Jesus, King of Everything

For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
(Revelation 7.17)

—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
(1 Timothy 6.15b)

Jesus came to die for us and save us from sin is not the entire gospel. 

We trust that Jesus will save us, and we know that he conquered death. “O, death where is your sting,” mocked the Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians. Jesus reigns over death, because the grave couldn’t hold him. In that way, he presents a solution to the problem of our temporary lives here on earth and our brokenness. He gives us a path that leads to the home we were made for from the beginning.

It’s a beautiful message. It’s just not the whole message.

Viewing Jesus as Savior is healthy and right. When we only view Jesus as our Savior, we will do whatever we view as the bare minimum that it takes to be religious or “good church members.” We will do what we feel obliged to do, and many aspects of excellence in our walk as disciples will go unexplored due to our imbalanced idea that Jesus’ main mission was  solely to die, rise and get us to Heaven.

We mustn’t forget that Jesus lived an entire life to show us who he really is. In that earthly life, he recruited men and invited them to follow him. They became his disciples. They came to know Jesus as their shepherd. He became the leader of their life. In Acts 5, Peter and the apostles took a bold stand for the complete gospel that includes Jesus full identity as both Savior and Lord.

God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. (Acts 5.31)

We may accept Jesus as Savior. Will we surrender to Jesus as Lord? Will we allow him in practical ways into our homes, into our workplaces, into our hobbies and into all of our relationships? If so, we will begin to know what it means to be a disciple.