THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NESS .Christ as King The Lord Jesus Christ as King is a great Theme that one approaches with diffidence and hesitation, as it goes so far beyond the reach of the richest imag ination of which we are capable. He was most fully foretold as the Coming King to reign over all the earth. And when Jesus was- born He was announced as the King,—rby the angel. And shortly before His death He spoke of His own glory. One significant incident was when He appeared before Pilate— (who was the representative of the greatest empire the world has ever known)— Jesus was taken captive, and Pilate asks if he is king of the Jews. He presses the question home to our Lord, and we can see the sneer on the face of the haughty Roman. And Jesus, standing there -so quietly, bound as a common malefactor, answers with the most positive assurance “ Thou sayest that I am” means “ I most certainly am.” It is the strong est affirmative. That little picture of over. 1800 years ago is repeated with the same situation today, for Jesus still claims to be the King. 1. He has inherent right, .as the Second Person of the Trinity. But He laid that aside when He came into the world. 2. He referred to His mediatorial kingship, which the Father gave Him as a reward. It began at the Ascension. In Acts 2 we read that Jesus a Man two months before was then at the Right Hand of God.-—He is there today, and reigns till He' has put all His enemies under His feet. Then He hands back the sovereignity of God who gave it. What does His kingship include? For one thing, it includes sovereignty over nature. The first man lost this, and the Second Man won it back, so the Lordship over creation is given to the Sedond. This inherent sovereignty of our Lord Jesus Christ over nature will be by
650 to feel differently from ever in His life before,-—He wanted fellowship. But there was none for Him, and His disciples slept. Then was the agony which we can never fathom, when He was struggling with something He could hardly overthrow, in that lonely, unique, solitary conflict. But when the soldiers come and lead Him away, He comes out of that conflict the quietest Man in all that noisy scene. Prom Gethsemane He came, not only as High Priest, but to give Himself as the Vic tim, and the Lord laid on Him the ini quity of us all. Now look at the Cross— and the awful but sublime experience when Jesus died on Calvary.— See all about are the peo ple, and He is dying, all alone— . If we compare all the Gospels we will find that He did not die as a man. Death had ho claim on Him. He did not have to die, and He laid down His life, for death had no claim on Him. He was not liable to the thing that brought death on men. It says: “ He dismissed His Spirit,” or yielded it up, as the Priest giving the sacrifice. It was no ordinary human death, for He knew its dread and awful reality; and Jesus as Priest gave Himself, yielded Himself in expiation for the sins of us all. Then blackness came over the face of the sky, and a singular awe crept over the crowds. And out of the depths came an awful cry, that the world has never heard before or since. The world had forsaken Him, and He turned His face, as He hung there dying, to heaven, and missed the face that never before had failed to smile upon Him,—His Father’s face was turned away. And so He went forth, dying, to the land of for getfulness, bearing our sins to some place behind God’s back,—tout into a place where God was not. So He fulfilled the giving up of life and the taking away of sin, to some place, we know not ho_w or where.
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