The Worthy King

We have many names for God.  We call Him a great number of things, and many of them are true.  We call Him Lord, for He is indeed the master and one who has full authority.  We call Him Father, for it is true that He has adopted believers into His family and we have been made children of God according to the truth of Scripture.  We call Him our Savior, for the great news of Scripture is that Christ stepped down from the throne to save us from eternal separation from Him!  We also call Him our Provider, our Protector, even our Friend.  All of these are true.  But there is one title that has always stood out to me.  I believe it is meant to stand out.  God is, above all else, our King.

Revelation 19 calls Him the "King of all kings and Lord of all lords".  In my heart, I know that all too often I am quite comfortable with God being my Provider, my Savior, my Friend.  These are things in which God is doing something for me.  He is providing for me, saving me, befriending me.  It is easy to get cozy feelings from these things.  But to proclaim Him to be my Lord and King, is something that takes on a different meaning.  No longer is God seen to be serving me, but now such a title implies that I serve Him.  There is a different weight to such a title.

My understanding of this continues to grow with each day, but I can see clearly from Scripture that Christ is my King first, all else second.  That is to say, if I am openly rebelling against Him, there are benefits I will miss out on.  Christ, being the just and right King that He is, does not reward wickedness.  He does not tolerate sin.  You don't have to look any further than the cross to see confirmation about that.  For you see, Christ's work on the cross was not just about how much He loves us, but also about just how far He is willing to go to slam the door on sin.  It was for the sake of love that He died.  It was the for the sake of justice that He rose again and re-claimed His place at the right hand of God.

Jesus Christ is King and upholds His righteousness and perfection.  And He rewards His servants who follow hard after Him and pursue those virtues.  And when we fall in our pursuit of those things, He offers us grace, knowing we will never be perfect on this side of eternity. However, when we stray away and pursue others gods and idols, we fall away from right standing with the King!  He does not stop loving us and He does not withhold His grace in allowing us back into the fold when we return to His presence, but He cannot bless us, teach us, or use us in the way He desires to when we are not chasing after His goodness.

It is starting to sink into my heart and my soul about the real depth of what it means that Christ is my King.  When He commands something of me, it is not the authority of a college professor.  It is not merely an educated suggestion or a wise opinion counseling me.  It is my King commanding me!

 I have been on a kick about choices on this blog lately.  This post ties right on in.  If I am serious about Christ being King, then when the King commands, the servant listens.  The consequences for disobedience are serious, though we like to ignore that part.  God is not a tyrant, but He upholds justice and demands obedience.  And is He not worthy and deserving of such loyalty?  As if creating the universe was not enough to make Him worthy of worship, He also stepped between us and the punishment due to us, paid that debt, and then created a bridge to Himself where there once was a gap.  He made it possible for us to know Him personally and be His kin, when before His act on our behalf, we were His enemies!  Yes, He is worthy to be King and He is worthy of our lives and our obedience.

When I "became saved" as we like to call it in our Christian vocabulary, I made a confession of Jesus being my Lord and Savior.  Scripture teaches that the two titles go hand-in-hand.  If Jesus saved me, then He is my Lord.  If He is my Lord, then I am saved.  It is dangerous to believe that Jesus is your Savior if you do not express Him as Lord.

If He is my Lord, then I owe Him loyalty as a servant owes his King the same loyalty.  There is no room for a lukewarm "God is King on Sundays, but the rest of week I am my own person" mindset.  And yet so many Christians are comfortable living this way.  When the Israelites of the Old Testament fell into that mindset, their loyalties became divided.  They didn't cast God out, but they made Him compete with other things.  When this happened, He would allow them to fall into captivity and become prisoners of their enemies until they laid aside their idols and worshiped Him alone.  the 21st Century American Christian cannot imagine God doing something like to them and so they are comfortable not giving Christ their absolute loyalty and obedience.  They are okay putting on a mask for Sunday mornings and then living however they desire the rest of the time.  I fear that when Christ returns to claim His own, many of those people will be alarmed when God does not count them among His own!  The Body of Christ is no place for hypocrites and the half-committed.

To conclude, knowing that Jesus is King should have some weight to it in our lives.  There should be a reverence for God, who freed us and allowed us the Honor of serving Him and being a part of His family.  There should be a joy for those same reasons.  There should also be a careful study of God's commands and a seeking of His character so that we might serve Him faithfully.  If you do not revere God, find your joy in Him, or study His word to better know Him and know His commands, then Christ is probably not your King.  You are probably still enslaved to Satan and your own sin nature.  Invite Jesus to come and break you free from that.  Let Him be King.

We will always have a master.  Someone will always be acting as king over us.  But there is only one worthy King.  Serve Him and live abundantly.