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In Romans 4:7,8 Paul quotes Psalm 32:1,2, and in Hebrews 7:21 he quotes Psalm 110:4, and in both cases
follows the LXX rule. This is true, not only of Paul, but of other New Testament writers. Matthew quotes the
words from the prophet Isaiah, `Prepare ye the way of the Lord (Jehovah)' by, `Prepare ye the way of Kurios' and
with this agree Mark, Luke and John. If we enquire whether, in Paul's witness, the titles `God' and `Lord' are
interchangeable the answer is still in the affirmative. Before he was converted, and while yet a zealous Pharisee,
Paul, on his arrested journey to Damascus, used the title Kurios when addressing the One Whose glory eclipsed the
noon-day sun. He cried `Who art Thou, Lord?' (Acts 9:5) and most certainly believed that he was addressing `God',
and Ananias, who visited him after his arrival in Damascus, used the expanded title `The Lord, even Jesus'. Peter,
too, uses the title when addressing God (Acts 10:14), yet does not hesitate to use the self-same title of the Saviour,
as did all the apostles. Preaching to the philosophers at Athens, Paul plainly taught that the `God' Who had made
the world, was `Lord' of heaven and earth (Acts 17:24).
Not only does the apostle say of Christ, the Son, `Let all the angels of God worship Him' (Heb. 1:6), but he
unreservedly gives Him the title `God', saying, `But unto the Son, He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever'
(Heb. 1:8), yet, still speaking of the Son, follows this by `God, even Thy God', and further concludes with `Thou,
Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth' (Heb. 1:10). The apostle was writing to Hebrews, who,
even by the outside world, were known to be jealous of the truth that there is One God, yet, as Paul and every
Hebrew knew, he was quoting Psalm 102, where the address of the afflicted is to `God' (Psa. 102:24), saying:
`Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish,
but Thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and
they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end' (Psa. 102:25-27).
Here, in this short chapter of Hebrews, worship, creation and deity are unreservedly ascribed to `Jesus Christ, the
same yesterday, and today, and for ever'.
Are we to accuse Paul of muddled thinking, when we find in Romans 10:9 and 16 that Jesus Christ is `Lord', yet
it was to the `Lord' that Isaiah spoke when he addressed the God of Israel in reference to the coming Messiah and
said `Lord, who hath believed our report?'
Are we to believe that there is any intended connection, or acknowledgment of error, when we compare the
following:
`For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God'
(Rom. 14:11).
`That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the
earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father' (Phil.
2:10,11).
Moreover, Romans 14:10 will show that Paul intended both the titles `Lord' and `God' to refer to Christ, for he
had said, `we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, for ...'.
Among those who reject the doctrine of the deity of Christ, God the Father is looked upon as the One and Only
God, whereas the `Lord' Jesus Christ is His messenger, representative and inferior. We have, we believe,
established beyond dispute that when the apostle Paul uses the title Kurios of the Saviour, he purposely and
consciously gives Him the title Jehovah. Now it is said of `God', Who is also the `Lord' in Romans 11:33-36, that
`Of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to Whom be glory for ever. Amen'. Yet writing to the
Corinthians, and, as we believe, sometime before the writing of Romans 11, the same apostle had said:
`To us there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and we in Him; and One Lord Jesus Christ, by
Whom are all things, and we by Him' (1 Cor. 8:6).