By Nick Jones, MBC Bethesda Director of Discipleship & Worship Leader
This week in my Multiply study group we discussed Chapter 8, which speaks to the “kingship” of Christ, His Kingdom and what that means for us today.
As we discussed how the concept of Christ’s kingship practically manifests itself in our lives, another thought struck me. While we help others to see that they should make Christ the king and lord of their lives, what is the motivator behind this? In other words, what would motivate someone to want to make God a priority, let alone king over their lives? The answer would lie in the attributes of who God is.
In this chapter, Francis Chan begins to unpack the kings of Israel, and how God worked His redemptive plan through all of them. As we walk through this chapter we see an incredible picture of the attributes of God, as Chan references many points in the book of 1 Samuel.
First we see the faithfulness of God put on display, as Israel demands that they have an earthly king even after God had told them that He would be their king and that He was doing something special and unique through them. God’s faithfulness manifest here in that even Israel’s sinful inability to trust God could not deter Him from remaining 100% faithful to completing His promised redemptive plan to make a great nation out of them.
Secondly we see the deeply unconditional love of God. Chan reminds us that Israel’s second king, David, was a man after “God’s own heart,” which is unbelievable when we consider how many times David made BIG mistakes in his own life and throughout His rule of Israel. Yet not even David’s repeated sin could keep the unrelenting love of God at bay as God continued to use him for the sake of His kingdom.
And finally we see the humility of God, as Chan tells us that David’s sin left the people of Israel longing for a better king and eventually the foretold Messiah; this future king Chan was referring to would be Jesus. Jesus Christ who, despite being God incarnate and having all the rights and privileges thereof, would not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, and would come to Earth as a servant and a king. We see this spelled out explicitly in Philippians 2:5-11.
Let us help others in our church to see that what motivates us to submit to and rejoice in the kingship of Christ is that the King we serve exemplifies all of these incredible attributes and that He is, in fact, a King worth following.
