship of Jesus Christ – Jesus Christ is Lord – as seen in relation to God the Father. Not the Lord God, but God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. But what does it signify that Jesus is Lord in view of God the Father? Acts 2:36 helps bring things better into focus: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." God has made Jesus both Lord and Christ. This passage is in the book of Acts - Jesus has triumphed thru the cross, been raised in resurrection, and received into heaven – there is nothing more for Him to overcome, nothing anymore that can touch or tempt Him, He is triumphant forever. Everything of God that is seen in Jesus – the testimony of God in Jesus – withstood everything of this world. . . and stands. In view of everything He was not according to this world, it is impressive that God makes “this Jesus” Christ. (It is helpful to note that God doesn’t name Him both Lord and Christ, rather He makes Him so. The word make is from the greek word poieo that signifies the bringing forth of something, the endowing or constituting of one. It’s not that Jesus is given the name of Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One... it’s what the name embodies. Jesus is the Christ, He embodies everything of God – the fullness of God – as Hebrews 1 says, Jesus Christ is the exact representation, or imprint, of God’s being and nature. As Jesus says, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”) More than that, “God has made Him...Lord. . . ” What does it mean to be Lord? The closest we have today are kings and dictators, but they are but shadows to what is meant here. In Matthew, “all authority has been given to (Him).” In John, God “has given all things into His hands.” In Ephesians, God “put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things...”. In Colossians, God purposes that “in everything He might be preeminent.” In Ephesians, God wills “to unite all things in Him,” and further in, “that He might fill all things;” whereas Colossians puts the matter this way, “Christ is all, and in all.” There is an immeasurably wide horizon to be found in the Lord Jesus, an intention and greatness bound up in Him that is missed if Lord and Christ become merely titles. What does it mean that this Jesus is Lord? The law of His lordship is seen in 1 Corinthian 15, “He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.” He must reign, God has made Him Lord... He must reign. And God’s seal is on Him alone, “God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name. . . every knee will bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Everything that God has for us is found in Jesus Christ our Lord. The follower of Jesus Christ in this world has firm ground to stand on and a sure path to follow that cannot fail. God’s way in this world. . . as seen in Jesus, as lived by Jesus, as in Jesus. . . has been tested and proven. There is much in this life that tests the lordship of Christ in us. There are enemies, the until of 1 Corinthians 15 is not yet, the kingdom of this world remains opposed to the kingdom of God in Christ. And yet, beyond all the hardships, and troubles, and tribulations, and persecutions, the way of Christ reigns now. . . for the faithful, in Christ there is victory over this world. There is coming the time of 1 Corinthians 15, “When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to Him who put all things in subjection under Him, that God may be all in all.” In that day, the promise of Revelation 11 will be true, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.” Until that time - “ yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” Until that time, may “. . . the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, give (us) a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of our hearts enlightened, that (we) may know what is the hope to which He has called (us), what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe. . .” Ephesians 1