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by Charlie Wolcott

The last thing Jesus did on this earth was to leave it. After He rose, He did not die again like every other person who was brought back to life. They merely had their life restored to them, and then they died again by whatever means they died of. However, Jesus resurrected, and this body would never be able to test death. Jesus had beaten death; He had conquered sin; He perfectly fulfilled the Law, endured the full wrath of God upon sin, and now had the final victory over all things. There was one last thing to do after giving His disciples one final command: to rise to heaven and claim the Throne.

There is a problem in the Church today. Because evil is ever increasing (as Jesus said), we seem to think that Jesus is not reigning and that Satan seems to have this power that is warring and is equal to God. That is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible does not teach a Messiah who would come and then eventually overcome the devil after an intense battle. No, it teaches that Jesus is reigning NOW. Jesus took the throne 2000 years ago. Yes, He was God before, and He is still God now, but in His humanity, He is the King of all Kings, and He is ruling now. What does that mean and entail?

Nothing happens outside God’s sovereign will. Yes, He has allowed the enemy to run wild a bit, but never without a leash. The real enemy is not Satan anymore, and even then, it never was him. He is just a dog on a leash with limits to what he can do. He is just an imp that had no actual power or authority. Our real enemy is ourselves, our own sin, and our own desire to have a say on reality. If we truly believed that Jesus is the King of Kings, we would not be fearing or panicking over what is going on politically or economically. But more so, we would not be trying to advise Jesus on how to reign or to have a say on what we should be doing in our lives.

Is Jesus truly the center of what we believe and the center of what we do? Many want Jesus as Savior but not Lord. You don’t get one without the other. And if Jesus is Lord, that means He is the boss and He says what is allowed and what is not allowed. “Well, what about all the mass shootings and assassinations and crime?” What about them? God has never been under any obligation to prevent crime. Do you want to be under Minority Report? 1984? Brave New World? Because that is what is being asked for. God being sovereign does not mean preventing evil from taking place. It means dealing with evil when it is done, and God will indeed do that. All the evil that is done is going to be dealt with. Just because that justice is not done in our timing or our means of it being done does not make God negligent. He has the record. And the day is coming when judgment is coming. But Jesus is waiting to save whoever can be saved before that happens.

Jesus has a body: the Church. That is through whom He acts to deal with the things of this world and to get the message of salvation to others. A severe problem we have is that we think the problem lies anywhere except ourselves. Why is all this evil taking place? Very simple: because WE (that means YOU and me too) have let it happen. And we expect God to do the dirty work for us. No, WE are the agent by which God has chosen to act, so if we don’t do it, then it doesn’t get done. And then God will move through someone else. But Jesus is reigning now, and when people finally surrender themselves and truly let Him reign, they do absolute wonders. Read Christian biographies. The things I have personally seen are even beyond the miracles recorded in the Bible. If people ask, “Where is the evidence?” or say, “I wish God would actually do something,” He is and He does. But we have to pay attention.

The one thing I keep bringing up that many really don’t like to hear – and those willing have a hard time practicing, myself included – is that if Jesus is Lord, then you are not. We live in a time of many false religions and false Christs. How can I say that? Because so many “Christians” out there believe in a god who is omnipotent but not sovereign. They have a god who can create, save, and give joy and happiness, but it is on the self’s terms. Paul Washer was once asked to come do a teaching on the attributes of God, and he warned the pastor that if he did that and began speaking on the holiness of God, the righteousness of God, and the sovereignty of God, his most loyal congregants would rise up and say, “That’s not MY god!” And that’s the problem: most people’s “god” is really themselves.

Jesus is reigning and He is ruling now, and what He says goes. We don’t get a say in the matter, and any attempt we try to offer God should be considered sin because we are trusting our own wisdom instead of the omniscient one who truly knows everything. How foolish can we be? Don’t answer that, because there will always be someone who takes that as a challenge. If we are followers of Christ, we are not followers of self. If we are following Christ, we listen to and submit to and obey Him, and we are to deny ourselves. Our life as a Christian is not our own, and we need to start living like that. Jesus will let us do our own thing if we insist, but it will not be without consequence, and in reality, we will greatly miss out. And if we are not careful, the small “miss out” may turn into a BIG “miss out.” If Jesus is not our Lord, He is not our Savior.

Jesus is sitting on the throne, and He is guiding and directing all things for His purpose and His glory. He is setting up all of world history and all the nations to come together, and He will deal with them in one fell swoop. He is pulling out whomever He can from the fires of judgment, and then He will bring it all to an end. He will return and deal with those who have done evil in His sight and rescue those who stayed loyal to Him. Let us stop treating Jesus as a soon-to-be ruler but rather as the current and active ruler now and today. And what does that mean? It means if we are obedient to God and we act in the authority He has given us, we will truly be invincible to do all we are called to do, and nothing will touch us except that which is necessary for us to prove we belong to Jesus. So what do we have to fear? The opinions of intellectuals who only think they know something? Let us take solace that Jesus reigns now and He reigns forever, and there is no better King that anyone could ask for.

Next week, I will wrap up this series by analyzing Jesus as both Savior and Condemner.

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