David’s Son & Lord
Jesus asks an interesting question in Luke 20:41–44: “How is it that they say Christ is David’s son? For David himself says in the book of Psalms, ‘The Lord said to my lord, “Sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet.”’ David therefore calls him ‘Lord,’ so how is he his son?” Jesus is not denying that he is David’s son but is asking the scribes to consider that their concept of David’s son might be inadequate. He is also David’s Lord, sharing with his heavenly Father the very throne of God.
David’s son, descended through Mary—human; David’s Lord—divine. He has to be both, and nothing else will do. Only a man is eligible to die for human sin; only a sinless man is qualified to die for human sin; and only God is able to die for the sins of all believers and come back from death to live forever as their Redeemer and Savior and Lord.
The theological language of the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds (one substance with the Father) and the technical language of Chalcedonian Christology (two natures in one person) are inevitable once these two simple phrases are accepted: David’s Son and David’s Lord. Why? Without them there is no salvation. Only biblical Christology can support biblical soteriology; only the biblical Savior could provide biblical salvation; only the Person of Christ could do the work of Christ. It is absolutely essential: David’s son and David’s Lord.
Donald T. Williams is Professor Emeritus of Toccoa Falls College. He stays permanently camped out on the borders between serious scholarship and pastoral ministry, between theology and literature, and between Narnia and Middle-Earth. He is the author of fourteen books, including Answers from Aslan: The Enduring Apologetics of C. S. Lewis (DeWard, 2023). He is a contributing editor of Touchstone.
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