Nov 10
24
The king and the King
ChristianGovernance Report – November 24, 2010
God’s law in brief
First Timothy, chapter 2 provides us with a good reminder of the correct positioning between God and the king, between the Messianic Ruler of heaven and earth and the civil magistrate.
It’s a simple lesson, and it’s not explicit, but it’s there.
Look at the call to prayer in verses 1-2. We are called to pray for all kinds of people including “kings and all those in authority.”
The purpose given for praying for our political leaders and others is that we might live a quiet and peaceable life to advance the spread of the Gospel, but then we come to the verse I want to emphasise at this time – verse 5: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, …”
We live in a day of humanism and its messianic state. The state has become the central organizing principle – god – for many. Nothing greater than the state exists. Civil governors as representatives of the state can redefine reality. They can, they think, redefine economic reality, determining the definition, nature and value of money. They can redefine marriage to include same-sex relationships.
But God thrusts the sword of the Spirit through the heart of that foolish blasphemy in this passage when He declares the supremacy of the Messianic Ruler of men. First he notes that kings need prayer as much as any person does. Civil magistrates are but men, regardless of their human stature.
Then, with the understanding that spiritual and redemptive realities transcend the material realm, this passage declares that there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind. There are kings, but Christ Jesus is the King of Kings, and He rules by virtue of what He accomplished on the cross as the Messiah – Mediator – for His people.