What do you think of when you read the phrase “Jesus is King”? For some, it is a comfort. For others, it’s blasphemy. Still others consider it to be an antisemitic trope.
It’s been trending on Twitter recently, in many cases, for all the wrong reasons. I won’t rehash all the back-and-forth that ensued over the last two weeks, but suffice it to say that not everyone sharing the phrase acknowledges Jesus as King — neither over the universe nor in their lives and hearts.
It bears considering what the Bible says about the matter. In the Book of Revelation, the Apostle John describes a scene playing out in heaven in the future:
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 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.
In the passage, we see Jesus riding a white horse, accompanied by an army of angelic beings. He is referred to by three names: “Faithful and True,” “The Word of God,” and King of kings and Lord of lords.”
Ultimately, Jesus will conquer and rule over all other rulers of the earth. They will bow down to him, and he will exercise dominion over them. Got Questions expounds on the title:
When Jesus is called “King of kings and Lord of lords,” it means that, in the end, all other rulers will be conquered or abolished, and He alone will reign supreme as King and Lord of all the earth. There is no power, no king, and no lord who can oppose Him and win. There are myriad references to this absolute rule of Jesus and His preeminence over other rulers throughout Scripture. To mention just a few, Isaiah 40:23–24 says that the Lord brings “princes to nothing” and makes earth’s rulers “emptiness.” The mere breath of the Lord will “carry them off like stubble.” The vision in Daniel 7:13–14 is of one whom Daniel calls “the Ancient of Days”—God the Father—who gives an everlasting dominion over all people, nations, and languages to “one like a son of man“—God the Son. In the New Testament, we get a better view of the One these passages refer to. The writer of Hebrews speaks of the Lord Jesus: “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power” (Hebrews 1:3). The next verse speaks of Jesus being “much superior” to the angels. Clearly, His rule over creation is absolute.
It’s breathtaking to consider one so powerful—the one who created the earth and the heavens, who gives us breath and causes our hearts to beat, and who sets up rulers and removes them — all by the power of his Word, that sword coming out of his mouth in John’s prophesy.
For many, their understanding of God ends there— with a powerful ruler who lives only to strike us down and make our lives miserable.
Yet there are other descriptions of Godhead: Jesus prays to God the Father, calling him “Abba,” which is similar to our word for Daddy; the Holy Spirit is described as our “comforter”; John the Baptist called Jesus “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”
On this Resurrection Sunday, we celebrate this Lamb of God. We recall that “For our sake [God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Jesus never sinned and followed the Jewish law perfectly. Our Holy God, who hates sin and must punish it, put our sins on Jesus—yours and mine alike—on the cross and meted out to Him our punishment.
It doesn’t seem fair by our standards. Why should an innocent man be punished for my wrongdoing—the lies I’ve told, the times I’ve stolen or spoken unkindly to someone, the times I’ve let my anger get away from me, the times that I’ve made idols of things that are not God (and many more things that I’m too ashamed to write about here)?
But God, in his kindness, made a way. Through Jesus’s sacrificial death, I’m cleansed from my sin. David wrote in Psalm 103, ” As far as the east is from the west, so far does he [God] remove our transgressions from us.” We can be new creations clothed in Christ’s righteousness. That is how God sees those who have repented and put their trust in Christ alone. And just as God passed over the Jews who put the blood of lambs on their doorposts, sparing their firstborn sons, we can put on (metaphorically) the blood of Christ and escape from God’s wrath after we die—the wrath that every single one of us deserves.
The first time I really understood this truth was Resurrection Sunday in 1985. I thought I was a Christian, but didn’t really understand a lot about Christianity. During my college years, I stopped going to church and got mixed up in some wretched sin. My neighbor, a youth pastor, invited me to his church, and for some reason, I took him up on the offer. The pastor described a scene where the worst things we’ve ever done were broadcast on the Jumbotron during the Super Bowl, and all the world saw our sin in living color. He asked us to imagine how ashamed we’d be. It wasn’t difficult for me to imagine it. He then described the crucifixion of Jesus—the crown of thorns, the nails in his hand and feet, the separation from His Father—and said that it was our sin that put him there. My sin drove the nails into his hands and put the lashes on the back of the one who willingly went to the cross to die for me. I was broken. For the first time, I understood the enormity of my sin and the price Jesus paid to save me from it.
While you might be saying, “Well, I’ve never murdered anyone or done anything really evil, Jesus said in Matthew, “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.” Not just the “big” sins, but the little ones too. Jesus said that if you’ve ever been angry with someone, by God’s standards, it’s as if you killed him.
Christ is King, and yet he forgives us over and over and over again. What love. What mercy.
That’s what we celebrate today.
He is risen!