I love a good story. This past weekend we celebrated our daughter’s 23rd birthday by going to see Disney’s new Beauty & the Beast. It is a great story and well told. This traditional fairy tail written by French author Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve is a story for everyone. It is a love story full of adventure. The heroine is as strong as she is beautiful. The hero faces his enemies from the world as well as his inner demons. There is a strong moral lesson. And good ultimately triumphs over evil.
The Bible is not just a good story. It is a great story. It is our story. It is God’s story. It is real. The characters are real people struggling with the very same things we face everyday. They fall. They fail. There is sacrifice. There is victory. The Hero rescues and redeems His bride. NT Wright has it right when he says, the story of the Bible is “God becomes King.”
Early in His public ministry Jesus made a very simple and supercharged statement: “The time has come. The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the Good News” (Mark 1:15).
JESUS IS KING is the Good News! Adam & Eve chose to lead mankind out of God’s kingdom. This left us facing sorrow, pain, and death. But Jesus has come to reclaim what was broken and lost. He is reestablishing His Kingdom. Ultimately there will be no more tears and no more death.
I became a Jesus follower as a freshman at Taylor University. I didn’t know much if anything at all about God or the Bible when I enrolled in a New Testament survey class. The professor gave us an assignment to read a book from the New Testament and write a verse-by-verse commentary (which I had no idea what that was). So I chose the book of Romans (I am sure it was not a coincidence). I began to write down what I thought it meant. I was doing well until Romans chapter 5.
There I found four words that described us before Jesus: Powerless (I was not able to stop sinning); Ungodly (I certainly wasn’t like God); Sinners (that was not debatable); and Enemy (wait, I like God. I am not God’s enemy!).
The idea I was God’s enemy didn’t sit well with me. I began a two week debate with God. I told Him I wasn’t His enemy. He didn’t answer clearly stating I was His enemy. Then I had a brilliant idea, I asked Him, “How am I Your enemy?”
While there was not a booming voice, in my mind there was a question: “Who sits on the throne of your heart?”
I knew I had won the argument. I shouted back, “Satan doesn’t sit on the throne of my heart. I do!”
I was a foolish college freshman. The answer came back, “Whoever sits on My throne is My enemy!”
At that moment, I realized that I was doubly His. He had created me and redeemed me. I crawled off the throne and gave it back to Him.
“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation“ (Romans 5:6-11).
Who sits on the throne of your heart?
Jesus is King. But He is a gentleman. He invites each of us back into His Kingdom. Over the years, I have climbed back onto the throne and have had to surrender it to Him again and again. His grace abounds.
Here are three responses for you to choose from:
- Do you need to believe Jesus is King and surrender the throne to Him and experience His grace?
- Do you need to acknowledge Jesus is King and climb back off the throne again receiving His grace once more?
- Do you need to proclaim Jesus is King demonstrating He sits on the throne in your life and you live in His grace?
Please contact me and let me know what your response to King Jesus has been today.
Inside HIS Grace 