Married to Christ the King

Last night I was watching a television drama series on the life of Queen Elizabeth II entitled “The Crown.” Her father, King George, knowing that his death is eminent, tells Elizabeth’s husband Philip that he will have to give up his career as a naval officer to support and love Elizabeth when she becomes Queen. Then he sends them away on the commonwealth tour in his stead. The King dies while they are away, and Elizabeth finds herself Queen much sooner than she desired or expected.

There is a very moving scene when her plane lands in London and Philip steps forward to escort his wife Elizabeth off the plane as he has always done, but is now told that he must give way to the Crown. So he walks behind her, thereby paying homage to her as his Queen. Later we see her sister, mother, and even grandmother, also bowing to her as their Queen.

We “democratic,” “all men are created equal,” irreverent Americans really have no understanding of this. This is not to say anything for or against either a democracy or a monarchy. Indeed, we know that God didn’t want Israel to have an earthly king, but He did want to Himself be their King and has used throughout Scripture the metaphor of both king and husband to describe the relationship that He has with us—man, created in His own image and likeness.

Isaiah tells us that “thy Maker is thine husband” (54:5). In the book of Jeremiah God says, “I am married unto you” (3:14) and “I was an husband unto them” (31:32). From John the Baptist referring to himself as the friend of the bridegroom (who is Jesus) (John 3:2) to Jesus referring to Himself as the bridegroom (Mark 2:19; Matthew 9:15; Mark 25:1-13) to Paul’s saying “”I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2Corinthians 11:2)—this metaphor of Christ as husband continues into the New Testament.

There is one other instance I want to call attention to which has been especially meaningful for me. It is Romans 7 where Paul tells us that we must “become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring fruit unto God” (v 4). As long as we are “married” to the law, we cannot know Christ as husband and bring forth the fruit of the Spirit. No, we can only “bring forth” the “works of the flesh” “which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft” etc. (Galatians 5: 19-20)—the very “sins” attributed by God to Israel when using the metaphor of Himself as husband to them. Indeed, the entire book of Hosea is this metaphor.

More than that, the whole of the Old Testament is the story of mankind (who was “under the law” that “was given by Moses”—(John 1:17)), mankind committing “adultery” against God because in their humanity they cannot do otherwise. God’s longing for them to return to Him (so eloquently expressed so many times) was not enough. Even the “best” of them went astray. Noah got drunk, Jacob deceived his brother, Rachel stole her father’s “household gods” to take with her when leaving with Jacob to serve his God (Genesis 31:34), Aaron fashioned a golden calf for the children of Israel to worship, David took another man’s wife for himself—the list goes on.

It was not until “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17) and that same Christ took up His abode in man (to live as man) was man even capable of “walking in the Spirit, and not fulfilling the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). He could do this only when he, like Paul, recognized that only the Christ in him had that capacity and therefore reckoned his humanity to be “dead” (Romans 6:11).

In Ephesians 5, the Scripture that has given rise to all the “submission” teaching which oftentimes enslaves women to their husbands, Paul says, “I speak concerning Christ and the church” (v 32). Here Paul describes the intimacy of our relationship to the Christ: “We are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones” (v 30).

Yet this “husband” is also King, before whom we must “bow,” for He is “Lord of lords” and “King of kings” (Revelation 17:14) who always has “the preeminence” (unchallenged superiority) (Colossians 1:18}.

The disciple John “whom Jesus loved” and whom we see “leaning on Jesus’ bosom” (John 13:23) is the same John who wrote “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:1). Here we see that, when faced with the ascended Christ, John “fell at his feet as dead” (v 17).

The TV drama that I referred to in the beginning of this contemplation is but another parable from everyday life which illustrates the nature of our relationship with our Father God who descended into “this world” (that we had created) in the form of Jesus to show His great love for us and “cast out” the fear of the “law god” which had kept us in bondage all our lives (Hebrews 2:14-15). While the intimacy of the relationship is always stressed (the “husband” metaphor, as well as the “parent”—Abba, Father—metaphor) to take away the fear that paralyzes us, we must yet retain “the fear of the Lord” which is “the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10)—that deep reverence we observe in the apostle John.

When I lose sight of the intimacy, I find myself once again serving the “law god” who instills fear in me. But if I lose my sense of reverence, I find myself on a giant ego trip which leads to my downfall.

While it is true that Jesus Christ “hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father” (Revelation 1:6, 5:10), we must never forget that He is “King of kings” (Revelation 17:14) before  whom we fall on our face in worship

Revelation 7:12 Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.

We always acknowledge both our gratitude for the intimacy of the relationship (“I and my Father are one”) and our understanding that

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.