The lordship of Christ is the doctrine that Jesus is Kyrios—Lord—possessing absolute, divine authority and universal dominion over all creation, every creature, and especially His redeemed people, who owe Him entire allegiance and obedience. The confession ‘Jesus is Lord’ is the earliest and most basic Christian creed: if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. The title Kyrios is weighty, for it is the very word the Greek Old Testament used to render the divine name YHWH; to call Jesus Lord is to ascribe to Him the dignity and authority of God. His lordship has been His from eternity as the divine Son, but it is also the reward and crown of His mediatorial work: because He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, God hath highly exalted Him and given Him the name above every name, that every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. He is therefore Lord by right of creation (all things were made by Him), by right of redemption (He bought His people with His blood), and by right of conquest and exaltation (He is enthroned over all). His lordship is comprehensive, claiming the whole of life—there is no neutral ground, no realm exempt from His rule. And it lays upon every man the duty of submission: to receive Him not merely as Savior from sin’s penalty but as Lord of one’s whole life, for He is not truly received at all who is not received as He is—the crucified, risen, and reigning Lord. The right response to His lordship is to bow now in willing faith and obedience, for every knee shall bow in the end—some gladly as subjects, others unwillingly as conquered foes—and blessed are all they that take refuge in Him while He may be found.