J.R. Daniel Kirk has a brief but excellent article, "Shema Christology in 1 Cor 8"; here is a very important observation he makes about this often-abused text by the likes of Richard Bauckham:
First, there is no problem at all with a Jewish person referring to someone, a King, as Lord alongside YHWH who is the Lord. In fact, as Ephesians can say that there is one Father in heaven from whom all families on earth derive their name, a Jewish person would probably say that there is one kurios in heaven–which is precisely why this Lord’s people can have a king whom we call The Lord.
The Lordship of the Messiah is derivative of the Lordship of Israel’s God.
What, then, are we to make of all things existing through him?
This comports well with what Paul says elsewhere about the advent of new creation with the death and resurrection of Jesus as Messiah.
“One died for all, therefore all died… so then, if anyone is in Christ–New Creation! The old things have passed away, behold! the new things have come!”
To say that all things are through him, that he sustains all things, that all rulers and powers are for him and under him–all of this is new creation language. It is a new creation that comes about through the death and resurrection of Jesus, as he is enthroned as Lord at God’s right hand.
We exist through him–he died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who died and rose again for them.
If the shema’ is altered in 1 Cor 8, it happens through the Christ event per se rather than as a description or realization of Jesus’ pre-existent ontological identity.
