⁸ … the word of faith which we are preaching, ⁹ that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord …

Deity of Christ is so central, yet so controversial, that we must spend more time contemplating this. Some claim that Paul’s use of “Lord” simply employs the standard Greek word “kurios,” which was a common word for master or someone superior in some way. They teach that Jesus was certainly a superior being, but not on the level with God Almighty, and certainly not to be identified with Jehovah (Yahweh) of the Jews. In fact, some translations (such as the NIV and ESV) do not use the small caps when they render the word “Lord” anywhere in the book of Romans, including the quotations from the OT. Others (such as the NASB, NLT and NKVJ) do use the small caps. In the original Greek, Paul freely used that Greek word “kurios,” and it is well known that in Paul’s time of writing, capitalization was not a literary convention in use, so his original writing makes no such distinction.

However, throughout this letter to the Romans, the apostle is extremely careful of his theological train of thought, not in any way being careless or ambiguous. In fact, he takes great pains to address the Jewish objections to his teaching. Like all Jews, Paul was a strict monotheist, that is, he believed as a core truth that there is one and only one God. It is inconceivable that he would unambiguously use the term “Lord” (“kurios”) to refer to Yahweh of the OT, and in such close proximity use it also to refer to Jesus Christ, if he were not making a clear connection—in fact, requiring for salvation the belief that Jesus is Lord! There is far more involved than just believing Jesus is a superior being. Throughout the letter, Paul puts Jesus on the same level as God, beginning in the very first verse, where he identifies himself not with the words “Paul, a bond-servant of God,” but “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus…” Abraham was a servant of God (Ex 32:13); so were Moses (Num 12:7), David (1 Sam 23:10) and the prophets. Yet Paul speaks of himself as a servant of Jesus. For a monotheist this would border on idolatry were Jesus not God.

For Paul to say in 1:7, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” would be a complete insult to the living God Almighty, putting a mere human on the same level in this greeting—that is, unless Jesus were God Himself. Clearly in our verse for today, there is no question the apostle Paul taught that we must believe Jesus is God in order to be saved. Nothing could be more doctrinally centered for Christian faith than the deity of Jesus Christ.

Lord, I do wholeheartedly believe Jesus is God who came in the flesh.