How Does Jesus Rule Today?
The Following is the Script for this Video:
Suppose you’re driving your car and come upon some road construction. Then you see this sign is telling you to change lanes. Are you supposed to go right or go left? You are getting mixed signals.
What are you to make of the seemingly mixed signals coming at you in life? On the one hand, Jesus told his followers, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” If Jesus has all authority on earth, why do such headline events as these keep happening?
• Earthquake Leaves 800 Dead
• Victims Flee Wildfire
• Six Die in Highway Crash
• School Shooter Kills Seven
• Violent Crime Up Sharply
Jesus cannot be wrong. Could it be that we don’t understand the way he is currently exercising his authority? How does Jesus rule today?
To understand Jesus’s current rule, we need to recall that his kingdom on earth takes two forms—one future, one present. In the future, when the new Jerusalem descends from heaven and God comes to live on the renewed earth, his will will be done on earth in everything—as it is in heaven. This is the Kingdom-yet-ahead.
But what about the situation here-and-now? As Scripture says, all of us have gone astray. On our own, we put self-will first—not God’s will. We seek our way, not his. But on the cross, Jesus broke the power that kept us chained to self-will. Because we died with him, we can turn away from self-will to go his way. So now, Jesus rules in and through those who already recognize him as King. They turn their backs on self-interest, deny themselves, take up their crosses daily, and follow him.
Where do they follow him? Out into the world. where he sends them. They go out as carriers of Jesus’s life and under his rule as King. In their daily lives, they encounter the “world” in three primary areas: their families . . . their neighbors . . . and their coworkers. The light of Jesus streams out of them into those three spheres of responsibility through how they act, what they say, and how they relate to others.
When they spend time with their families, the life of Jesus in them is there. When they relate to their neighbors, the life of Jesus in them is there. And when they go to work, the life of Jesus in them goes there with them. As they follow Jesus in what they decide and what they do, the will of God gets done in that part of his earth. In short, Jesus the King is ruling through them.
Jesus’s rule through them does not look like the way the world trains us to think of ruling. It is not pushy. It does not bully or lord it over others. Instead, it is a rule that serves, cares, equips others, and sets examples of right-doing. Jesus’s way of ruling turns the world’s way of ruling upside down. It does not swagger. It stoops. It does not overpower. It empowers.
Scripture pictures the person right with God as a tree. The Spirit of Jesus living inside such a person puts the fruit of the Spirit within reach of those nearby. Imagine the child living in a family where these virtues describe the parents in that home. Think of the effect when a neighbor with these qualities lives next door. Or picture the workplace where two or three coworkers consistently respond in these ways. When Christ rules like this through his followers, they provide families, neighborhoods, and workplaces with previews of the Kingdom-yet-to-come. Foretastes of what it’s like when King Jesus is in charge.
So when we pray, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” God’s Spirit works in and through us to bring that about—even if to a limited degree—in our families, neighborhoods, and workplaces. Each of these spheres involves personal relationships that call for the rule of King Jesus.
Parents, children, siblings, neighbors, and coworkers sometimes act and speak in ways that offend. Letting King Jesus rule there means erasing the offense, canceling the fault, forgiving the sinner.
Following forgiveness comes the need for reconciliation. Jesus declared, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” When you see ill will or resentment separating people in your family, your neighborhood, or your workplace, you can let Jesus rule through you by seeking to bring the parties together.
From time to time, every family member, neighbor, and coworker will need some kind of assistance. Maybe it’s teaching a child to ride a bike, mowing a hospitalized neighbor’s lawn, or encouraging a downhearted coworker. Whatever the need, King Jesus, who “went around doing good,” can rule through you as you step in to help.
In your everyday world, a great many are eager to talk, but so few are willing to listen, to take the time to really hear the hearts of others. James put it this way, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak.” Attentive ears provide yet another way King Jesus can rule through you.
Of course, when Jesus rules in your relationships, he rules some things in and other things out. For example, being quick to listen does not include listening to and passing on gossip.
Being a parent, spouse, sibling, neighbor, or coworker puts you into various “nearby” relationships. Those make you able to see needs that may not be obvious to outsiders. King Jesus, by giving his own life away for us on the cross, showed us his way of ruling. It is a cross-shaped rule, a dying-to-self-shaped rule. It is others-centered rather than self-seeking. That’s why the writer of Hebrews urges, “Do not forget to do good and to share with others.”
If you live out a Jesus-ruled life in your family, neighborhood, and workplace, others will see a difference in your actions and relationships. God will use this contrast to create opportunities for you to explain it to family members, neighbors, and coworkers. As Peter urges, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”
Right from the beginning, starting in the Garden of Eden, God intended to rule through human beings. “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule . . . .” So Jesus ruling in and through us takes us right back to God’s original design.
We see that original ruling design in the first chapter of the Bible: “that they may rule.” And we see it again in the very last chapter. “they will reign (or rule) forever.” Is Jesus’s rule through us today our training program? Are we apprentices, learning how to rule in the age to come?
In his death and resurrection, Jesus launched God’s new creation. Yes, it has already begun. Jesus rules today through all those who take up their crosses of self-denial and follow him. All their Jesus-empowered acts of loving service serve as foretastes of and pointers to the coming new age when his rule—and ours—will extend everywhere and forever.
How Jesus Rules Today
Your work includes your day job but extends well beyond it. Jesus seeks to rule through you in your family, your neighborhood, as well as your workplace.
