Embracing Christ the King
Christ still reigns no matter how one abuses this truth.
Count me annoyed that there are people who have little idea what Christ’s lordship even means, and yet they proclaim, “Christ is King” in a flippant or even antisemitic manner. From everything I have read, the controversy surrounding the misuse of proclaiming this Biblical truth really started months ago. Apparently, online trolls and white supremacists have used this phrase as an antisemitic trope. Now I have no desire to dwell on why this truth is being misused, but rather I want to talk about what “Christ is King” really means, because those who invoke Christ’s kingship as an excuse to be antisemitic (or commit any other sin) have no idea what “Christ is King” even means. Maybe if they read their Bibles they would get the picture and bow before the Lord in reverent fear:
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
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.”
Whenever someone uses Jesus Christ as a tool for them to spread hate, they are an affront to God just like the kings described above, and things didn’t end too well for them. If these online trolls and white supremacists truly believed Christ was King, then they would submit to Him. Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). In Christ’s kingdom, there is no room for this kind of despicable behavior that some have been propagating on the fringes.
However, we should not let the wicked behavior of some discourage us from proclaiming, “Christ is King.” Jesus still reigns no matter what. An online “community” of trolls does not change this fact. Their ignorance of this truth should cause all followers of Christ to dive into the richness of Jesus’ kingship.
When the Bible describes Jesus as “King,” it in no way conflates Christ with being on par with any earthly king. No, Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16). He is above every earthly power. This is because Christ, God the Son, has been given authority from God the Father. When Christ gave the Great Commission—one of the last acts He did before He ascended up to Heaven—he made this point very clearly in Matthew 28:18-20. He began, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
Simple truth right there. Christ has all heavenly and earthly authority. But this authority is more than a statement of fact. It is a call to action.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Because Christ has all authority, His followers are to go about and spread the good news about His kingdom. This will result in “all” nations becoming His disciples. It is up to the servants of Christ to teach obedience to the whole world. No nation or people are to be excluded from this mandate.
God the Father promised to make all the nations Christ’s heritage (Psalm 2:8). Nothing can keep that promise from coming to pass. And no, this is not a kingdom that will be spread by the sword (Matthew 26:52). In fact, Jesus heavily implied that it would be His followers who would often end up on the receiving end of the sword (Matthew 10:34-39). Following Jesus comes with a cost. However, despite all the earthly odds stacked against His people, those of us who call ourselves Christians will prevail, and we will prevail by the preaching of the gospel. While the world spreads its kingdom by the sword, Christ will have His kingdom spread by word and by letter, until “every knee should bow,” and “every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10-11).
I don’t know when or how exactly every nation will come to confess Christ as Lord (that’s a big debate within Christianity), but as a Bible-believing Christian, I know it will happen. Christ's kingship is an opportunity for His followers to spread forth the riches of His glorious grace—grace that brings redemption to all who claim the saving grace of God by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 1:6-7). The “Christ is King” antisemites are missing out on the whole glorious picture of the lordship of Christ. While they think the kingdom of God means some spiteful, racially exclusive, authoritarian Reich, the kingdom of God is really about all peoples united under the blood of Christ, the King Who died and rose again for the sins of the world. Jesus has already been given all preeminence, and someday, all the nations will learn obedience to Christ.
Now it is not just the small fringes of white supremacists who need to understand what the kingdom of God means, the whole world needs to know it. And you know what? The world doesn’t care much for Christ’s kingdom. It doesn’t matter what the ethnicity that one happened to be born in, or the ideology that one adheres to. The gospel of the kingdom has enemies all around. As the Apostle Paul said “But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 1:23). But the beauty of Christ’s kingdom is that the Lord seeks to reconcile His enemies to Himself (Romans 5:10). This means that whether you are the antisemite who vents their hate into the stratosphere of social media, or the secularist who is easy to get along with over at the office, you can repent and become a child of God. But the Bible is very clear, there is only one way to repentance, and “whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God (John 3:18).” Those who choose to remain as God’s enemies will be dealt with in the Lord’s own good timing.
For some people, all this talk about Christ being King stirs up concerns about scary “Christian Nationalism.” Now there is a lot of arguments going on over what this is, and I notice that most of both Christian Nationalism’s so-called proponents and its critics don’t always seem to know what they’re talking about. For the most part, Christian Nationalism tends to be a very malleable term that can mean whatever you want it to mean. But regardless of this idea’s merits, when the Bible says that Christ is the King of kings and that disciples must be made of all nations, well then that means that nothing is outside of Christ’s reign. King David said, “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1). The earth is not under the lordship of the Christian Nationalist or the secularist, it is under the lordship of Christ. This truth often causes men who all stripes to fall back and mumble “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” (John 6:60), but it is still true nonetheless.
So, is Christ King? Most assuredly yes! If you have made it this far into this article, and you have not fully embraced Christ’s kingship, then I urge you to repent. If you are a Christian but have found yourself shying way from acknowledging that Jesus is Lord because you fear of being associated with “those people,” repent of this to your Heavenly Father and walk in His glorious truth. And if you are one who has not accepted Christ and of course has rejected His lordship in your own life, repent, and God the Father promises to adopt you as His own child and give you new life. With Christ, “old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV). Remember, if Christ is not Lord of your life, do not think that you have freedom. You are simply under the lordship of something else: sin. Christ came to free you of your own sin so that you can find the true emancipation that can only be obtained under his lordship (Romans 6:17-18). Christ is King over all things. Come embrace this wonderful, loving, holy King of Kings!