I Pledge Allegiance

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).

How do you know if someone who says they are a Christian, really is? This question has always been challenging, but today it has become especially complex. The label “Christian” is claimed by zealots and pacifists, left-wingers and right-wingers, celebrities and street people, the powerful and the weak, politicians and prisoners, saints and sinners. Who’s telling the truth? 

In my generation, you could make a credible claim for being a Christian if you checked the box for certain litmus-test issues such as going to the altar, praying the sinner’s prayer, inviting Jesus into your heart, and being baptized. And if you attended church, had daily devotions, and practiced above average morality, well, the conclusion was inevitable: you were a Christian.  Case closed. Right?

Today, however, these traditional “proofs” of discipleship no longer seem to work. Not only have the litmus-test issues changed, but the wide variety of people claiming to be “Christian” gets more and more bewildering. We desperately need a new standard, a new criterion, for discerning who is an authentic Christ-follower and who isn’t. And there is no better place to look for help in answering this question than in the New Testament itself.  

The Jesus Creed

Scholars believe that the first creed of the church was a simple three-word affirmation: Jesus is Lord. In the early church, it served as a sort of verbal short-hand to signal one’s ultimate allegiance. Many years before longer and more doctrinal creeds were composed, this original affirmation of faith enabled true believers to find other true believers. When you pause to think about it, this creed is not only profoundly simple. It is simply profound. One finds evidence of its presence in various places in the New Testament (see Rom. 10:9; I Cor. 12:3; Phil. 2:9-11). 

Confessing Jesus as Lord was much more than an intellectual affirmation of doctrinal truth. It was a personal and public declaration of submission to the lordship of Jesus Christ in every area of one’s life. Publicly affirmed at one’s baptism, the creed continued to be recited as an ongoing proclamation of one’s faith throughout the entirety of one’s life. 

Although the longer creeds certainly have their place (The Apostles’ Creed, The Athanasian Creed, The Nicene Creed, etc.), the church’s original affirmation of faith can be of great assistance for us today in helping to discern those who are true believers from those who are not. When recited honestly from the heart, The Jesus Creed accomplishes several things:

First, it anchors us in the reality that there is only one name that is ultimately able to save (see Rom. 10:9-13). Although our world likes to include Jesus’ name in a long list of names that it considers to be possible saviors (Marx, Buddha, Freud, Krishna, Mohammed, etc.), the gospel boldly insists that “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Ac. 4:12).

Second, the creed affirms that Jesus has now been exalted to a position of sovereign power, seated on the throne of the universe (see Ac. 2:36; Phil. 2:9-11; I Cor. 8:4-6). Although the full manifestation of God’s Kingdom awaits a future day, the good news of the gospel is that Jesus is Lord now, today! His reign has already begun.

Third, as king over all, Jesus demands absolute surrender, total consecration, full obedience, complete submission to his will and purposes. The church today is full of people who pretend they can have Jesus as Savior without submitting to him as Lord. The creed reminds us that Jesus is Lord of all or not Lord at all. No one stated the issue more clearly than Jesus himself: “So you cannot become my disciple without giving up everything you own” (Lk. 14:33 NLT). 

Fourth, the creed reminds us that the gospel has cultural and political implications. As N. T. Wright has repeatedly expressed it: if Jesus is Lord, Caesar is not. The early Christians were persecuted not because they told people they could go to heaven when they died. They were hated and killed because they prayed that God’s kingdom would come and that his will would be done on earth (see Matt. 6:10)! Although Christians aspire to be good citizens of the country where they happen to live, their ultimate allegiance is to the Kingdom of God (see Eph. 2:19-22).

Fifth, affirming our faith in the Lordship of Jesus reminds us that our lives are to be modeled after his. Just as he came and gave his life for others, we are to imitate his example of status-renouncing, self-denying, other-oriented love. “For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps” (I Pet. 2:21). 

Affirming Our Faith 

If I were a pastor again in a local church, I would introduce my congregation to The Jesus Creed. On Sunday mornings during corporate worship, I would have the congregation stand, put their right hand over their heart, and recite the words together. I would explain that no one should participate in this public affirmation of faith unless they truly meant what they were saying. Then, I would introduce the creed with these words: “Let us pledge our allegiance to King Jesus, who is currently ruling over the universe as he is seated at the right hand of God.” I would have the congregation recite the creed three times, each time putting the emphasis on a separate word.

Jesus is Lord.

Jesus is Lord.

Jesus is Lord.

So, how do you know who is a Christian and who isn’t? A person’s ability to honestly and whole-heartedly affirm The Jesus Creed is the best way I know to discern the difference between sheep and goats. Not only does it help us better understand the person sitting on the pew next to us in church, it also gives us a candid look into the true condition of our own soul. 

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