Political Victory in Jesus

We are commissioned by Christ to go into the entire world and teach them to observe everything He has commanded. It’s the Word of God, the Sword of the Spirit, that conquers men and nations. Jesus is the “light of the world,” and we too are to be light and salt, illuminating and preserving. The Bible, and therefore the Church, speaks to every area of life. The civil and political realms are not excluded. While we don’t find a savior in politics; politics does, like everything else, finds a Savior in Jesus Christ. He is the “King of kings, and the Lord of lords.” “Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him” (Ps. 2:10-12).

Authority, power and lordship are necessary prerequisites to any form of salvation. We cannot save what we do not control. None can be savior who is not also lord. Our own civil government, and both major political parties, offer rival plans of salvation: cradle to grave security, the conquest of poverty, disease, death, and war. All these and much more are promised by candidates who often point to the messianic state as our only hope. Our civil government increasingly asserts the right to control every area of our lives. If it exempts any area, it does so by sovereign grace, so that the exempted area is merely tolerated, not free.

When the state becomes our sovereign provider, it has become our idol. The crowds that accepted the loaves and fishes from Jesus were ready to receive Christ as their ruler. Our paternal state not only feeds its children, it nurtures, educates, comforts, and disciplines them. It provides all they need for their security. This transforms the state from being a gift of God, given to protect us from violence, into an idol. It supplies us with all blessings. We look to it for all our needs. Once we have sunk to this level, as C. S. Lewis points out, there is no point in telling state officials to mind their own business. “Our whole lives are their business.”

“Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” ―Revelation 11:15