Becoming Like Jesus: Who Is God?Sample

A Different Kind of King

If you have been around Church, you have probably heard Jesus referred to as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. It’s a title we say, but is it a truth we live? Do we really understand what it means for God to be King of the world and to be King of us?

We live in a culture that is not very big on the idea of kings. We prefer democracy. We want to have a voice and a say. The last thing we want to do is give up control or lay down our rights to listen to someone else. We have been taught, subtly and overtly, to be suspicious of power because it corrupts people. We question authority because authority figures, like all the rest of us, are more selfish than benevolent. There are just too many examples to count of people using their power and influence for their own good rather than the greater good.

Sin is a disease of self-centeredness that plagues us as humans. We don’t magically become immune to this disease when we’re given power. We are all corruptible—capable of hurting ourselves and others.

But God is not. He is holy.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Isaiah 6:1-5 NIV

Isaiah, a prophet, sees a vision of God sitting on His throne. The image he relays is hard to wrap our minds around. There’s smoke and creatures, and earthquakes. What Isaiah experienced is the holiness of God. What does it really mean for God to be holy? It means He is completely other, separate, unique, and different. There is no one like God. Nothing can compare Him. He is in a category all on His own. That’s what it means for God to be holy.

Because of this, God is not like any other king. He is not limited by the things that limit us. He is incorruptible. Untainted. Completely good. Incapable of wrong. Because of His holiness, God can be trusted. He is the Almighty, and that’s a really, really good thing because only He can handle the weight of all the power and not break under it.

The fact is, nothing and no one can hold up to all scrutiny and remain 100% good, right, and true.

Well, no one but God.

He invites us to taste and see that He is good. And He challenges us to worship Him with all that we have and all that we are. To submit to Him as King and be sent by Him to represent His holiness to the rest of the world.

Because God is holy, He is trustworthy. Because God is holy, He is worthy of our worship. Because God is holy, He is a very different kind of King with a very different Kingdom.

Compared to the kingdoms of this world, where the strong have ruled over the weak, kings have often led with self-serving decrees, and people with power have oppressed those less fortunate, Jesus’ Kingdom is upside down and backwards. It’s a kingdom where the greatest serve the least, the King leads with sacrificial love, and those with power are called to use it for the good of others.

Jesus is not the kind of king who sends his people to die for him. He’s the kind of king who willingly died for His people. With Him, it’s not about power, privilege, or position. It’s about service, sacrifice, and humility. Jesus is a king like no other.

[Jesus]Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:6-11 NIV

What do we do with this kind of King? We worship Him. We give our lives to Him. We follow Him.