All Enemies Under Christ

All Enemies Under Christ

For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.

I Corinthians 15:25

Kings have enemies. Successful kings defeat their enemies. Christ is successful in all that He attempts. As we continue to dwell on the function of Christ as King, we must eventually arrive at some consideration of how He deals with His enemies and the enemies of His people. The Shorter Catechism phrases it, ‘Christ executes the office of a king…in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies.’ In our position, living in a world where the enemies of Christ surround us, it is important for us to understand that, ‘Jesus shall reign, where e’er the sun, does his successive journey run.’ When ‘the wicked walk on every side, and the vilest men are exalted,’ we need to be able to take the long view. The Scripture offers us many assurances. The logical follow-on of the discussion of Christ’s humiliation is, ‘Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’ Matthew 25 shows Christ sitting upon His Throne, separating those who are His from those who are not. Revelation 20 presents Christ sitting upon His Throne to judge the living and the dead. In a de facto way, this means that Christ holds sway over all His enemies, and all of ours. This gives us great encouragement. It enables us to endure the insults, the opposition, the hatred and the violence of our enemies for the time, knowing that Christ, not man, is King. He shall not fail to defeat all of His enemies, and all of ours. He will have the victory.

Our Great and Conquering King,
we rejoice that You shall succeed in every way.
We praise You that You will defeat all of Your enemies,
and all of ours.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning