In my last Watchtower Wednesday we looked at the Watchtower understanding of Romans 10:13 asking, Who is 'the Lord' in this verse? Is it Jehovah? Is it Jesus? How would you talk about this teaching to a Jehovah's Witness?
Most Bibles translate, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ (ESV) The New World Translation gives us, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of Jehovah will be saved.’ Paul here is quoting a text from Joel 2:32, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’ (ESV) We know that Joel is referring to Jehovah, but who is Paul writing about? I want to point out four things.
The Name
First, they give the familiar argument about Jesus using the name:
‘God’s name was important to Jesus Christ. The very first words in his model prayer were: “Our Father in the heavens, let your name be sanctified,” or made holy. (Matthew 6:9) Jesus also showed that we must come to know, obey, and love the Person behind that name if we are to gain everlasting life.—John 17:3, 6, 26.’
Notice the very first words in his model prayer did not include ‘Jehovah.’ Jesus never used the name of God, not once. I won’t go into that here, you can read in depth commentary on the issue on this blog where we ask Was God’s name removed from the New Testament? and where we address directly the claim Jesus must have used the name Jehovah. Also on the website we ask Did Jesus use the name Jehovah? and How are we to sanctify God’s name?
The Message
Second, Paul goes on to write the famous passage:
‘How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news?’’ (Ro.10:14,15, ESV)
So, we have those who are called to preach the ‘good news’ to others who, in turn, are called to believe that good news. What is the ‘good news’?
Mark declares his account of Jesus as, ‘The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.’ (Mk.1:1) It is the good news about Jesus
In his nativity account Luke writes, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.’ (Lk.2:10,11) It is the good news about Christ the Lord.
Paul describes himself as, ‘...a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the good news of God.’ (Ro.1:1) It is the good news of God.
In verse 9 however he writes, ‘For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the good news of his Son…’ It is the good news of God’s Son.
Philip, in Samaria, ‘...preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ…’ (Acts 8:12) It is the good news of God’s kingdom but it is Jesus’ name that is preached.
Peter writes of, ‘an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.’ (1 Pet.1;11) It is the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Earlier, at Pentecost, Peter proclaimed, Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.’ (Acts 2:36)
Is it the good news of God or the good news of Jesus? Is it the good news of God’s kingdom, or of Christ’s kingdom? Who is Lord?
The Lord
Third, Paul makes clear in the wider text who he means when he writes about calling on the name of the Lord:
‘’The word is near you, in your own mouth and in your heart;’ that is, ‘the word’ of faith, which we are preaching. For if you publicly declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and exercise faith in your heart that God raised him up from the dead, you will be saved.’ (Ro.10:8,9)
‘’The word is near you, in your own mouth and in your heart;’ is taken from Deuteronomy 30:14 where Moses insists the law of God is readily accessible through faith (see Deut.30:6). Paul takes that one idea and applies it to Christ who, like the law but better than the law, has come to us and is easily accessible through faith. Where Moses spoke of the word of the law, Paul writes of ‘the word of faith.’ Faith in what? Faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross. In what terms is our faith declared? As a public declaration that, ‘Jesus is Lord.’
Look at Jesus
Fourth, When Peter and John stood before the council in Acts 4, ‘Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, ‘Rulers of the people and elders, If we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead - by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.’’ (Acts 4:8-12, ESV) No other name...
The writer to the Hebrews describes the Son as, the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.’ (Heb.1:3) Man, in the beginning was made ‘in the image of God’ (Gen.1:27), Christ is the exact imprint of God’s nature. ‘Exact imprint’ translates the Greek charaktēr, the exact expression of God. As we so often say, if you want to know what God is like look at Jesus.
The solution to our conundrum, of course, is Trinitarian. These are the truths with which early Christians wrestled as they saw Jesus as so much more than a created being, while holding to the Hebrew teaching of God’s singularity, ‘the Lord our God, the Lord is one.’ (Deut.6:4) Short of this, you have two Lords and two gods (John 1:1, NWT) Their conclusion, and ours, is...
Jesus Christ is Lord: Acts 2:36; Rev.17:14; 1 Tim.6:15; Rev.19:6; Acts 10:36; Ro.10:12; 14:9; John 13:13; 1Cor.8:6; 1 Tim.1:2; 2 Pet.1:2; 2:20…
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