On his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. (Revelation 19:16, ESV)
When the R&A and the USGA change a rule, it is a collaborative process. As golfers know, these two governing bodies serve the world of golf by setting rules meant to preserve the integrity of the game.
As expected, the USGA and the R&A have committees of men and women from around the world. These committees investigate potential changes, study case histories, and make recommendations.
Some recent rule changes include leaving the flagstick in the cup while putting, decreasing the search time for a lost ball from five to three minutes, and allowing grounding the club inside a penalty area.
None of this is “breaking news.” The process is well-known, even if not all players and equipment manufacturers endorse every change. Nonetheless, every golfer must honor the established rules.
You might ask, “What does this have to do with the Kingship of Jesus Christ?” While men and women are wise to consult one another, listen to history, and invite discussion to make decisions, Jesus does not require our input on how to govern the world he created and is redeeming.
Unlike earthly kings, prime ministers, czars, presidents, or committees, Jesus does not hold town hall meetings to seek advice on how to govern the world.
He, and he alone, is the All-Wise and Omni-benevolent ruler of the world, ruling individuals and the cosmos with perfect wisdom and authority.
Those of us who have lived in the United States find it hard to understand monarchical authority. Since we freed ourselves from King George’s tyranny, we’ve incorrectly assumed this is how all of life works.
While it is prudent that we live in a Republic with democratic processes and play a game governed by the collective wisdom of committees, when it comes to Jesus’ kingdom, we tend to confuse the law of the land with the laws of his Kingdom.
When Christ arrived, his first proclamation was “the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:14-15). And for there to be a kingdom, one must have a King!
At the risk of overstatement, the entirety of the Old Testament was the history of anticipation—prophets making careful inquiry to know the person and time that the Messiah would come with kingdom authority (1 Peter 1:10-12).
When Matthew begins his gospel with, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham,” he is not merely interested in the “family tree,” he is announcing the arrival of King David’s rightful heir—the one to whom the throne was promised.
When Peter had to clear up the confusion of a mocking crowd at Pentecost, he appealed to the Psalms for prophetic clarification—Jesus is the rightful heir to the throne of the universe (Psalm 16; Acts 2:22-35).
Peter declared Jesus was exalted to the “right hand of God,” which everyone knows is the place of absolute authority. As evidence that he is King, Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit on those who have bowed the knee to his eternal authority.
N.T. Wright is correct when he writes that those of us in the West try to “domesticate Jesus.” When we, as Wright argues, “reduce him to our ‘ticket to heaven’ rather than seeing him as the disruptive, reigning Lord who overturns worldly powers, we are ‘domesticating’ him to fit our agendas.”
When C. S. Lewis points out in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, through the voice of Mr. Beaver, when speaking of Aslan (Christ the King), “He’s not safe. But he is good. “He’s the King, I tell you,” he is undermining our attempts to “tame Jesus.”
When we hold to a version of Christianity that ignores or denies the Royal authority of King Jesus, we caricature Christ into something less than he is—The King Over All!”
Prayer: Remind us again and again that in order to know God rightly, we must recognize him as King!