Who is Christ the King?

Who is Christ the King?

No, this isn't a trick question. There are many—all Christians, really—who will profess a firm and devoted belief in Christ as King. They will affirm that Christ is indeed the King of the Universe, as the CCR's seal affirms. They will acknowledge that they are bound to do homage to Christ the King in their daily lives, that the commands of Christ the King are binding on them. All these things are good and praiseworthy, but they do not show a belief in Christ the King.

The doctrine of Christ the King is much more than just “I believe in Christ, who is above the world.” Belief in Christ is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition of belief in Christ the King. And that's what the CCR seeks to spread.

So we must ask again: who is Christ the King?

Christ the King is the Ruler of the Universe—that is, of the whole universe, of all men, and of all associations of men within it. First of all, Christ reigns within us:

1.) He reigns in our minds. By this we mean that He commands our minds to accept the truths which He has taught us. We cannot know the full truth of the Faith unless He, in the Spirit, moves us, and we accept that command with humility.

2.) He reigns in our wills. Jesus Christ, Our King, has both a divine and a human will; that is, two wills, each full and complete. However, those two wills are in perfect conformity with one another, with the human duly subordinate to the divine. This example shows us the proper relationship of our human wills to His divine (and human) will: subordination, submission to His kingly commands.

3.) He reigns in our hearts. He is always good, gentle, and kind, and in fact has sacrificed the most that He possibly could sacrifice for our sake, and renews that sacrifice at every Mass. No one ever has loved us, or ever could love us, as He does, and no one could ever be as worthy of our love as He is. Thus, Jesus Christ is the King of our Hearts.

But where does this great power, this kingly authority over our minds, wills, and hearts come from? It comes, essentially, from three main sources: the right of inheritance, the right of nature, and the right of conquest.

First, the right of inheritance. Jesus Christ is descended from a kingly line, the heir of David, the great king of Israel, and is thus by bloodright king of the Jews. This line of descent goes all the way back through David to Abraham, and then to Noah, and then to the first man, Adam, himself.

The importance of this fact cannot be overemphasized. The very first words explicitly spoken about Jesus Christ in the Scriptures relate to this: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” David was promised that his kingdom would last forever: “I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.” And this was from God Himself, Who can neither deceive nor be deceived. Christ is the heir of the great David, king of Israel; thus Christ remains, in a very real and tangible sense, the King of Israel today.

He is the King of Israel, of course, in two ways. First, He is the King of the nation of Israel, the descendents of Jacob, historically and simply. But second, He is the King of the new Israel, the chosen people, which is the Church, and thus He has this kingly authority over both Jews and Gentiles.

The second source of His Kingship is natural right, which comes from three founts: first, the right of creation; second, the right of care; and third, the right of His nature.

First, His right of creation. Christ the King has kingly authority over all men due quite simply to His creation of all men. When a man builds, say, a watch, or he plants a field, he has created something and has absolute rights over that created thing. He can use it, or smash it, or burn it, or give it away, or retain it for himself. But Christ has created us, and has never yielded the rights over us which that creation gains; thus, He is King over us by right of creation.

Second, His right of care. Christ constantly cares for us in the exercise of Divine Providence, and were He to stop keeping us in being for even the most fleeting moment, we would cease to exist. This constant care for us, upon which we are utterly and completely dependent, rightly gives Him a kingly authority over us.

Third, His right of nature. Christ the King is both true God and true man; He is both infinitely above our nature, in His divine nature, and He is exactly alongside us in His human nature, like us in all ways but sin. That “but sin”, though, carries great importance here. He is a man, like us, a brother and son of the same Father; but He is a perfect man. His human nature is perfect; His appetites are perfectly in accord with His intellect, His will is perfectly in accord with that of His Father. He is the supreme example of what all men should be, the form to which all men should strive.

We often call the most perfect example of a thing the “king” of that thing, by analogy. For example, Wayne Gretzky is “the king” of hockey, as he is by many measures the best to ever play the game; or the lion is the “king of the beasts”, or Michael Jackson is “the king of pop”. These are imperfect examples, as there is always debate about who or what is really the best example of a species; further, even the best example of a species is not necessarily the best possible example. Christ, however, is not only unquestionably the greatest and most perfect man to ever live; it is not possible that there could ever be a more perfect or greater. As the perfect exemplar of all men, then, He has an authority over us equivalent to that of a king.

Lastly, Christ is King by right of conquest. This right is likely to sit least well in the minds of modern man, but it is also arguably the least controversial of all. Mankind sinned; all men are born with original sin, and under the dominion of Satan. Satan claims us; he runs roughshod over us; he manipulates our passions, turns us against our Creator and towards him. We are truly slaves to sin, unable on our own power to completely avoid it. Furthermore, aside from Satan, we are slaves to death. All men, due to sin, must die. It is utterly contrary to all that is right for an eternal, spiritual creature, such as man, to die; yet that is the curse, the punishment for our sin. The good God always rules us, of course, whether in sin or not, whether alive or dead; but in a very real sense, all men are under the dominion of Satan and of death, and from this dominion we must be freed.

Christ, the Redeemer, has freed us. Not by violence, but by the strongest and most penetrating of all possible loves, He has come to our aid and freed us from our slavery to Satan and from our slavery to death. He has conquered us; and by this conquest, He is truly said to have kingly authority over us.

And that is who Christ the King is: He is the sovereign, the king, who rightly governs us and has authority over every aspect of our lives and beings. He is certainly a a savior; a wonderworker; and countless other things. And all who believe in Christ must necessarily believe in Him as those things: they must believe that He died for us, that He loves us, that He worked miracles beyond wonder for our sake. But Christ as King is even more than that. He is our ruler; one of us, yet still higher than us, leading us; the ring-giver, the guardian, the protector, the warrior, the leader Who brings His people, like Him, to their destiny.

So who is Christ the King?

Our brother. Our captain. And our King.

Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat!