The Christian SHOULD know that there is only one true king who is over all, and that his kingship applies to every area of life. Nothing is not subject to his kingship, and no one is exempt from being under his reign and rule. The sovereign kingship of God is stressed throughout Scripture.
And the New Testament repeatedly speaks of Christ as King. Yet too often we believers forget or ignore this truth. We think he is king over some personal “spiritual” things, but we tend to let other usurpers come along and take his place in the rest of life. We really need to correct this faulty thinking.
Consider just some of the passages that speak to the kingship of Jesus Christ:
Psalm 2:4-9 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
Isaiah 9:6-7 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
Daniel 7:13-14 I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.
Luke 1:32-33 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.
Ephesians 1:20-23 [God] worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Philippians 2:9-11 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Revelation 1:4-6 Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 17:14 They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.
Revelation 19:13-16 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Here I want to look at just one passage that speaks to this matter. In 1 Timothy 6:13-16, we find these words of Paul:
I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
John Stott says this about verse 15:
God is invincible, beyond all interference by earthy powers; for he is God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of Kings and Lord of lords (15b). In the Old Testament Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon liked to be designated ‘king of kings’, but Yahweh was acknowledged as ‘God of gods and Lord of lords’. In the New Testament Christ is given the combined title ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’, in opposition no doubt to the blasphemies of the emperor cult. No human rule can challenge his authority.
And a paragraph from Philip Graham Ryken is also worth featuring here:
Paul ends his letter with a short victory song. . . . Whatever its origins come up Paul’s concluding doxology emphasises God’s transcendence. God is far, far above and beyond everyone and everything else. He is invincible, the “blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. 6:15; cf. Deut. 10:17; Rev. 17:14). God is the absolute potentate over all that is, all that was, and all that will be. He is the only sovereign being inside or outside the entire universe. All powers and dominions are subject to him. He is King of kings, ruling over all the kings of the earth, including both the emperors of Rome and the superpowers of modern times. He is Lord of lords, ruling over all the deities of world religion, including Diana of the Ephesians and all the gods of this age. God is to be praised for the invincibility of his power.
Finally, the famous Puritan and Scottish Presbyterian church leader Thomas Boston (1676 – 1732) can be appealed to. In his The Offices of Christ, he looks at his three offices of prophet, priest, and king. He appeals to the Timothy passage and others here:
I proceed to shew the nature of Christ’s kingdom, or what sort of a kingdom it is. Christ has a twofold kingdom.
1. An essential kingdom. He is Lord and King over all the creatures by nature, inasmuch as he is the eternal Son of God, equal with his Father in all things. In this respect he has a universal empire, which extends over all things in heaven and earth, yea and to hell itself. He is the sole Monarch of the whole world; and all the princes and potentates of the earth are but his vicegerents that govern under, and should rule for him. He is ‘the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords,’ as the apostle styles him, 1 Tim. 6:15.
2. He has an economical or Mediatory kingdom. Originally the kingdom belongs to him as God, and derivatively it belongs to him as God-man and Mediator. He is constituted King by divine appointment and institution, I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion. He is invested with authority over all the creatures; hence it is said, Eph. 1:22. ‘God hath put all things under his feet.’ He rules from sea to sea, and to the ends of all the earth, yea to the utmost bounds of God’s creation. ‘He hath given him power over all flesh,’ as this King himself says, John 17:2. All things are subject to his government, and ready to fulfil his pleasure, when he issues his word of command.
Application
Christian leaders and pastors especially need to be speaking these truths, and they need to apply all of it to every area of life, especially our political, social and cultural spheres. Too often we Christians are far too hesitant to declare the kingship of Christ over all of life.
But as Abraham Kuyper once famously said, commenting on Psalm 24.1 (“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”): “There is not one square inch of the entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out, ‘This is mine! This belongs to me!’”
So we need to be willing to challenge the false claimants to the throne and resist the false gods of this age. And there would be hundreds of articles found on this site urging us to do just that in various practical ways. But let me close with something I just came upon in social media while writing this piece.
California pastor Jack Hibbs just gave a sermon on Sunday and in part he spoke about the devastating fires still raging in California and the appalling mismanagement and failures of leadership in all this. He was NOT shy about naming names and calling out evil and dysfunctional politicians and leaders. Watch this ten-minute clip here:
Powerful stuff. He was certainly willing to speak truth to power. He was willing to call out our pseudo-leaders who seemed more intent on building up their own little empires than actually serving the people. We need more believers to speak out like this, and we need all Christians to remember just who is the one rightful King.
