Jesus Christ Is the Lord

The significant name lord (Hebrew = Jehovah) occurs more than 6,800 times in the Old Testament. Jesus Christ is that lord, as the New Testament writers make clear. Over and over again they denominate Jesus Christ as “Lord.”

The expressions Lord Jesus Christ, Lord Jesus, and Jesus Christ our Lord are all formulaic or conventional expressions. Lord Jesus Christ, for instance, is set forth several dozen times in the New Testament.

Twice John the Revelator testified that Jesus Christ is the “Lord of lords” (Rev. 17:14; 19:16), and Paul wrote of three significant doctrines—Resurrection, Atonement, and eternal life—regarding Jesus Christ the Lord: (1) “For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living” (Rom. 14:9); (2) “And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement” (Rom. 5:11); and (3) “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:21).

Biblical scholar John McLaughlin summarized, “Jewish Christians certainly would have equated Jesus with Yahweh [the lord]. Other OT texts and concepts referring to Yahweh are also related to Jesus in the NT. For example, He is called ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’ (Rev. 17:14; 19:16; cf. Deut. 10:17; Ps. 136:3; Dan. 2:47), and the ‘day of the Lord’ is used in reference to Jesus’s return (2 Pet. 3:9–10; Amos 5:18; Zeph. 1:14–18). Jesus is also the Lord of creation (Heb. 1:10–12; Ps. 102:25–27). In light of such texts, the credal formula ‘Jesus (Christ) is Lord’ (1 Cor. 13:3; Phil. 2:11; cf. Rom. 10:9) is an assertion of his divinity.”