Articles
The Church Jesus Built (2)
The Church Jesus Built (2)
The King of the Kingdom
By Mike Willis
To convey different aspects about the church, Jesus used different images. The church is compared to a kingdom (Matt. 16:18-19), a body (Eph. 1:22-23), household (1 Tim. 3:15), bride (Eph. 5:22-33), temple (1 Cor. 3:16; 2 Cor. 6:15; Eph. 2:21), etc. Jesus’s relationship to the body is spoken of in terms of the picture used to describe the church. When it is pictured as a kingdom, Jesus is the King (1 Tim. 6:15); when it is pictured as a body, He is the head (Eph. 1:22); etc. There is an important truth taught by these images: Jesus is the one who has supreme authority over the church.
Matthew concludes his gospel by giving the Great Commission. Jesus said, “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘ALL AUTHORITY IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH HAS BEEN GIVEN TO ME. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age’” (Matt. 28:18-20).
In the comparison of the church to the bride of Christ, Paul wrote, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife EVEN AS CHRIST IS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH, HIS BODY, and is himself its Savior. NOW AS THE CHURCH SUBMITS TO CHRIST, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands” (Eph. 5:22-23).
What this means is that Jesus has supreme authority over His church. He makes the laws governing His kingdom. For example, Jesus determines what moral standards apply to those who are citizens of His kingdom. For example, Jesus said, “But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matt. 15:18-19). The things listed are sinful for mankind and those who are disciples of Jesus obey their Teacher. Even if twenty-first century Americans see nothing wrong with pornography (evil thoughts), abortion (murder of the unborn), adultery (sex with someone married to another), sexual immorality (fornication, homosexuality, etc.), theft (shoplifting, pickpocketing, bank robbery), and such like things, King Jesus forbids them and those who wish to be citizens in His kingdom will obey their King.
No person or body of men has the right to loose what Jesus has bound. A pope, a preacher, a church council or synod cannot overrule the King of the kingdom. He has supreme authority. No bishop in an Episcopal church has divine authority to tell someone that one can be a faithful citizen in Jesus’s kingdom while practicing homosexuality or adultery. No pope in the Catholic Church has the right to forbid marriage to a man who has chosen to devote himself to preaching the gospel. The King is the one who has supreme authority in His kingdom. A Christian should join himself to other Christians who recognize and live under the laws of its King—Jesus!
