Jesus Is Lord

We mustn't deceive ourselves. Our allegiance to our risen and exalted King will incite the jealousy of a power-hungry world. Today, R.C. Sproul prepares us to confess our faith with the persecuted church in every age: Jesus is Lord.

You remember that one of the big problems that faced the early church was the problem of conflict with the civil authorities of Rome. The early church heroes, the martyrs who gave their lives in the Colosseum and the Circus Maximus and the ones who lighted the walkways of Nero’s gardens as human torches because they were killed, one right after another were sent into hiding in the catacombs of Rome. Do you ever wonder what it was that produced so much conflict between the emerging Christian community and the Roman government? The real issue was the issue of political obedience and the charge of being subversive. It’s a strange historical phenomenon because the New Testament is peculiar in its high degree of scrupulosity of obeying civil magistrates. Notice how that is a theme that comes through the writings of Peter, the writings of Paul: bending over backwards. Obey the civil magistrates that Christ might be honored. Pay your taxes. Live at peace with the civil magistrates. Pray for the king. Pray for the princes. And in the teaching of Jesus, it’s almost a priority of Christian behavior that we’d be models of civil obedience. Well, why is it that this first Christian community, in its pristine purity of obedience, would get in such radical conflict with the civil magistrates of its own day? Well, it wasn’t because the Christians refused to pay their taxes or because they were driving their chariots thirty miles an hour over the speed limit. They got into trouble because Caesar and the Roman government developed into an imperial religious cult. And in many cases, the emperor was deified. And as a test for loyalty to the government, the Christians were called upon to publicly recite the formula _kaiser kyrios_, “Caesar is lord.” And at that point, the Christian said: “No. Caesar is Caesar. We’ll pay our taxes. We’ll render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s. We’ll call him His Highness; we’ll call them His Majesty. We’ll call him whatever you want us to call him, but we will not call him _kyrios_.” When the Christians were called to say _kaiser kyrios_, they responded by saying with boldness _Iēsous ho kyrios_, “Jesus is Lord.” That was the first confession of faith, long before the Council of Nicaea, long before the Council of Chalcedon, long before the Council of Constantinople, long before the Westminster Confession of Faith. The very first confession of faith of the Christian Church was a simple formula, _Iēsous ho kyrios_, “Jesus is Lord.”