Royalty

Behold, a king will reign in righteousness,
    and princes will rule in justice.  Isaiah 32:1

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  1 Peter 2:9, 10

One of my favorite things is to see how Old Testament prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus.  The prophecy located in Isaiah 32 points to a King who will reign in righteousness.  Today, we can see that Jesus is that King.  No other king on earth has ever matched the righteousness of King Jesus.

So, if Jesus is the prophesied King who will reign in righteousness, the second part must also be true.  Indeed, it is true.  Peter declared that we are a royal priesthood.  Paul’s letters to the Romans, Galatians, and the Ephesians all declare that believers are heirs with Jesus.  If we are believers are royal and heirs of the King, then the believers are princes and princesses, only stands to reason.

My favorite books are the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis.  The reason they are my favorite is because they remind me about the fact that I am of royalty.  I love how Aslan (the lion who represents Jesus) addresses the heroes; Peter, Lucy, Edmund, and Susan as royalty.  There are points where Aslan reminds them of their royal destinies.  I think God used C.S. Lewis to remind us of our position.  Every time I read the books or watch the movies, it reminds me of who I am in Christ.

We need that reminder that we are royalty, we need to step into that calling, and the world needs us to step into that calling.  Why?  Read the rest of Isaiah 32.  We will become like a shelter in the storm.  The fool will no longer be called noble (just watch reality TV, lot of people getting paid millions to act foolish).  The scoundrel will no longer be called honorable (the scoundrels are those who prey off the poor).

We are to be the princes and princesses who rule in justice.  I believe that we are seeing today (the over sexualization in the media, the rampant violence, the people who take advantage of the poor) because the Church at large has forgot its royal destiny. We must, I repeat, we must remember that we, each one of us, are a royal priesthood.

The world is hurting and people are dying without Jesus.  We cannot afford to sit around and wait for someone else to do the work.  First we need to listen to God’s voice calling us.  Second, we need to act in obedience to God’s word.  Third we must pray for more harvesters (Matthew 9:38; Luke 10:2).  Lastly we must take a stand.

I will close with Isaiah 32:8  But he who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands.