We Believe: In One Lord, Jesus Christ
The word “Lord” often has bad connotations. In our culture, the three most famous Lords are Lord Vader, Lord Voldemort, and Lord Sauron. When the messianic heroes in those stories defeat their respective Lords, they do not become Lord Skywalker, Lord Potter, or Lord Baggins. The Christian gospel, on the other hand, is this: the one Lord Jesus Christ defeats the Dark Lord Satan, defeats death itself, and then ascends to reign forever, ensuring his victory and Lordship for all time.
One Lord
“Lord” has a range of uses that all recognize some form of authority. It can mean one who is the head of the house. This is where we get our English word for Lord. It is from the Old English for “loaf master”. We also find this idea in the Old Testament when Sarah refers to Abraham as her lord (Hebrew: adon), Gen 18:12. It can also refer to human Kings. David was called Lord (adon). The pagan Roman Emperors claimed the title Lord to reflect their supreme authority.
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For the Bishops at the Council of Nicaea, the most important use was by the Old Testament scribes, who used “LORD” to replace the divine name of god, YHWH. The logic of this replacement started with the Third Commandment: “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.” Here, the word “Lord” is a replacement for the divine name YHWH, also referred to for specificity as the Tetragrammaton. The scribes of the Old Testament were so careful to avoid saying the divine name that they would just leave a blank space or use Adonai, which translates into the Greek Kyrios and the English LORD.
The Greek New Testament then picks up on this tradition, using Kyrios to describe both God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. Paul explicitly links this one Lord God with the one Lord Jesus:
For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—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.
1 Corinthians 8:5-6
Given these various uses of the word Lord, the vital question for us is this: do we acknowledge Jesus as merely a household or political lord (adon), or do we receive him as LORD of all, indeed as YHWH?
The Lord Became Jesus
It may not surprise you that the answer is both. The New Testament claims that the eternal God has entered time in the second person of the Trinity. Scripture records that he was sent by God the Father through God the Holy Spirit, and his name is Jesus.
We learned that in the incarnation, God becomes man to do what only God can do: perfectly obey His own law and defeat death, and what only a man can do: represent the human race as a son of man and die. This was at the heart of the debates that produced the Nicene Creed. The statement “Jesus is Lord” is a summary that confirms that he is both the uncreated YHWH and the head of the family of mankind. With respect to his humanity nature, he is our Lord, with respect to his divinity, he is the LORD GOD. It is this dual meaning that allows the statement to take such a central place in our faith and thus the Creed.
In fact, because the Creed includes the affirmation of Jesus as Lord, saying the Creed points to our own salvation. Paul explains this in his letter to the Romans:
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9
Paul explains further in his letter to the Corinthians, that “no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). This is amazing: when we say the Creed with faith, believing in the resurrection, we do so in the Spirit and it points to our salvation!
The Lord Jesus Became Christ
Whereas Jesus refers to the Son’s incarnation, Christ refers to the Son’s vocation. Christ means Messiah, or anointed one, and points to Jesus’ work as the Messiah anointed by the Holy Spirit.
A classic way of summarizing the vocation or work of Jesus as the Christ is in the three-fold office of prophet, priest, and king. The ACNA Catechism says it this way:
50. What does “Christ” mean?
Christos is the Greek term for the Hebrew title Messiah, meaning “Anointed One.” Old Testament kings, priests, and prophets were anointed with oil. Jesus the Christ was anointed by the Holy Spirit to perfectly fulfill these roles, and he rules now as Prophet, Priest, and King over his Church and all creation.
ACNA Catechism, p.38
In the incarnation, our God has become fully man and remains fully God so that he could do in the flesh those things which only a man can do for us and for our salvation. It is those messianic things that Jesus does in the flesh. It is that work that we speak of when we call him Christ. We can find this work all over the Gospels. If you are having trouble finding it, here is a hint: When we see Jesus using the term “Son of Man,” he is referring to one of these three features of his role as the Christ/Messiah.
Lord Jesus the Prophet
Jesus’ prophetic role took multiple forms, most especially in his ministry of teaching and his miracles. These followed the Biblical example of Moses and Elijah, to whom his contemporaries often compared him, and with whom he appeared in the Transfiguration. Jesus even claimed a greater prophetic ministry, claiming to fulfill the law and prophets and to give better bread than Moses (Matthew 5:17, John 6:22).
Except for the word “Christ,” the Creed does not explicitly reference Jesus’ prophetic role. Many have wondered how the Creed moves immediately from the incarnation to the crucifixion, seemingly skipping so much of the content of the gospels. However, one point to observe is that being crucified was precisely in the tradition of the prophets. Political and religious authorities always rejected the prophets. Jesus made this connection himself, predicting his coming death:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!”
Matthew 23:37
Lord Jesus the Priest
Jesus’ suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension affirm Jesus as our Priestly Messiah. The book of Hebrews especially discusses Jesus’ role as a high priest, the sinless one who could enter the holy places and offer his own blood:
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, …. he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
Hebrews 9:11-12
Jesus’ priesthood continues in his ascension. In heaven, he is our heavenly priest who intercedes for us before the Father (Hebrews 7:25).
Lord Jesus the King
Finally, the Creed explicitly references Jesus as the returning Messiah King. The promises are fulfilled that King David will never cease to have a son on the throne. He is both the ascending and descending eschatological Son of Man from Daniel and Genesis and the eternal King on the throne from David’s line who judges the earth.
Heresies of the Lord
One reason we have the Nicene Creed is because of the tendency of the human heart to accept only Jesus as divine LORD or Jesus as human Lord. If we can send him off to heaven, we may believe wrongly that what we do on earth could not ever matter that much to him. This historic heresy is called Docetism. This is from the word “to seem”. He only seemed like a human messiah. This creates a savior without earthly requirements. This is the “Superman” savior. He does his work without sharing his identity with us. He saves but does not heal, correct, or share himself.
Others receive the good work of Jesus the human Messiah, but deny that he is the uncreated God. In this error, we have a God that cares about the needs of the poor and our sins, but he is not powerful enough to defeat death, and his blood cannot be an all-atoning sacrifice. In this heresy, called Adoptionism, Jesus is a mere example of how to live. Our salvation in this scheme is to try to be like him. He gives himself for us, but there is nothing to secure the victory forever and ever.
Both errors are confronted by the creedal statement “One Lord, Jesus Christ.” They are confronted by the resurrected Christ, who continues to bear and show his wounds. It is no mistake that Thomas, after touching those very wounds, cries out, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).
Who is Your Lord and God?
In a culture of Dark Lords, there is an understandable reluctance to accept Jesus as Lord. We are inclined to reject all lords except ourselves.
One remarkable fact about the Council of Nicaea is that it was convened by Constantine, the new Roman Emperor. Under the pagan system, he would have claimed Lord as a title for himself and accepted worship alongside the gods. Instead, Constantine honored God and his Son Jesus Christ as the One Lord, even kissing the wounds of the Bishops who had suffered in his name.
Why would Constantine give up personal supreme Lordship, like unto a god, in favor of the Lordship of Christ? The only possible answer is that he was convinced Christianity was true. He must have been compelled by the good news of the one Lord, who manifested his saving love by becoming Jesus Christ.
Appendix: A Table of Contents
Once we understand the distinct meanings of each of these terms, we can see that “One Lord, Jesus Christ” also functions as a preview or table of contents for the Creed’s extended section on the Son.
One Lord (His Deity):
The only-begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, through him all things were made.
Jesus (His Incarnation):
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
Christ (His Messianic Work):
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
Image: The Christ Pantokrator mosiac from the Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey. Photo by Nikada from Getty Images Signature. Digitally edited by Jacob Davis.
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