When the Church Confesses "Jesus is Lord"...

“Whenever worshiping Christians repeat the church’s confession ‘Jesus is Lord,’ they are

1. implying that the Christ of faith was none other than the Jesus of history (Acts 2:34-36),

2. acknowledging the deity of Christ (Jn. 20:28; Phil. 2:6, 9-11)

3. admitting the Lord’s personal rights to absolute supremacy in the universe, the church and individual lives (Acts 10:36; Rom. 10:12; 14:8; 1 Cor. 8:6; Jas. 4:15),

4. affirming the triumph of Christ over death and hostile cosmic powers when God raised him from the dead (Rom. 10:9; 14:9; Eph. 1:20-22; Col. 2:10, 15) and therefore also the Christian’s hope of resurrection (1 Cor. 6:14; 2 Cor. 4:14),

5. epitomizing the Christian message (kerygma; cf. Rom. 10:8-9; 2 Cor. 4:5) and defining the basis of Christian teaching (didache); cf. Col. 2:6-7),

6. declaring everyone’s accountability to the Lord, the righteous judge (1 Cor. 4:5; 2 Tim. 4:1, 8),

7. making a personal and public declaration of faith (Rom. 10:9), which testifies to their being led by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:3), and

8. repudiating their former allegiance to many pagan ‘lords’ and reaffirming their loyalty to one Lord through and in whom they exist (1 Cor. 8:5-6; 1 Tim. 6:15; [1 Thess. 1:9]).”

-- Murray J. Harris, New International Commentary on the Greek New Testament on 2 Cor. 4:5