He Must Reign

On Things Unseen this week, we’ve been thinking about the ascension of our Lord Jesus. Yesterday was Ascension Day in the Christian year, and we’ve been reminding ourselves of the way the Lord Jesus continues His ministry as Prophet and Priest and King. There are some fine explanations of this in the Westminster Catechisms, and I commend to you questions 43–45 in the Larger Catechism and questions 23–26 in the Shorter Catechism. But I especially love the answer the Shorter Catechism gives to the question, “How doth Christ execute the office of a king?” It focuses on what Jesus is doing now: “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.”

Earlier in the week, when I said that Christ’s ascension was His journey through the heavens to His coronation at the right hand of God, I hinted at the big picture of Christ’s kingly ministry. He’s now begun to exercise the dominion or authority that He’s won as the second Man and the last Adam, recovering and then completing the dominion that Adam was given and called to extend, but in his sin, actually lost. And He’s doing that now, according to Matthew 28:18–20, through the spread of the gospel. But what does this mean for us as individuals when we become Christians?

Well, the first implication is that when we become Christians, we come under the dominion or lordship of Christ. He subdues us to Himself. I feel I shouldn’t really need to say this, but because there’s so much confusion today, I think I maybe should. We don’t come to trust Christ as our Savior without simultaneously coming to Him as our Lord, for the simple reason that you can’t have half a Christ any more than you can have half a wife. Yes, it’s important, and perhaps for some, it’s helpful to say that our trust in, our fellowship with, the Lord Jesus is a progressive reality, like any relationship with any person. We’re called to grow in our trust and to express that more and more fully in His lordship over us.

But if we have come to trust Him, this will be true: He immediately subdues us to Himself, and as His Spirit works in our hearts, we find that He’s uncovering elements of hidden sin and resistance so that Christ may rule over every aspect of our lives more and more. It’s a deepening relationship; and that’s true of any relationship. You’re a son, but perhaps you don’t always behave like a son. Perhaps you don’t always appreciate your parents, but you grow in these things. Perhaps you face new challenges as a son, and you’re called to rise to them, but that doesn’t change the relationship itself. You were a son, and you’re still a son.

And so it is with the lordship of Jesus Christ. He’s always your Lord from the beginning of your Christian life. But there’s always going to be more in us to subdue, more challenges to attempt, more ways in which to serve Him. And that’s why His kingly ministry is challenging to us.

But it’s also very comforting, isn’t it, because He’s defending us. He’s restraining our enemies, and He’s conquering them. Now, what are these enemies? Well, we’ve only a moment to think about them today, but there’s a well-known phrase that sums up what these enemies are: the world that seeks to conform us to itself, the flesh that seeks to drag us down into sin, and the devil who seeks to draw us away from our trust in and love for the Lord. And as we yield day by day in love to the Lord Jesus Christ, we discover more and more how He exercises His kingly power over His and our enemies.

Sometimes we feel we fail so badly that we almost feel dominated by the world, paralyzed by our sin, and even taken captive by the devil. And that’s why we need to set our minds on what’s above, as Paul says in Colossians 3, and remember that Christ is there seated at the right hand of God, and He is subduing us to Himself. We’re already living in His kingdom. We have a King, and He reigns, and He’s promised to subdue all His and our enemies. He’s ascended. He’s at God’s right hand, and He’s reigning until all His enemies become a stool for His feet.

So this week, let’s thank God for the ascension of Christ. And indeed, let’s thank God every day, every week, every year, that He has highly exalted His Son Jesus and given Him the name that is above every name. Blessed be that name.