Catechism ClassLord’s Day 13C Q34 – He Is Lord!

Catechism Class Lord’s Day 13C Q34

He is Lord!

Text.  1 Peter 2:9  

When I was young we used to sing a chorus in our youth fellowship – “He is Lord, He is Lord.  He is risen from the dead and he is Lord.  Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord.”  The words state a wonderful truth – that Jesus, God’s Only Begotten Son, who died on the cross for sinners, rose from the dead on the third day, and he is exalted, – he is LORD!  The catechist asks,  Q34. Why do you call Him “our Lord?”  The answer we must give is “Because not with silver or gold, but with His precious blood, He has redeemed and purchased us, body and soul, from sin and from all the power of the devil, to be His own.” 

How is Jesus our Lord?  Interestingly, when the catechist answers this question, he makes it intensely personal.  Jesus is ‘Our Lord’ because we belong to him!   As we saw in a previous lesson, since we are not God’s children by natural birth, we are enslaved by our own, wicked natural father, the devil. He has us under his authority and he is a tyrannical, lying, evil father, who will bring us to everlasting damnation, and we are powerless to escape from his cruel grip.  We could not purchase our salvation by any material means, although many have tried.  

Jesus, God’s own natural Son, eternally begotten of the Father, came to set us free. Jesus said, in John 8:36 When Jesus redeemed us:

• He bought us back. He has redeemed and purchased us, Colossians 1:14  We ALL need to be redeemed.  There’s a lovely illustration of this in the Old Testament story of Hosea and his unfaithful wife, Gomer. Gomer was a prostitute, and she did what prostitutes do.  She sold herself to other men.  Hosea left her gifts and was kind to her, and he loved her, but none of that stopped her, – in fact she attributed all his gifts and love to her paying lovers, and not to her husband.  Her condition worsened, and like everyone who leads a debauched life, she eventually finds her body is wracked with pain, and disease, and bruises.  Her lovers, who were so willing to pay for her services don’t want her any more.  Her beauty is gone, her body is undesirable, and she is just another piece of worthless human waste.  She falls into poverty and hunger and sells herself as a slave, and is further abused until she ends up as  no more than a piece of human meat – a worthless object of derision and disgust, standing for sale in the salve market, waiting for someone to buy her, and finally to work her to death,  That’s when God intervened again.  Hosea is to love the unlovable!  Hosea is to buy her back!  A price is to be paid! ‘…fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley.’  What would Hosea do?  He must have raised all the money he could get.   He went down to the slave market, and he bought her back!   THat’s an illustration of what God did for us, when he sent his Son, the Lord Jesus to pay the price for all our sins. he redeemed us from the slave market of sin, when we were worthless useless slaves of the devil.  He loved us when we were utterly unlovable, and he paid the price to buy s back – we are HIS purchased possession.  1 Peter 1:18-19    Now, that will have repercussions for us.
• He redeemed both body and soul. body and soul, The catechist insists that when Jesus bought us back from our slavery, that was far more than a spiritual transaction.  He owns us, BODY AND SOUL.  We really need to think that through.  It’s easy to see the results of his redeeming work on the soul, – of course it is.  We have a change of status, we are God’s adopted children, we have new life within us, we abhor our sins and live repentant lives, we have an eternal home and so on.  But if He owns my BODY, that will affect what I do with my body.  Let’s not make a list!  The bottom line is that everything we do, physically – must be glorifying to God.  If something is not – then we should not do it. This means our work, our speech, our dress, our recreation….ALL should be in harmony with the principles of God’s Word. Even the most mundane things.  I wonder we go about our work, our leisure, with the thought of being redeemed in. Body as well as in soul?  The Bible is clear about this.  1 Corinthians 6:20  
• He set us free from sin and the devil.   from sin and from all the power of the devil, 1 Peter 2:9 We are set free!  But does that mean that we have stopped sinning?  When the Bible speaks of our redemption, using the word ‘saved’ – ‘rescued’ it always does so in the three separate tenses:-
  • We are SAVED! It speaks of a day in our experience when we trusted Christ. A day when our eternal destiny was settled forever. A day when the Holy Spirit regenerated us and came to dwell within us. On that day we were saved. It is a once for all experience of salvation. On that day we are delivered from death and sin and hell. 2 Cor. 2:15 Ephesians. 2:5  Ephesians. 2:8 2 Tim. 1:9.
  • We are BEING SAVED! There is also a continuous experience of salvation. It is happening right now! It is a description of the Lord’s work every day in the life of the believer. He guides us, gives us his love, joy, peace, makes us every day more like the Lord and equips us to serve Him! Philippians 2:12-13 Romans 6:14 2 Cor. 3:18 Galatians 2:20 Philip. 1:19  
  • We WILL BE SAVED! There is a day coming when our redemption will be complete! That day will be the great day of resurrection, when the Lord will return, and the dead in Christ shall rise, and we shall be changed to like Him! At present we are saved from the POWER of sin, and we are saved from the PENALTY of sin, but then we shall be free from the PRESENCE of sin! So Paul could say, Romans 13:11    
• He redeemed us to make us His Own. to be His own. We are his, his purchased possession, for ever and ever. 1 Corinthians 6:20  He owns us and he is our Lord. He has rightful claims over us, and as his people we readily acknowledge those claims to be true and good, and we bow to them. 

Finally, let’s think about how Jesus redeemed us. Colossians 1:14  Not with material devices, not with worldly coinage or currency, but with his own precious blood. 1 Peter 1:18-19  

As I was preparing this lesson back in August 2021, news was filtering through of the Taliban advances in Afghanistan, following the premature western withdrawal from that tortured land.  The scenes on the news were horrendous, with people so terrified of what would befall them under the Moslem fundamentalist group, that some actually tried to escape by clinging to the wings and fuselage of departing aeroplanes.  Many people fell to their death.  In the cities and in Kabul itself, the Taliban were establishing their right to rule in a violent bloody military coup, overthrowing the legitimate government.  They demanded obedience from the people, forcing their governance upon the citizenry by shedding people’s blood, by executing summary judgements and by taking prisoners. 

Jesus demands our loyalty, our obedience, our complete allegiance, not by means of a military coup, but by shedding his OWN blood for us, satisfying God’s justice for us, and setting the prisoners free!  His Lordship is the very opposite of the lordships of this world.

So Jesus is Lord. To call someone ‘My Lord’ is to give them their position, to acknowledge them of greater worth, to signify obedience and servitude.   Jesus is MY LORD by right, because of his divine, eternal Sonship, and because he created me, redeemed me and keeps me.  I owe everything to him.  He is my Lord.   To say that Jesus is Lord is to acknowledge that he is is my MASTER and that I will acknowledge him, give him due reverence and obey him. I am his servant. 1 Corinthians 7:23 Y   Willingly, my knee will bow, and my tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. The unconverted, Christ-rejecting world rejects those claims, but there will come a day when the whole of mankind will stand before him in his risen, eternal splendour, and will admit his sovereignty. Sadly, it will be too late.  Philippians 2:9-11  

© Bob McEvoy October 2021