Our Redeemer King (Part 1)

Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples!  Shout to God with the voice of triumph! For the LORD Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth.  Sing praises to God, sing praises!   Sing praises to our King, sing praises!  For God is the King of all the earth; Sing praises with (this) understanding.  God reigns over the nations; God sits on His holy throne Psalm 47:1-8.

Psalm 47 is just one of the many scriptures attesting to God as the eternal King over His creation (Daniel 4:34) (Psalm 24:7-10) (1 Timothy 1:17).

A king, from a Biblical perspective, is a person in a position of absolute authority, a monarch, a single, sovereign, supreme ruler.  His kingdom is the domain, realm or territory that is under his absolute authority.  All who live within that realm are referred to as his subjects or servants.  A true king is accountable to no-one and has the right to do as he pleases and act as he chooses. His will and purposes supersede all others. Nothing significant or important is to occur in his kingdom without his knowledge or permission.

Thus, the king unilaterally establishes the rules, conditions and laws by which his subjects will live in his kingdom, as well as the sanctions or penalties to be imposed on those who reject and rebel against the laws of the kingdom and the purposes of the king.

Within his realm of rule, a true king is responsible for the peace, prosperity, safety and well-being of his subjects, while the subjects are responsible to obey the king for his honor and glory and for their good.

The Bible thus makes it clear that God, the God who created all things and particularly mankind for His glory, is the one and only true King, who sovereignly rules over the nations of the earth and their rulers (Psalm 19:1-6) (Isaiah 43:7) (1 Chronicles 29:11) (Daniel 4:17).

While human history, and particularly the history of Israel, is marked by innumerable human kings (of which there are very few of in this day), as well as political leaders who rule over all the nations of the earth, the Bible makes it clear that they rule only by the sovereign decree of God, who sovereignly determines who will rule, the extent of their rule and the outcome of their rule (Daniel 4:34-35).  And truth be told, they all, to varying degrees, have and continue to exercise their rule and authority in opposition to His rule and authority over them (Psalm 2:1-3).

The concept of God’s sovereignty is the Biblical teaching that the eternal God, as Creator, has the right and power to govern and control all things in His creation, and that He does so always and without exception (Lamentations 3:38) (Job 42:1-2) (Amos 3:6) (Isaiah 46:9-11).

His rule over His creation is absolute, wherein He wisely and justly ordains, orders and superintends all things that come to pass in nature, among the angels, in the affairs of men, and in our individual lives to achieve His ultimate and eternal purpose in creation, which the Bible reveals to be His glory – that the infinite perfections of His being would be displayed, proclaimed and magnified in the eternal joy, pleasure and satisfaction of all who will submit to Him as King, pursuing Him as the object of their deepest love and source of their greatest joy (Isaiah 43:7) (Psalm 8:1-3) (Psalm 19:1-6)  (Matthew 22:34-40) .

In Genesis chapters 1 and 2, we have God designing and ordering all things in creation for the good of man, creating us in His image and likeness that we may freely enjoy Him and all of His good creation, under His fatherly rule (Genesis 1:31) (1 Timothy 6:17). He gives man, beginning with Adam and Eve and their future progeny, dominion/rule over the natural creation. Given this role and responsibility, Adam was essentially the first king, who in turn was to produce kingly offspring to fill the earth (Genesis 1:26-28) (Psalm 8:4-9)

All of these, as well as an infinite array of future blessings that would come from the heart of an infinitely good and loving God, were contingent on man’s trust in God’s love, a trust that would be evidenced in our perfect obedience and conformity to His wise and gracious order and design for human flourishing and our individual happiness (James 1:17) (Psalm 119:68) (Deuteronomy 28:1-3) (1 Kings 2:3).

However, beginning with Adam and every person since, we have rebelled against God’s rightful rule and glorious purpose for our lives, opposing His wise order and design for our happiness and wellbeing, what the Bible refers to as sin (Ecclesiastes 7:29) (Romans 3:23).  In doing so we have essentially committed cosmic treason against the King of the universe, willingly siding with the lies of His great enemy, the devil, and have thus been subjected to the King’s prescribed penalty, death, being banished or cut off from the glorious life with Him for which we were created (Genesis 2:16-17).  The natural world has been cursed by God as a result such that it no longer exists in harmony with man, but in opposition to man, just as man lives in opposition to God (Genesis 3:17-19) (Romans 8:20) (Jeremiah 18:11-12).

The Bible reveals that God, in wrath, in His righteous and rightful holy indignation toward our rebellion has given us over to our sinful desires and the related temporal consequences we experience in this world (Romans 1:18-31), with the future and final penalty of the eternal death – Hell awaiting us all (Romans 3:9-18) (Matthew 10:28).  We are literally slaves to our sin, having willingly been taken captive in our hearts and minds by the devil to act consistent with his will and purposes rather than God’s (John 8:34) (John 8:44) (2 Timothy 2:24-26) and have no means of our own of escaping this terminal condition of our soul (Ephesians 2:1-3).

But God, who is rich in mercy and abundant in grace, planned from the foundation of the earth to redeem both the sin-cursed creation and an elect people who would repent of their sin and rebellion and willingly and gladly submit to His rule and purpose for our lives (Ephesians 2:4-9) (1 Peter 1:1-2) (Ezekiel 18:30-32) (Acts 17:30).

He would do so through God the Son, Jesus Christ, the coming King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who would in love, humble Himself, leaving His throne in Heaven and taking upon Himself a human nature so that He could give Himself as a ransom to free rebellious men and women from our bondage to sin, from our captivity to the lies of the devil, and from God’s eternal wrath and judgement in Hell (Philippians 2:7-8) (Revelation 17:14) (Mark 10:45) (Ephesians 2:4-9)  (John 8:31-32) (1 Thessalonians 1:10). 

More on our great Redeemer King in my next post.

Grace and Peace ×