If we were created for kingship, and if Jesus came to earth to restore the kingship we lost, and if we want to be prepared to resume our rightful place as kings, then we had better learn what it means to be a king and how a king relates to his kingdom.
This is important both for teaching us how to think, speak, and behave like rulers and for teaching us how to relate properly to God, our High King. A true king is not a dictator.
The first thing we need to understand is that a king is the central component of his kingdom. A king embodies the essence of his kingdom; the kingdom is the king. Without the king, there is no kingdom. The land and the people may still be there, but unless they are ruled by a king, they are not in a kingdom.
This is one primary distinction between a kingdom and a democratic state. In a democracy, the country’s leader, whether called a president or a prime minister or whatever, is not the center of the government. The constitution is. Presidents and prime ministers change every few years, but the constitution provides continuity of law and government. In a kingdom, the king is the constitution. His word is the law. His word is the government.
Second, a king is the ultimate and only source of authority in his kingdom. In the Kingdom of Heaven, the authority of God the King is exclusive and absolute. His word is law and His will is carried out even to the farthest reaches of His realm. And God’s realm is infinite.
The sole and absolute authority of the King is what distinguishes the Kingdom of Heaven from religion. Religious people give lip service to God’s kingship but then turn around and debate, question, and even amend His laws. For example, the King says that homosexual behavior is an abomination (see Lev. 18:22), yet a gathering of bishops who supposedly honor the King’s law install an openly and actively homosexual priest as an archbishop! In the Kingdom, the King’s word is law. It is not open to debate, discussion, challenge, or amendment.
While this may seem restrictive or even despotic to someone raised in a democratic environment, in many ways it actually relieves a lot of pressure. If you are under the King and someone asks you,
“What do you think about so-and-so?”
you can defer to the King’s authority:
“What I think does not matter. I am bound to follow my King, and my King says this …” or “I agree with my King, and this is what He says…”
In a democracy, political leaders campaign, negotiate, compromise, and consult committees in an effort to reach a consensus for establishing law and policy. In a kingdom, the king speaks … and that’s it; no debate or question. The authority of the King is like the slogan that began circulating years ago: “God said it, I believe it, and that settles it:’ Even better is the variation: “God said it and that settles it, whether I believe it or not:’
Jesus demonstrated this kingly authority when He said numerous times, “You have heard… but I tell you… ” (see Matt. 5:2128,33-34,38-39,43-44, emphasis added). The biblical account of this occasion records:
When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at His teaching, because He taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law (Matthew 7:28-29, emphasis added).
Jesus spoke and taught on His own authority. He did not rely on the thoughts, ideas, interpretations, or traditions of others. Why? Because He was a King whose authority was independent and sovereign.
This leads to a third point to understand about a king: The sovereignty of a king is inherent in his royal authority. The people do not make a king sovereign; he is born sovereign. Jesus told Pilate that He was born a king; He did not receive His kingship or His sovereignty from the hand of men. Sovereignty means freedom from external control.
As sovereign, a king is free to do as he pleases with no accountability to anyone else in the kingdom. Otherwise, a king has no true authority. No one has the authority to tell God what to do. God’s sovereignty is absolute. He is completely self-determining.
