Devotion 3: Will You Reign with Christ?
William Kinney
Since childhood, I have always been fascinated with fictional stories of medieval times. More specifically, I enjoy the tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. King Arthur is excellent, but I have always been more impressed with the knights loyal to King Arthur, such as Sir Lancelot and Sir Galahad. Like most knights in those times, though fictional, King Arthur’s knights’ loyalty, devotion, and dedication to the king were unfaltering. What amazes me the most about knights is their loyalty to a king who may or may not make the best decisions. I could not imagine having followers devoted to my cause or agenda with such fidelity that they would take care of and defend me from any threat with their life, but Jesus can.
The future Kingdom of Jesus Christ and His believers unfold in the book of Revelation. After Satan and his demons are bound in the abyss by an angel sent by God, all New and Old Testament believers of Jesus Christ will be resurrected to reign with Him as royal priests and judges. This prophecy defines Jesus as our King, a perfect King that we cannot compare to any other king, even the fictional King Arthur. So, should we not be more devoted and loyal to the King of kings and Lord of lords? Should we not place more trust in Jesus, our Savior, since no one or anything else can rescue us from our sins? He already won the war, so why do we put our trust in the temporal things of this world like money, lust, and false idols? I believe the reason is simple; for many of us (including myself), this boils down to a faith issue. Though this is a simple issue of faith, building our faith is not an easy task. James chapter 2 holds the framework for building our faith, “You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works” (James 2:22). It is only by works that we can demonstrate our love and obedience to Christ our King, as obedience to Christ and love go hand in hand. We cannot say we love Christ if we are not obedient to His commandments and cannot be obedient to Christ without loving Him.
Obedience and love are the foundation for our faith; without that foundation, our faith will crumble. Therefore, are we doing the works God calls us to do to build our love relationship with Him, allowing our faith to grow in Him? By the way, the most important way to show our love and obedience to Christ is to accept Him into our hearts as our Savior. It involves believing in our hearts that He died on the cross for our sins and rose again three days later. If we do not accept Jesus as our Lord, we miss out on an opportunity of a lifetime to have a relationship with the one true God who created us to reign with Him for eternity.