Revelation 1:4-9 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be to you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come… Now, observe that this dignity of "kings and priests" is conferred as by a definite act, contemporaneous with, or, at the most, immediately consequent on, the "loosing from our sins." It is then a present dignity. I. JESUS CHRIST, THE GREAT KING, WILL CROWN US KINGS, TOO, IF WE WILL. Every man who has become the servant of Christ is the king and lord of everything else; to submit to Him is to rule all besides. Reign over what? 1. First, over the only kingdom that any man really has, and that is himself. We are meant to be monarchs of this tumultuous and rebellious kingdom within. We are like some of those little Rajahs whose states adjoin our British possessions, who have trouble and difficulty with revolted subjects, and fall back upon the great neighbouring power, saying: "Come and help me: subdue my people for me, and I will put the territory into your hands." Go to Christ and say: "Lord! they have rebelled against me! These passions, these lusts, these follies, these weaknesses, these sinful habits of mine, they have rebelled against me! What am I to do with them? Do Thou come and bring peace into the land; and Thine shall be the authority." And He will come and loose you from your sins, and make you kings. 2. And there is another realm over which we may rule; and that is, this bewitching and bewildering world of time and sense, with its phantasmagoria and its illusions and its lies, that draw us away from the real life and truth and blessedness. Do not let the world master you! It will, unless you have put yourself under Christ's control. He will make you king over all outward things, by enabling you to despise them in comparison with the sweetness which you find in Him, and so to get the highest good out of them. He will make you their lord by helping you to use all the things seen and temporal as means to reach a fuller possession of the things unseen and eternal. Their noblest use is to be the ladder by which we climb to reach the treasures which are above. They are meant to be symbols of the eternal, like painted windows through which our eye may travel to the light beyond, which gives them all their brilliancy. If you want to be set free from all these things, to be lifted above them, to have a joy that they cannot touch, and an inward life which they will feed, and not thwart, such emancipation from their control, such power of using them for your highest purposes, can only be secured by taking Christ for your King and resting your souls upon Him. 3. And then, all things serve the soul that serves Christ. II. THE KING, WHO IS THE PRIEST, MAKES US PRIESTS AS WELL AS KINGS. In what is the force of this grand conception of the Christian man's dignity? Four things make the priest — two of them express his standing, one of them his office, one of them his character. The priestly standing is marked by consecration and free access to God, the priestly office is sacrifice, the priestly character is purity. And these four things — consecration, direct access to God, the power of offering sacrifice which is acceptable to Him, and purity of life and heart — are the gifts of Christ's hands to each of you, if you will have them. Every one that is perfect shall be as his Master, and even here on earth, the Christian life is the life of Christ in the soul, and consists in growing likeness to Him. Is He a King? So are we. Is He a Priest? So, therefore, are we. Is He a Son? So are we. Is He the Heir? So are we. Is He the "Anointed"? "He that in Christ hath anointed us is God." His offices, His dignity, His character, His very life becomes ours, if we are His. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne; |
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