Children, do you have a coin? Have you ever thought about the meaning of a coin? Probably not. Today, our coins don't have much meaning. But in the ancient Roman world, coins were one of the very few ways of communicating to a large audience. There were no televisions, no radios, no newspapers. There were no billboards along the roads. Coins were one of the few things that everyone would look at.

So when Roman coins bore the inscription, "Caesar is Lord," they were intended to make a statement to all the inhabitants of the empire. Caesar is Lord--this meant not only that Caesar was king, but also suggested that Caesar had divine status. In the ancient Roman world, as in many cultures, the king was viewed as a divine figure.

So when the early church began proclaiming that "Jesus Christ is Lord," the Roman world heard it as a political challenge.

And it was.

When you say that Christ Jesus is Lord, you are saying that the Messiah, Jesus, is king. Jesus has been anointed King of kings and Lord of lords, and his rule extends over all the kingdoms of the earth.

When you say that Jesus is Lord, you are renouncing all earthly political allegiances. If Christ is King, and if he has established the kingdom of God, then your whole attitude toward the politics of this age must change.

We hear this in the announcement of the angel to Mary: "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."

What does this mean? What does it mean that Jesus sit on the throne of David? What does it mean that he will reign over the house of Jacob forever?

Mary explains what she thought of the message in her song: 1:50-55. The coming of the King--the Son of the Most High--who will sit on David's throne forever results in the exaltation of the humble and the destruction of the proud.

Our shorter catechism attempts to summarize this biblical teaching:

Q. 26. How doth Christ execute the office of a king?

A. Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.

In order to understand how Jesus is Lord--how Christ is King--let us seek to understand the kingship of Christ both in his humiliation and in his exaltation.

First we need to look at how Christ is king even in his humiliation. Luke makes it clear in his first three chapters that he is recording the birth of a king. From the birth announcement in chapter 1, to the emphasis on the Davidic lineage of Joseph in 2:1-5, and 3:23-38, Even to the announcement to the shepherds of the birth of "Christ the Lord," Luke wants to make it clear that he is telling of the birth of the king.

The basic message of Jesus is that the kingdom of God is coming. Indeed, Jesus proclaims that in him, the kingdom of God has come. It comes in his preaching of the good news. As Jesus says in Luke 4:43, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose." Jesus proclaims that God's judgment is at hand. The crucial moment in history, the dawn of a new age, is coming. Either you are committed to this age, and will be judged with it, or you will repent, believe the gospel of the kingdom, and follow Jesus as the great King. [Luke 9:57-62]

Where is your allegiance? Are you committed to this age? Are you longing for the pleasures and power of this world? If so, then beware lest you end like Lot's wife, who looked back after having heard the call of the Kingdom. The one who has heard the call of the kingdom must remember what Jesus said earlier in 9:23-26. Discipleship is costly. Following Jesus will cost you your life. Following Jesus means accepting the life of the cross. You must deny yourself. You may not seek your own glory. You may not pursue the glory of this world. Or else, when Jesus comes in his glory, and the glory of the Father, and of the holy angels, He will be ashamed of you. All the glory you can get from this world, can't measure up to the glory of Christ. So Jesus' preaching emphasized the coming kingdom. 

But the preaching of the kingdom is echoed by the power of the kingdom; and Jesus demonstrated the power of this kingdom through healing the sick and casting out demons. After Jesus had been casting out demons for a while, some scoffers claimed that he cast out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons. Luke 11:17-22 gives us Jesus' reply. How do you know that the kingdom has come? Well, if Jesus cast out demons by the finger of God, "then the kingdom of God has come upon you." The kingdom of this age is being plundered. Jesus casts out demons as a show of force as he prepares to battle the prince of this age. Satan had held the human race under his thumb ever since the fall. Remember that in the temptations, Satan offers the kingdoms of the world to Jesus, if only Jesus would bow and worship the devil. Satan can only make that offer because he does in fact hold the kingdoms of the world. He was not the rightful ruler, but he was in fact the ruler of all mankind. But Jesus came to establish the kingdom of God. He came to rule over the house of Jacob forever. And what was the house of Jacob? Was Israel intended as an ethnic religious group? No! Remember the promise to Abraham: "In you all nations shall be blessed." Remember how God called Israel to be a kingdom of priests, mediating the blessings of God to the nations. Jesus came to fulfill what God had promised. He came to overthrow the strong man, and plunder his house. No longer would humanity be bound in service to the devil. In Jesus Christ the new humanity has come. In Him the kingdom of God was revealed.

What sort of kingdom is this? Pilate was concerned that Jesus might be a revolutionary. He asked if Jesus considered himself the King of the Jews. John reports Jesus' answer: "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from this world" (John 18:36). Some have tried to say that this means that the Kingdom of God is apolitical. But that is not at all what Jesus is saying. If the kingdom of God is apolitical, then you can have whatever politics you like. That's not what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying that his kingdom is not like any other kingdom. The politics of the Kingdom of God overthrow the politics of this world. The follower of Jesus cannot say "Caesar is Lord." The disciple of Jesus is bound to a political order that is "not from this world." 

To move this to the modern world, the Christian cannot fully embrace either the Democratic or the Republican party line. For that matter, you may not fully embrace the whole American experiment. We may appreciate certain aspects of our democratic republic, but in our hearts, we are royalists! We serve a monarch whose Kingdom requires that we hold very loosely to this age. 

There are two errors we must avoid: 1) We must avoid the error of believing that we can separate our religion from politics. No country has ever actually succeeded at doing this. Modern Americans still use politics to try to further their religious aims. They've just changed their religion to one of industry, technology, and entertainment. (Have you ever noticed that industry provides the power, technology the information, and entertainment the enjoyment in modern society--hmm, sounds like a prophet, priest and king to me!) 2) we must avoid the error of identifying our politics with this age. This is the error of much of the Christian right, whether dispensationalist or theonomic. The agendas of both the Republican and the Democratic parties are firmly rooted in this age. We may have more sympathy with the moral stance of many Republicans, but they do not reflect the agenda of Christ. Our political agenda must be oriented around the purpose of the kingdom of Christ. Augustine spoke rightly of the need for the Christian prince to reflect Christ in his attitudes and actions toward others. Abraham Kuyper did much in this direction by establishing a Christian political party in the Netherlands that attempted to think about politics in a kingdom-oriented manner. How should we think about welfare from the standpoint of the Kingdom of God? How about education? Foreign policy?

In order to address this more fully, we need to see also how Christ executes the office of a king in his exaltation. This is the part that the shorter catechism addresses:

Q. 26. How doth Christ execute the office of a king?

A. Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.

The fulfillment of all the promises of God is revealed in the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. As Paul says in Romans 1:2-4, "Which God promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead." In the resurrection of Christ, he is declared to be the Son of God in power. Adam was the son of God who failed. In Adam the covenant of life was broken. Sin entered the world, and death came to all, because Adam rebelled against God. Now, Jesus Christ has come as the King of kings, and Lord of lords, the second and last Adam who overthrows the power of sin and death. And now Jesus reigns over all. As he says to his disciples, "all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth."

What is the agenda of the Kingdom of Christ? Christ's agenda as king is to subdue his people, to rule and defend us, and to restrain and conquer all his and our enemies.

If this is the agenda of our King, how can we, as faithful subjects, pursue this agenda? For this we need to turn to James. It is fitting that the two regional bible studies should have chosen Luke and James. In many ways James is taking the message of the kingdom from Jesus, and speaking to the ways in which the agenda of the King points his servants toward a certain way of life. But in James 2, James reveals the rationale for his teaching: "My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory" (2:1). Jesus is the Lord of glory. Caesar claims to be the Lord of Rome, but Jesus is the Lord of glory. The agenda of the Kingdom of God requires us to be doers of the word. Because Jesus is King, we cannot show favoritism toward the rich and powerful. The town judge in Walkerton has a reputation for being incorruptible. While Walkerton is in St. Joseph county, he frequently gets sent difficult cases from the surrounding counties, because they know that he will not be swayed by politics or power. He grew up in the Christian Reformed Church (and is a member at Grace Reformed). When you have a clear vision of the Kingdom of God, earthly kingdoms simply don't have the same weight.

How do you approach your work? There are competing kingdoms at war. Do you have a clear enough vision of the Kingdom of God to remind you of your agenda? As you relate to your fellow-workers (or to your neighbors), whose kingdom are you embodying? Yes, you must pay your taxes to Caesar. You must live according to the rules your boss has established. But have you ever noticed the radical implications of Jesus' words? "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, but unto God the things that are God's" All things belong to God. So even as you live according to the rules of the nation, and of the workplace, you are to live in a subversive fashion as well. Because Caesar wanted taxes as a reflection of his domination over all things. You can give him your taxes, but you cannot give him your allegiance. The Kingdom of God will challenge every loyalty, every allegiance, not through our defiance, but through our submission, as we live quietly and peaceably with all men.

Christ is King. Do you believe it?

Copyright © 2003 Peter J. Wallace