Jesus as Lord in Acts and in the Gospel Message

By Darrell L. Bock

[Darrell L. Bock, Assistant Professor of New Testament Literature and Exegesis, Dallas Theological Seminary]

Nothing is more precious to evangelicals than the gospel, the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. The coming of the Savior to redeem men from sin and to offer eternal life through faith is the message that all Christians are commissioned to take to the world. Yet within evangelicalism there is a dispute about how to present the confession that represents the saving response to this gospel message.[1]

One side of the debate argues that Jesus must be confessed only as Savior, and not as Lord (i.e., Master of one’s life). The gospel involves faith in Jesus’ redeeming work as the God-Man. To add a confession of lordship to the gospel is to run the risk of destroying the grace focus of the gospel, for how much lordship is enough to qualify as saving faith? According to this view the term “Lord” refers to Jesus’ divinity. This side can be called the Jesus-is-Savior view.[2]

The second side in this debate argues that Jesus is to be confessed as Lord (Master) as well as Savior. The gospel involves a call to repentance as well as to faith. To confess the lordship of Jesus is not a mere confession of deity; rather it is a confession of total submission to the personal Lord, a commitment to obey in every area of life. In this view, to offer Jesus as Savior only is “easy believism.” One does not choose to make Jesus Lord, He is Lord of all. If He is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all. To leave saving faith to anything less than a confession of Jesus as Lord ignores the discipleship teaching of the Scriptures and forgets that the basic definition of “Lord” is “master,” “ruder,” or “owner.” This view can be called the Jesus-is-Lord view.[3]

A key point of contention in this debate is the term “Lord.” It is clear that the two views define this term differently. Does it refer to a confession of deity only (the Jesus-is-Savior view)? Or does it refer to a confession of submission of one’s life (the Jesus-is-Lord view)? Appeal on both sides is made to Romans 10:9–13. But the problem with this text is that the passage provides no clear definition of Paul’s understanding of the term “Lord.” Rather, Paul seems to assume that all know what it means from its use in the context of preaching the gospel message, a context that is the background of the Romans passage. Thus this passage is not the key to solving this debate.

How can one determine how the term “Lord” is used and which side is right in this debate? It is helpful to give careful consideration to the term “Lord” in the book that reveals the apostolic message of the early church, the Book of Acts. Too little attention has been paid to the use of the title “Lord” in the context of apostolic preaching. Consequently the definition of the term has been assumed from general usage. The task is to examine the term “Lord,” κύριος, in its salvation contexts in Acts (i.e., where it is related to faith, to conversion, or to the offer of the gospel) to determine what the audience hearing the term would have understood by it. When someone in the Book of Acts confessed Jesus as Lord, what was confessed about Him? Having determined the answer to this question, this article will consider how the answer helps the church deal with the modern debate over the gospel message.

Jesus as Lord in Acts

This section surveys passages in which Jesus was believed in as Lord for salvation. The question it asks of each passage is, What did the believing audience understand about Jesus the Lord? Though some passages will yield more results than others, the survey will show that more than deity is present in the term, but something less than a total personal submission is in view.

Acts 2:21,32-39

This passage is one of the most important in Acts. It sets forth the first postresurrection preaching about Jesus. Acts 2:21 shows that salvation was the subject at hand; the promise of salvation was held out for those who responded to the message. Included in this salvation is the gift of the Spirit, forgiveness of sins, and the promise of God (vv. 38–39). Jesus is the Dispenser of the Spirit (vv. 17, 33).

What is the nature of the Lord who was offered to the audience in this chapter ? (Note how the response called for in v. 38 is preceded by the confession in v. 36 that God made Jesus κύριον…καὶ Χριστόν.) Acts 2:32–36 gives the answer. Jesus is the One whom God raised to His right hand to pour out the gift of the Spirit that the audience saw displayed in the believers (vv. 32–33). Reference to Psalm 110 shows that these events are part of the promise of the Old Testament (Acts 2:34–35). Jesus’ ascension to God’s right hand and Jesus’ pouring out of the Spirit manifest the authority of Jesus as “Co-regent” who now dispenses the gift of salvation and is the One who mediates God’s salvation. The term κύριον in verse 36 looks back to the previous use of κυρίου in verse 21. The repetition of the term serves to underscore the point that the κύριος who is confessed is Jesus. The exalted position of Jesus is why baptism is to be in His name (v. 38). “Lord” in verse 36 serves to identify Jesus with God. For in the Septuagint’s rendering of the Hebrew, κύριος referred to יְהוָה God (in Joel 2:32, as cited in Acts 2:21). In Acts 2, this divine title is applied to Jesus, who is the Lord (cf. v. 34 with v. 36). He is the One who is exalted and sits at God’s right hand mediating the gifts and promise of God.

Thus the Lord Jesus confessed in Acts 2 is the divine Mediator of the gifts of salvation. He is the One on whom men must call to be saved. He is the Lord over salvation as He performs that mediatorial duty at God’s right hand. As Acts 4:12 puts it, there is no other name on which men may call for salvation, for He is the Authority over salvation.

Acts 5:14

This verse summarizes the growth of the church composed of “those who believed in the Lord.” Πιστεύοντες τῷ κυρίῳ serves as a summary for conversion and stresses that the One confessed was Jesus the Lord. But the verse does not specify the content of such faith in any detail.

Acts 9:42

This verse is similar to Acts 5:14. The summary was the same in Samaritan regions as it was in Judea. This fact is important to note because some dispensationalists try to distinguish between the gospel as it was given to Jews and the gospel as it was given to non-Jewish groups. This verse does not sustain that distinction.

Acts 10:34-43

This passage presents Peter’s first message to Gentiles. Cornelius addressed God as Lord (v. 33; cf. vv. 2–4, 22). Peter declared that God shows no partiality, that He accepts all who fear Him (vv. 34–35). He then declared that peace comes through Jesus Christ, the One who is Lord of all (v. 36). What is the nature of Jesus’ lordship? Because of His lordship, He had a ministry of power as He healed all who were oppressed by the devil (v. 38). As Lord, He was the object of a testimony that declared Him to be the Judge of the living and the dead (v. 42). He is the One of whom all the prophets testified that forgiveness of sins is found in His name (v. 43). Again lordship describes the authority that Jesus has as the Bearer of salvation authority that involves work in the past (exorcising demons), present (granting forgiveness of sins), and future (serving as Judge). Lest it be doubted that lordship was a point of confession in this message, Peter later (11:17) compared the confession of the Gentiles in Acts 10 to the original confession of believers at Pentecost, a confession of the Lord Jesus Christ. Πιστεύσασιν ἐπὶ τὸν κύριον (“believing in the Lord”) looks much like the summary of Acts 5:14 and 9:42. Faith in the Lord knows no racial distinctions.[4]

Acts 11:20-21

Acts 11:20–21 stresses that some believers preached the Lord Jesus to the Greeks. The response to the preaching of the gospel was positive, with many turning to believe in the Lord. The combination of faith (ὁ πιστεύσας) and of turning (ἐπέστρεψεν) is another common way to express salvation in Acts.[5] The content of this faith in the Lord is not stated here.

Acts 15:11

Acts 15:11 compares Gentile salvation to Jewish salvation as the two were debated at the Jerusalem Council. The two are treated as the same, with the point being made that through the grace of the Lord Jesus, salvation is offered to all men. “Lord” is the title of the Agent of grace who bestows salvation (the preposition διά means “through”). Here the picture of the Lord is like that in Acts 2.

This agreement is not surprising, since Pentecost is the point of comparison. The Lord is the Dispenser of salvation.

Acts 16:30-31

This passage is a popular one in gospel presentations, and rightly so. It depicts briefly the salvation offered in Jesus. The account stresses the power of the Lord Jesus to deliver His own children, as the rescue of Paul and Silas from prison through the earthquake makes clear. The passage does not explicitly mention Jesus’ work on the cross.

Possibly the jailer had heard the message previously in some form; but the passage gives no indication of such a previous contact, unless the hymns Paul and Silas were singing contained such elements in them (v. 25). The sheer demonstration of power on behalf of God’s own is what led the Philippian jailer to ask what he must do to be saved. The reply to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ would have meant to him that Jesus is the One with power to protect and save His own. To come to Jesus is to come to the One with the power and authority to save.

Acts 18:8

Crispus, a synagogue leader, had heard Paul’s message that Jesus is the Christ (v. 5). Crispus believed in the Lord, as other Corinthians also believed. Again, the specifics of lordship faith are lacking; but the repeated presence of a reference to Jesus as Lord as a summary of a salvation confession is significant.

Acts 20:21

This passage, also a summary verse, is brief and clear. Paul preached to Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Here repentance and faith are placed side by side, as are Jews and Gentiles. Paul presented Jesus as the One with authority over salvation (Acts 13:23, 38–39 [to Jews]; 17:31 [to Gentiles]).

Summary

The passages presented in this article link together a saving response to the gospel message in Acts and the confession of Jesus as Lord. The confession of Jesus as Lord appears in several summary verses (Acts 5:14; 9:42; 11:20–21; 15:11; 18:8; 20:21). The confession reflects the faith of audiences that are both Jewish and Gentile. Luke described conversion in terms of responding to the Lord Jesus Christ. But the key question is, When a person came to faith in Jesus as Lord, what did he believe about Jesus?

In Acts 2, 10, and 16 —passages that present the most material about salvation in the Book of Acts—what one confessed was that Jesus was the Lord in that He was the divine Mediator of salvation with the total capacity and authority to forgive sins and judge men. He is the Lord over salvation to whom men come to find salvation because they have turned away from themselves or their own merit to the ascended Lord. He is the divine Dispenser of salvation.

Interestingly the same emphasis is recorded in Romans 10:9–13. Verses 9, 12, and 13 refer to a confession of Jesus as the Lord of all, that is, of Jew and Gentile, and also describe Him as the One who bestows His riches on all who call on Him! Jesus as Lord is the divine Dispenser of salvation. He is the One with authority to save. Other New Testament passages show that this presentation of Jesus as Lord over salvation was shared by other New Testament writers, who saw in this lordship relationship not only a part of one’s confession of saving faith but also a part of the perspective of one’s daily walk with God (John 20:28; 1 Cor 12:3; 2 Cor 4:5; James 1:1; 2:1; 1 Pet 3:15; 2 Pet 3:18; Jude 4, 21, 25; Rev 19:16). The believer is saved by and walks by faith in the Lord.

Acts and the Gospel Today

What does this study mean for the gospel as it is preached today? How is the debate to be resolved? This study suggests a corrective to both sides of the debate, while affirming something that each has insisted on. Against the Jesus-is-Savior view, these passages in Acts argue that one need not fear presenting Jesus as Lord, provided one is clear about the definition of the term as the One with authority over salvation. Jesus as the divine Dispenser of salvation is the point of biblical lordship. Many who hold the Jesus-is-Savior view do present a high, authoritative view of Jesus in their gospel presentation, but they make it a part of their description of Jesus as only the Savior. This study shows that biblically one can feel comfortable both in placing such an authoritative emphasis in the gospel message and in referring to Jesus as Lord when one presents the gospel with this emphasis.

The power and authority of the One to whom the sinner is to come by faith is an emphasis that evangelistic preaching can surely use. In putting one’s whole salvation hope in the Lord Jesus, one begins a journey, a walk of faith that is to be conducted with His leading, guiding, and tender hand. Salvation and the walk that goes with it are in the hand of One with the power and authority to dispense all the riches of His grace. As Lord, He is also the Judge of the living and the dead, so that any man who seeks salvation must come to terms with the Lord Jesus in order to be saved. The grace and authority of Jesus over salvation are central to any gospel message about His person and work.

With the Jesus-is-Savior view, the emphasis of the gospel message is rightly seen as residing in Jesus alone, with the focus fixed exclusively on Him and His person. Some forms of lordship teaching, with their emphasis on the hearer’s state, seem to miss this crucial point. If one presents the gospel with a clear description of the Person who saves, a saving faith commitment will represent a turning to and a reliance solely on the work of God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

The corrective to the Jesus-is-Lord view is to let the Lord Jesus protect the one who sincerely comes to Him in faith, rather than trying to “psychologize” faith so much that the focal point of the answer, the power and provision of the Lord Jesus Christ, becomes blurred. Such blurring occur’s when attention is drawn away from the Lord to an excessive concern with one’s personal state. When the exclusive nature of the gracious provision of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ alone is made clear, what else must one know or do in order to enter into that faith than to turn to Him? When the greatness of the Deliverer and the deliverance He bestows is made clear; why should anyone wish to take lightly such a great Lord and Savior and such a great salvation? That is not to suggest that believers do not fail in their walk with their Lord; but such failures by believers should not become a time of soul-searching about whether one’s original commitment was real, something that the classic definition of lordship salvation would seem to require. Rather, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in whom one places faith should become the basis for a restoration of the walk with Him after an honest confession of one’s lapse into sin.

Proponents of the Jesus-is-Lord view have rightly stressed that the gospel message is to include a resounding note about the lordship of Jesus. But the symphony to be played is Jesus’ cosmic authority and capacity to save, the authority of the One who lavishly bestows His grace on those who trust Him.

The following example demonstrates the application of this theological discussion to current attempts to make the gospel message clear and to present it biblically. A question that invariably arises is, Can a person trust Christ if he is not willing to give up a particular sin? The answer depends on what is meant by the question. If the question means that under no circumstances will an individual give up his sin, one can seriously doubt that the person understands the nature of God, the greatness of His grace, the severity of sin, or his need to come to Christ to have sins forgiven and to enter into a relationship with God. In other words one can wonder if such a person is genuinely coming to Jesus as Lord Almighty, the Dispenser of divine salvation and forgiveness. If there is a sin that a person thinks does not need forgiving, how can that person say he is coming to Christ for the forgiveness of sins?

On the other hand if by this question a person means that he is afraid about his own ability to give up the sin and wonders, “Will God accept me if I cannot give assurance I will forsake the sin?” then one can assume that the individual is most likely coming to Jesus as Lord. (Of course in either view only God knows the heart of individuals.) A person with this anxious attitude should be urged to trust Christ and then receive encouragement about the aid God’s Spirit can give him. He needs gentle and supportive exhortation that calls him to live the kind of life that expresses gratitude to God for His gracious forgiveness. The point is that to trust Christ as Savior and Lord biblically is to come to Him with the recognition that He meets the need of dealing with man’s position before God, including one’s sin problem. To come to God for salvation is to let Him deal with one’s sin through Christ.[6]

All Christians are to proclaim the gospel to all people and to teach them to walk in obedience to God’s Word. Believers therefore should seek to take to the world the message of the glorious salvation available through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the divine Dispenser of salvation and the One with authority to deliver from sin all who trust in Him.

Notes

1. See the differing responses of John Stott and Everett R. Harrison to the question, Must Christ be Lord to be Savior? in Eternity, September 1959, pp. 14-18,36, 48. The article entitled “Must Christ Be Savior to Be Lord?” reveals that Stott’s answer to the question is yes, while Harrison replies in the negative.
2. This position has often been held by dispensational writers (e.g., Lewis S. Chafer, Salvation [Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1917], pp. 42-53; Charles C. Ryrie, Balancing the Christian Life [Chicago: Moody Press, 1969], pp. 169-81; and G. Michael Cocoris, Lordship Salvation-Is It Biblical? [Dallas, TX: Redencion Viva, 1983]). The last title serves to show the seriousness with which this question is addressed by this view. Ryrie argues in even stronger terms that the essence of the gospel is ultimately at stake; he cites Galatians 1:6–9 (p. 170).
3. This view is often presented by Reformed writers (e.g., James I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God [Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1961], pp. 71-73, 88–89; John Murray, Redemption-Accomplished and Applied [Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1955], pp. 95-116; K. L. Gentry, “The Great Option: A Study of the Lordship Controversy,” Baptist Reformation Review 5 [1975]: 49-79).
4. The next verse, Acts 11:18, speaks of “repentance to life” being granted to Gentiles. The word “repentance” summarizes Cornelius’s conversion in Acts. “Repentance” can be a summary term for conversion, stressing that a change of orientation has taken place when one believes. Faith stresses what the object of belief is. Faith is directed toward a Person, namely, Jesus. Repentance stresses what belief involves in that it is a change of mind or of orientation from oneself and his own works to a reliance on Jesus to save him. The repentant man of faith recognizes that, as the hymnwriter puts it, his “hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness” and that he is to “wholly lean on Jesus’ name.” Μετανοέω (“to repent”) is used in Acts 2:38 and 3:19 to call Jewish audiences to come to Jesus, and it is used in the same way in Acts 17:30 and 26:20 to describe the call to or response of Gentiles. Μετάνοια (“repentance”) is the summary term of the Great Commission in Luke 24:47. It is also used in salvation contexts in Acts 5:31 (to Jews); 11:18 (of Cornelius); 20:21 (of Jews and Gentiles who believe on the Lord Jesus); and 26:20 (in Paul’s message to Jews and Gentiles).
5. Acts 3:19; 9:35; 11:21; 14:15; 15:19; 26:18; 26:20; and 28:27. The point of this variety of description is exactly that: there are many ways to talk about being converted and many ways to present the call to come to Jesus, though of course faith in Christ is the only way of salvation. They all serve to stress that one comes to Jesus in order to be saved. To trust in Him, to believe in Him, to repent, to turn to Him—these descriptions present in one light or another the faith that saves, that is, a reliance on the Lord Jesus for salvation from sin.
6. This writer is grateful to his colleague R. Larry Moyer for raising and initially presenting this illustration.