Read Romans 10:9–13
ALSO IN SCRIPTURE
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him.” (Psalm 24:1 NLT)
When Ozzy Osbourne gave his farewell concert, many people saw a complicated life being honored.
They saw a musician whose career had shocked, moved, entertained, unsettled, and shaped generations. They saw someone who had struggled publicly, survived much, loved his family, and left behind a body of work that meant something to people far beyond the boundaries of church life.
Then some Christians began speaking.
Not all Christians, of course. But enough. Loudly enough.
They spoke as though they knew the final word over his soul. They declared where he was going. They dismissed the grief of those who loved him. They treated his life as a warning more than a human story. Some seemed almost eager to turn his death into proof that they were righteous, discerning, and safely on the right side of eternity.
That angered me.
Not because every part of his life needed defending. Not because public lives are beyond critique. Not because Christians should abandon discernment or pretend that nothing matters. It angered me because the speed of condemnation felt far too familiar.
The church has often been quick to identify devils outside itself while refusing to recognize the cruelty it has carried in the name of God. It has scapegoated artists, outsiders, doubters, rebels, queer people, grieving people, wounded people, and anyone who made religious respectability uncomfortable. It has too often sounded less like the body of Christ and more like the accuser.
So I spoke out.
I challenged the judgment. I challenged the certainty. I challenged the way Christians can claim the authority of Jesus while speaking about another person’s soul with contempt. I asked whether the church might need to look in the mirror before deciding who else belongs in hell.
And people got upset.
That is what happens sometimes when Jesus asks you to proclaim something people do not want to hear. The issue is not always whether your words were careful enough, gentle enough, or easy enough to receive. Sometimes people are angry because the question itself exposes something. How dare you challenge the church like that? How dare you suggest that our judgment might not be the same thing as God’s judgment? How dare you interrupt condemnation when we had already made it feel holy?
But that is exactly where Paul’s words matter.
In Romans, Paul says that if we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. That confession is not small. To say “Jesus is Lord” is to surrender every rival claim to ultimate authority.
Including our claim to the final word over another person’s soul.
Paul does not stop with confession. He widens the circle. There is no distinction, he says. The same Lord is Lord of all. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Everyone.
That does not erase discernment. It does not mean every life is equally faithful, every action excusable, or every public witness holy. Paul is not asking us to stop telling the truth.
He is reminding us that the final word is not ours.
Psalm 24 presses the issue even further. The earth belongs to the Lord, and everything in it. Not just the sanctuaries. Not just the respectable lives. Not just the people who make religious communities comfortable. The earth. The world. All who live in it.
If that is true, then no person exists outside the claim of God.
No sinner. No saint. No artist. No outcast. No person whose life unsettles the church’s imagination.
To confess that Jesus is Lord is to give the final word back to Christ. Fear does not get it. Condemnation does not get it. Reputation does not get it. Religious arrogance does not get it. The church at its most anxious does not get it.
Christ does.
That should make us careful before we weaponize eternity against someone else. It should make us slower to damn and quicker to examine ourselves. It should make us ask whether our words sound like the gospel or merely like accusation dressed in religious language.
There will be times when faithfulness requires us to say, “Not so fast.” Not to excuse harm. Not to romanticize destruction. Not to pretend every life should be imitated. But to remind the church that judgment belongs to God, mercy belongs to God, and salvation is not a trophy Christians hand out to people they approve.
Jesus is Lord.
Not the loudest believer. Not the most offended crowd. Not the empire. Not the party. Not the church’s fear. Not even our own certainty.
Jesus.
The same Lord who is Lord of all.
And the final word belongs to him.
THOUGHT OF THE DAY
To confess that Jesus is Lord is to surrender the final word over mercy, judgment, and belonging to Christ.PRAYER
God of mercy, forgive us when we speak with certainty about what belongs to you alone. Free us from judgment that masquerades as faithfulness, and teach us to confess Jesus as Lord with humility, truth, and hope. Let your mercy unsettle our arrogance and widen our love. Amen.
Devotion written by Rev. Todd R. Lattig with the assistance of ChatGPT (OpenAI).