Romans 10:9 – Jesus Is Lord

Daily Devotional Bible Verse

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9 ESV)

In the 1st Century both Jews and Gentiles lived under the rule of Rome and therefore under the rule of Caesar. As Rome would conquer different territories they would allow them to keep their gods and religious practices as long as they recognized Caesar was lord over them. For the early Christians to say that all of life in general and their lives specifically are under the lordship of Jesus created a bit of tension. Although their commitment to Jesus often made them better citizens, the Roman government often saw this as subversive and rebellious. Christians would not allow Jesus to be just another god on the smorgasbord of gods, nor would they limit His rule in their lives.

“Jesus is Lord” is true Christianity but can look very different than our American brand of Christianity. American brand of Christianity—we go to a church worship service where everything is decorated nicely (nothing wrong with that), where we do rituals to help us in worship (nothing wrong with that either), where we hopefully have a spiritual encounter with God (definitely a good thing), and then go back to the rest of our daily life until we can get our next dose of Jesus (not OK at all). What we’ve done is moved God to nothing more than a pit stop in the middle of a frantic fast paced life.

To say “Jesus is Lord” means He invades every area of our lives—it all belongs to Him. Maybe we don’t have a pantheon of Roman gods that we worship, but we still have our own unique cultural pantheon of “gods” competing for our attention and allegiance.

Who is fighting for your attention and allegiance?