Jesus Is LORD! He Alone Saves! :: Romans 10:8-9
[Introduction]
It was Saint Paul’s goodwill and prayer that all Israel would be saved. He said that plainly just before our epistle reading. While giving Israel credit for being zealous to know God, their zeal ... he laments ... was not based on the Gospel. It was rooted in the Law ... in dotting Is and crossing Ts, minding Ps and Qs ... trying to get right with God in accordance with one’s own thought, word, and deed.
And almost 2,000 years later, the world has the same problem. People are still ignoring the truth that Jesus is Lord ... that he alone saves. They are still pursuing their own righteousness apart from Jesus ... saying they don’t need to receive the forgiveness of sins from him. They are still declaring for themselves who’s going to heaven and who’s going to hell.
So today, Paul sets the record straight. He leads us to a much simpler word we should all believe, teach, and confess. He says, [this] word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith we proclaim, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (vv 8-9).
It sounds like such a simple thing to confess and believe that ...
JESUS IS LORD, AND HE ALONE SAVES!
Let us then explore this confession and faith.
[Prayer]
Heavenly Father, you desire that all men come to the knowledge of the truth that Jesus is Lord and that he alone saves. Make your Word one of power and peace to convert those not yet your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May your word pass from ear to heart and heart to lip and lip to life that it may achieve the purpose for which you send it ... In Jesus’ name.
I. It’s quite fitting that our Lord was named Jesus.
As Paul said in Philippians 2[:10], the name is above every name is Jesus. His name literally means the LORD saves ... or more precisely, Yah Saves ... Yah being the contracted form of YHWH. Every knee will bow to Jesus. He alone saves.
Jesus ... or Ἰησοῦς in Greek ... was given his name by the God who Saves through his Word. Recall that an angel of the Lord first told Joseph in a dream to call the name of Mary’s son, Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins (Mt 1:21). Then the angel Gabriel told Mary the same thing. Jesus ... Gabriel said ... will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God will give him the throne of David, his father. And he will reign over the house of Jacob into the ages, and of his kingdom there will be no end (Lk 1:31-33).
In other words, Jesus is Lord. He alone saves.
II. So what does it mean to have this title, Lord?
The title “Lord” signifies supreme authority and power ascribed to God. We don’t know exactly when the Israelites began replacing the name of יְהוָה with the Hebrew word Adonai, which means “My Lord,” but I would expect it happened at Sinai during the Exodus. There, the people of God expressed true fear of the Lord. They became afraid to misuse his name, not that it stopped them from breaking the Second Commandment. By the time they were speaking Greek and using the Greek translation of Old Testament, aka the Septuagint, they had replaced God’s name completely with the Greek word Kύριος, which means Lord. He is the one who saves.
As we sang with our Psalmist today: The LORD sets the prisoners free. The LORD opens [the eyes of] the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down. The LORD loves the righteous. The LORD watches over the sojourners. ... The LORD will reign forever. ... Hallelujah! (Ps 146:7-10). He saves you and me.
III. Despite our fear of the Lord, it is easy to take this confession for granted.
A lot of people say that Jesus is Lord, and that he saves ... but that does not mean they believe, teach, and confess the same thing as you do. The world has very different definitions of who the Lord is, what his title means, and how he saves. As Jesus said during his sermon on the mount, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of the heavens (Mt 7:21).
Take, for example, the Mormons.
Did you know they use the words “Jesus is Lord” and that they say that they believe he was “raised from the dead”? Their church even carries his name. But that doesn’t mean they are saved. We are not saved by words we speak. That isn’t what Paul is teaching when he says if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
The Mormon definition of Lord is different than yours.
The Mormon church openly denies, as we say in the Athanasian Creed, that “the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the Holy Spirit is Lord, and yet there are not three Lords, but one Lord.” The Mormon Church openly denies that they believe “in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us men and our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried. And the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father. And he will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.”
And like the Mormon church a growing number of people attending Christian churches deny they believe that too.
But you believe, teach, and confess that ... don’t you? You just confessed it, didn’t you? Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is my Lord, who has redeemed me with his blood. He has saved me in his Resurrection.
IV. We grew in the knowledge of that truth that Jesus is Lord and that he alone saves in our Gospel reading today.
In Mark 7, we are introduced to a man who had never heard that Gospel before ... because he was deaf ... and had never given an orthodox confession ... because he was mute. But his friends longed for him to confess with his mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe he alone saves. So they led him to Jesus.
When Jesus saw the man, he took him aside, privately, put his fingers in the man’s ears, and after spitting, he touched his tongue. And looking up into heaven, he groaned and said to him, Ephphatha ... which is an Aramaic word that means, Be opened. And just like that, his ears were opened to hear the Gospel that Jesus is Lord ... and his tongue was unchained to confess that Jesus is Lord. And before we knew it, he was speaking boldly, declaring to anyone who would listen that Jesus alone saves. In fact, no one could contain this true confession.
V. I am sure Jesus also gave us this miracle to confirm our faith that he is Lord of Lords, King of Kings, our Creator and Redeemer and Sustainer, the one who saves.
Now we know all men truly are created equal, for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. Now we know, we are saved not because of what we do or say ... but because of what his Word does and says. He opens ears and loosens tongues. He gives life to those who once were dead.
He does this because the Word of God who became flesh and dwelt among us ... the Living Bread, who came down out of heaven ... the Light of the World who shines in the darkness. He is the Gate of the Sheep and the Good Shepherd ... the Resurrection and the Life ... the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is as Saint Thomas proclaimed so perfectly: My Lord and my God.
Jesus has broken and hindered every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our sinful nature by living without sin, and dying for our sin, and rising out of the grave on the third day. And now that he is Risen! ... he has saved you by his grace ... and he is still calling, gathering, enlightening, and sanctifying the whole Christian church on earth ... strengthening and keeping us firm in his Word and faith until we die so that we will believe, teach, and confess that Jesus is Lord and that he alone saves.
[Conclusion]
I know the temptation is to keep this to yourselves. But let the Lord Jesus loosen the chain on your tongue. He is encouraging you to be bold in confessing the faith that Jesus is Lord ... to be bold in believing that God raised him from the dead ... to be bold in receiving his gifts of Word and Sacrament ... knowing and loving that He alone saves ... In his name.