The Sovereignty of Jesus

The Sovereignty of Jesus

A thought came to me this morning as I was in the gym, I thought to myself how can anyone read the bible and not see the Kingship of Jesus, his sovereignty and his position as Christ. I thought I would take some time today to break it down and try to explain it. To do this we have to start at what it means to be King and also what sovereignty is. Let’s start with Kingship.

The TRIUNE God

Before we can go any further on this topic, we need to understand something. There are many teachings out there that disregard the trinity and the triune nature of God. My first objective is to clearly debunk those theories that seek to disregard this. Using scripture I will lay a foundation that will hopefully take you on a path that explains why our God is triune, why Jesus is King and therefore why he is sovereign.

In Genesis 1:26-27 it says this:

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our own image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and all the small animals that scurry along the ground.”

So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

Back in Genesis 1:1-2 the bible tells us about the formation of the earth. It tells us how God created the heavens and the earth. In Genesis 1:2 the bible clearly calls out and distinguishes the spirit of God. It says the “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.”

The spirit of God is the holy spirit, so jumping back into Genesis 1:26-27 we could assume that God is speaking to the Holy Spirit when he is saying let us make human beings in our own image. He is clearly having a conversation with himself but he is speaking to himself in plural. The bible could have said:

“Then God said to himself, ‘let me make man in my own image, to be like me’.”

God made us in his image to reflect his triune nature. Everything God makes is made to give him worship whether that is what we call nature and its natural order or human beings or our marriages. Everything instituted by God is designed to worship him. I won’t dwell on that because that is a completely separate topic and one that I plan to get into at a future date.

God was clearly speaking to himself but he was speaking to other parts of himself. There is clearly one part of God that calls the shots, is in charge and has final say. That part of God is who we refer to as ‘God the Father’ or the ‘Godhead’ of the triune God. The Godhead was the part of God that spoke all things into being but the spirit of God (the Holy Spirit) made what God spoke take effect. Now that is not to say that the Godhead part of the trinity does not have the power to make these things happen, but this is our first lesson in authority. We saw in it Pharaoh’s approach when he gave Joseph is ring that gave him all authority over Egypt and power only second to his own. When you have authority you can delegate that authority to others, you can give instruction and have others do what you have said. As the Godhead of the trinity, God the Father has authority over the Holy Spirit and over Jesus. Jesus says in John 6:38:

“For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will.”

This takes me nicely into Jesus’ position in the trinity. John 6:35-40:

Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But you haven’t believed in me even though you have seen me. However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all he has given to me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”

In John 6:44 – 46:

“For no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up. As it is written in the scriptures, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. (Not that anyone has ever seen the Father; only I, who was sent from God, have seen him.)”

This scripture tells us that Jesus was able to look upon the face of God, so we can’t say that Jesus is an angel sent by God because the angels cannot look at his face. The angels must bow in the presence of God, they cannot look at his radiant majesty so Jesus has to be in a position that allows him to do so.

John 1:1 – 5 says:

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

Then we have in John 1:10 - 14:

He came into the very world he created, but the world did not recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn – not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

When God was speaking in Genesis 1:26-27 we get an account of God the Father, the Godhead, speaking to the Spirit of God (the Holy Spirit) and God the Son, the Word who was with God and by whom all things were created, Jesus.

I know many people love to argue about which parts of the bible are symbolic and which parts are literal and I love how John starts with something that some people will theorize as symbolic but then goes on further to remove any ambiguity and clear up what was being said. He came into the very world he created. Meaning Jesus was present at the creation of the world, he was part of the creation process, he was part of the “us” in Genesis 1:26-27.

Having laid this foundation with the triune God, I can now explain the Kingship of Jesus.

The Kingship of Jesus

It is by no coincidence that God chose Mary to bear his Son. Mary was due to marry Joseph and Joseph was descended from King David. You see, God orchestrated this a very long time ago. He made a promise to king David in 2 Samuel 7. In verse 16 it says:

Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time, and your throne will be secure forever.

We know that David’s family did not remain on the throne of Israel and we also know that Gods word cannot return to him unaccomplished. This leads me to believe that God was not talking about a physical throne. God had already called David a man after his heart, he took his spirit away from Saul when he replaced him with David but his spirit never departed from David.

David was not a perfect man, so a perfect King, a King whose dynasty and Kingdom will never end cannot come from his physical lineage but God didn’t promise his line would remain on the throne, he said his house and his kingdom will continue before him.

Isaiah 9:6 – 7 says:

For unto us a child is born, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity.

Isaiah was speaking prophetically about Jesus, making known the coming King and the lineage from which he would come. He would be born unto the house of David.

Matthew 1:1 – 16 gives account of the ancestry of Jesus the Messiah. Verse 17 goes on to tell us there were 14 generations between Abraham and David, 14 generations between David and the Babylonian exile and 14 generations between the Babylonian exile and Jesus.

When the angel of God addressed Joseph he didn’t address him as Joseph son of Jacob; he referred to him as Joseph son of David.

Jesus was the fulfilment of the prophesy in Isaiah 9:6 – 7 and also the fulfilment of the promise to David in 2 Samuel 7 verse 16. Verses 22 – 23 of Matthew 1 actually go on to say:

All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message though his prophet:

“Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”

In Luke 1:30 – 35 the bible gives us Luke’s account of the encounter between the angel of the Lord and Mary. It says this:

“Don’t be afraid, Mary” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and he will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”

Pay attention to the capitalization on the words “Son’ and “Kingdom”. Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit, part of the triune God. Should Jesus have been born of man his authority would have been a worldly one and therefore his kingship would have been that of a long gone dynasty. The line of David remained but it was no longer on the throne. The house of David, the name of David, remained and its foundations were in the God of the promise. The capitalization of the word ‘Son” indicates his lineage. His Father is God so Jesus could not be a son, little s, he can only be a Son if he was conceived of something greater than flesh, he was conceived by the Spirit of God, the manifesting part of the triune God. His Kingdom is also one derived of the one and only Everlasting King, notice the capitalization once again. Earthly kings have kingdoms, little k, but Jesus has a Kingdom that will remain forever, a Godly Kingdom.

The Sovereignty of Jesus

What does it mean to be “Sovereign”?

The word Sovereign means a monarch; a king, queen, or other supreme ruler. A person who has supreme power or authority.

This is where I will focus. We have already established the Kingship of Jesus by way of his lineage both earthly and by way of his conception. We now want to understand his power and authority.

Going back to what I originally said at the beginning of this post, a supreme authority can delegate their authority, a practice common to earthly rulers (I used the example of Pharaoh and Joseph).

In Matthew 28:18 - 19 it says:

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit”

This was not the first time Jesus had declared his authority over things on earth. When the Pharisees challenged him on why his disciples broke the head off grain and ate them on a Sabbath, thus breaking the law as this was seen as harvesting and therefore working on the Sabbath; Jesus answered them clearly in Luke 6:5 by saying “the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath”.

Jesus was letting them know that he had authority over the Sabbath because he created the Sabbath. The created does not have authority over the creator.

At the start of Jesus’ ministry, we have an account following the sermon on the mount, it says in Matthew 7:28 – 29:

When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, for he taught with real authority – unlike their religious teachers of the law.

Jesus taught with power and command unlike what they had ever seen, heard or experienced. He spoke with expert knowledge because the power to do so had been given to him. He spoke on how to enter the Kingdom of Heaven because prior to him coming into the earth that he created, he communed with God the Father and he knows what pleases God the Father.

In Luke 10 we have an account of the disciples being sent out to minister to the people, to heal the sick and tell them about the Kingdom of heaven. The disciples return excited that demons obeyed them at the proclamation of Jesus’ name. Jesus replies them as follows in verse 18 - 19:

“Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning! Look, I have given you authority over all power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you.

Why is the name of Jesus name of Jesus able to do this? Because his name in synonymous with authority. The fallen angels know the name of the commander and chief they rebelled against. They know the name of the God that all things were created through. God the Father decrees, God the Son (Jesus) authorizes (all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him) and the Spirit of God manifests.

The best explanation for the authority of Jesus comes in John 5:19 – 30:

So Jesus explained to them, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees he Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him how to do everything he is doing. In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished. For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants. In addition, the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge, so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son is certainly not honoring the Father who sent him. I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God wo sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. And I assure you that the time is coming, indeed it’s here now, when the dead will hear my voice – the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live. The Father has life in himself and he has granted that same life-giving power to his Son. And he has given authority to judge everyone because he is the Son of Man. Don’t be surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son, and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgement. I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgement is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.

I want to tie this all together for you. To understand the authority and sovereignty of Jesus you need to understand, appreciated and accept the triune nature of God.

In John 10:36 -38 Jesus says:

Why do you call it blasphemy when I say I am the Son of God? After all, the Father set me apart and sent me into the world. Don’t believe me unless I carry out my Father’s work. But if I do his work, believe in the evidence of the miraculous works I have done, even if you don’t believe in me. Then you will know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.

Jesus has the authority of God because he is God. Jesus tells us in John than no one can take his life, he has authority to lay it down and to take it up again, meaning he has authority over death. Jesus is not mere man, he is God in the flesh, he that knew no sin because sin cannot dwell in his holy presence or in his righteousness.

To truly live in the grace of Jesus Christ one must accept his sovereignty. If you do not believe in the sovereignty of Jesus how can you believe in the new covenant? Can the blood of just anyone redeem? The reason the blood of Jesus can redeem sins past, present and future is because he exists in the past, present and future. He is God the son, who was with the Father when all things were spoken into being. All things were spoken into being through him and therefore life comes through him. His blood was the only sacrifice that could restore us back to the one who spoke the words “Let us make man in our own image”. His authority allowed us to exist and therefore only by his blood and authority can we be redeemed.