Christians’ Royal Sovereignty

Since the time of Adam and Eve’s dismissal from the Garden, God has searched for a holy people. God loves his creation and desires to reestablish a common presence with man. Earth is man’s throne. When man sinned, however, he abdicated his throne to Satan. Earth rightfully belongs to man, not Satan. Subsequently, the Father initiated a takeover by sending his Son in the form of man. Christ won the day and is now crowned with glory and seated with the Father. Although we do not see all things presently subject to man, our day is approaching (Hebrews 2:5-9). In order to accept our throne, however, we must first learn that we have one…that we are indeed royalty!

Because sinful thinking has deceived us, we are unaware that we hold such a position in the earth. Man has so trivialized his standing before God that he views his existence as nothing more than working, eating, and dying. We simply do not comprehend our sovereign state. Sovereignty begins in the heart of man, for it is here that God has his throne room, where he comes to live with believers (John 14:16-18). For now, Satan has dominion. However, our hearts are given to God. Our new relationship with God, through Christ, revives us and instructs us as to the proper code of conduct for sons.

Intrinsically, man knows he is to rule. However, the modalities of sovereign rule, as practiced by man through the ages, clearly indicate how much man fails to comprehend the type of rule God intended. This is readily observed in nations dominating other nations, totalitarian and imperialistic forms of government, military dictatorships, the ideological practice of race and cultural superiority, slavery of fellow humans, and so on, using strike-force tactics to enforce control. Man’s propensity to achieve power is misguided. Moreover, if an enemy is not available, men will create one! Now that the world is in full pursuit of globalization, we will experience a new phenomenon of world unity. This unity, however, is in reality sovereign control under the guise of humanism: the belief that human resolve and ingenuity will rule the day.

However, genuine sovereignty, as intended by God, is of a different design.

For now, we are mortal. We came from the ground and we will return to the ground. Only Christ makes the difference. He can move us from mortality to immortality. He has already given us a down payment on eternity by way of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:14). We are God’s sons! We are more than dirt!

For now, however, we are content with the dirt. In truth, we are proud of it! We make dirt work for us! We achieve! We build! We conquer! All in the name of dirt! Attaining ground, for humans, represents property, prosperity and, most of all, power! Power over what? Because everything comes from the ground, power is power over the dirt and all it produces. Man’s propensity is to attain power. In his book On the Origins of War ([Doubleday: New York, 1995], 6) Donald Kagan says that the wisest students of war realize that “the competition for power” provides the greatest impetus for war.

True sons of God do not seek to reign over other humans. Our original grant of authority was not over each other but over the other aspects of creation – vegetation and animals. It was a harmless rule; but, for now, is suspended. However, the earth, in its eternal state (Revelation 21:1), will not be subject to the vandalism it now endures. In this new earth, the redeemed will reign with Christ. The ground will no longer tempt us. The only power we will know is that which emanates from God.

God is sovereign in the universe and so is man, who was created in God’s image. In a time when all things in the earth are observed as equal to or greater than man, it is pertinent that we understand and acknowledge the true order of creation. Things created first – heavens and earth, vegetation and animals – do not have preeminence over humankind, but the very opposite. The first of God’s creation were presented to man as a gift from the heavenly Father. All things were in place for man to rule in the earth (Genesis 1:28-30) – his throne!

In the earth, humankind was sovereign, complimentary of the Creator’s reign in the universe. Technically speaking, a king provides a throne for his heir, the heritage of the prince. We were God’s intended princes in the earth and Adam turned our throne over to Satan. What king would tolerate someone else sitting on the throne intended for his son? Man is sovereign in the earth because he came from the earth. Satan, however, is an entity of a different order. Satan is not of the earth and should have no jurisdiction in earthly matters. This is why it is an insult to God for Satan to have earthly powers over God’s sons. Such things were never meant to be. God will change this.

Many believe the central theme in scripture is Christ dying for our sins. While his death certainly is a pivotal point in God’s plan to redeem sinful man, the central theme is God’s desire for sons in the earth – sons of man becoming sons of God. To make us sons, we first had to be redeemed. There is more to sonship, however, than redemption. A redeemed sinner walks blameless before the Lord, but a son walks sinless before the Lord…one who is truly obedient to the will of God. Man is biologically born of woman but is spiritually born of God, his second birth (John 3). Our “born again” status establishes us as sons and therefore heirs in the kingdom of God (Galatians 3:26-4:7). Princes of the King!

Our royal status was the primary reason for the cross.