In Jesus’ day, the word lord was often used as a title of respect toward earthly authorities; when the leper called Jesus “Lord” in Matthew 8:2, he showed Jesus respect as a healer and teacher (see also Matthew 8:25 and 15:25).

However, after the resurrection, the title “Lord,” as applied to Jesus, became much more than a title of honour or respect. Saying, “Jesus is Lord,” became a way of declaring Jesus’ deity. It began with Thomas’ exclamation when Jesus appeared to the disciples after His resurrection: “Thomas said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” (John 20:28). From then on, the apostles’ message was that Jesus is Lord, meaning “Jesus is God.” Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost contained that theme: “Let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:36). Later, in Cornelius’s house, Peter declared that Jesus is “Lord of all” (Acts 10:36).

To say that “Jesus is Lord” means that Jesus is God. Jesus has “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). He is “our only Sovereign and Lord” (Jude 1:4). He is, in fact, the Lord of lords (Revelation 17:14).

“‘You are the God who sees me.’ She also said, ‘Have I truly seen the One who sees me?’” Genesis 16:13b (NLT)

His name is El Roi, the God who sees.

The Lord revealed this name to a woman named Hagar in the Bible. She was an Egyptian servant who worked for a barren woman named Sarah. Sarah decided to have a child by asking her husband to sleep with Hagar. Sarah then mistreated pregnant Hagar to the point that she ran away to the desert.

We can surely understand Hagar’s urge to run away. We have felt it many times. But through the name El Roi, we discover that in our lowest moments, someone sees us. God sees our pain. He hears our cries.

We’re never alone because we serve a God who sees us. We can rest knowing God is never unaware of what we are going through. He is the all-seeing nurturing Father.

Background

The Nicene Creed, also called the Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan Creed, is a statement of the orthodox faith of the early Christian church in opposition to certain heresies, especially Arianism. These heresies, which disturbed the church during the fourth century, concerned the doctrine of the trinity and of the person of Christ. Both the Greek (Eastern) and the Latin (Western) church held this creed in honor, though with one important difference: the Western church insisted on the inclusion of the phrase "and the Son" (known as the "filioque") in the article on the procession of the Holy Spirit; this phrase still is repudiated by the Eastern Orthodox church. In its present form this creed goes back partially to the Council of Nicea (A.D. 325) with additions by the Council of Constantinople (A.D. 381). It was accepted in its present form at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, but the "filioque" phrase was not added until 589. However, the creed is in substance an accurate and majestic formulation of the Nicene faith. This translation of the Greek text was approved by the CRC Synod of 1988.

The great thing about God’s unconventional battle strategies is that they’re really all about Him. He does the wonders, gets the glory, and displays His power, authority, humour, creativity, etc. We are simply invited through faith and obedience to join the wild ride and revel in His victories.

For the Lord will rise up as at Mount Perazim, He will be angry as in the Valley of Gibeon—That He may do His work, His awesome work, And bring to pass His act, His unusual act. Isaiah 28:21

Romans 16 is the final passage in Paul's long letter to the Christians in Rome. It contains four sections: his greetings to specific people in Rome, a quick and urgent warning about the danger of false teachers, greetings from those with him in Corinth, and a final hymn of praise to God called a doxology.

In keeping with the point of this letter, his doxology praises the God who has revealed the long-hidden mystery of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul calls it his gospel, making clear to the Romans that they—and we—should hold his teaching in this letter as the authoritative truth about Jesus.

The final words of Paul's majestic letter about God's grace and forgiveness for all who come to Him by faith in Jesus declare that God be glorified forever through Jesus Christ

Romans 8

New International Version

1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you[a] free from the law of sin and death.

3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,[b] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.[c] And so he condemned sin in the flesh,

4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Romans 7:5-6

New International Version

5 For when we were in the realm of the flesh,[a] the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death.

6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Romans 6: 1 - 4

New International Version

1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?

2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Romans 5: 1-5

New International Version

1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.

5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Romans 4 is part of Paul’s extended description, of how Abraham is exemplary of the fact that both Gentiles and Jews are brought into a right relationship with God by faith in God’s saving work in Christ, rather than by observing the Law. This affirms that there is only one God who deals with all people fairly.