Lord

Christians call Jesus their Lord.

The Greek words used in the New Testament for "Lord" are kurios and despotes.  The first means "master", as in somebody who has servants.  The second can be translated as "ruler", but actually means somebody who has absolute power and authority.

A Christian who knows the Bible will see Jesus as the rightful ruler of the entire cosmos, and will therefore aim to obey Him unquestioningly, unhesitatingly and unreservedly.

Some relevant verses from scripture:

Matt 28:18: Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth."

Luke 6:46: [Jesus said] "Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?"

John 13:13: [Jesus said] "You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am."

John 20:13: Mary said, "They have taken away my Lord".

John 20:28: Thomas said, "My Lord and my God!"

Acts 2:36: "God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

Col 2:6: As you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk in Him.

1 Cor 8:6: There is one God, the Father... and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live.

Rev 19:11-16: I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war.  His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns... On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

Saviour

Christians believe that Jesus is their Saviour.  This immediately leads to the question: just what exactly has He saved us from?  The answer, in a nutshell, is what the Bible calls "sin": a proud and rebellious rejection of God and His laws.  Personally, I believe that Jesus saves us from three things:

1. the penalty of sin (which is physical death and subsequent separation from God)
2. the effects of sin (such as fear, guilt, loneliness, anguish and despair)
3. the power of sin (such as addictions and compulsions).

Here are a few relevant Bible verses:

• John 3:16: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
• John 5:24: Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”
• John 10:9: Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved.”
• John 14:6: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
• Acts 4:12: There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
• 1 John 4:14: And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

Creator and Sustainer

Obviously, Christians believe that God created the universe.  Interestingly, however, the New Testament states that God the Son somehow had a special part to play in the creation process:

John 1:3: Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.

Note that the Bible doesn't go into details about how this was achieved.  I am not interested in arguing with neo-atheists such as Richard Dawkins (whose philosophy of science is remarkable naive, by the way).

Another important point is that God the Son is seen, not just as creating the universe, but also as continually sustaining the existence of the universe:

Heb 1:3: The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

In this sense, Christianity can be contrasted with "Deism", the idea that God set the universe running and then left it to its own devices.

Son of God

Christians believe that Jesus was and is divine.  More precisely, they believe that He is the second person of the Trinity, God the Son, and that He took on a human form when He visited Earth in the first century.

There are dozens of Bible verses that state or imply this.  Here are a few:

John 1: 1, 14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.

John 8:58: Jesus said, "before Abraham was born, I am".

Col 1:15:
Christ is the visible image of the invisible God...

Col 2:9
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.

It is worth pointing out that Christians believe that Jesus is unique in this respect, completely different from all other religious figures that have lived throughout history.  Anyone who denies this is not a Christian, regardless of what they say.

Introducing Jesus...

People have all sorts of ideas about Jesus: an obscure historical figure, a heretical Jew, a good teacher, a kind of guru... or even an alien, a hippy or a madman.

Even some church-goers think of Him only as a sweet baby in a manger, or as "gentle Jesus, meek and mild".

In this blog, I will be presenting the orthodox Christian view of Jesus.