How Exactly is Jesus Reigning As King? (Or is Pastor Jay a Closet Postmillennial)

This last Sunday I sought to pound home the kingship of Jesus.  Psalm 72 brought us into David’s prayer for his son Solomon who would soon ascend to the throne.  But there was another king that David was more interested in.  As great at Solomon was, there was no way he would fulfill the expansive and universal reign that David spoke of, nor display the personal characteristics that even David failed at.  

Jesus is truly the promised messiah and the promised king.  When he was here on the earth, everyone who had eyes to see this really did see it.  The three wise men from the east were kingmakers who brought their gifts, the hungry crowd in John 6 were bent on forcing Jesus’ inauguration, many proclaimed him as the son of David, and ultimately, they laid palm branches on the road for the triumphal entry of the king into Jerusalem.

But what is the reign of Christ?  On Sunday, I declared his right to rule over all the earth which includes every heart that sat embodied, filling a pew seat.  I even referenced the verse in Habakkuk that states the glory of the Lord will fill the earth as water covers the sea.  Totality was the key word.  Jesus holds the kingly rights to rule over everything.  

But this got some to thinking.  How does all this play out in Pastor Jay’s mind?  Perhaps this kingly rule is to come now as we progressively bring everybody under his sovereign sway.  Today individuals, tomorrow cities, and eventually the whole world!  This idea is the eschatology of postmillennialism.  The “post” in postmillennialism refers to Jesus’ return to the earth. Jesus comes after the Millennium is established.  Everything gets better and better, coming under the lordship of Christ more and more until we finally reach the place of God’s glory realized throughout the whole earth.  Reaching that point is called the Millennium.  At that point, post-millennium and not before, Jesus comes to cap it all off by sitting on the throne to the welcoming worship of all who are on earth.  

Just to be clear, I am not in that camp.  

If that is the case, then what was all that reigning and ruling talk on Sunday?  Well, we need to distinguish what kind of reigning we are talking about.  Even while Jesus was on earth, Jesus acknowledged that he was a king.  Pilate pressed him on that, and Jesus affirmed it (John 18:36-37).  He is the king and all authority is his because God has given it to him (Eph 1:20-22).  Every person presently must affirm his lordship if they are to be saved (Romans 10:9).  But just like David was the anointed king even though he didn’t get the throne for years, so also Jesus is the King but has not received the Davidic Throne.  Jesus is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb. 12:2), not sitting on the throne of David. Seated at this place, he is exerting sovereign providential power over all things (Heb. 1:3).  

However, the Davidic covenant, which says that one of David’s descendants would reign on David’s forever, has not happened yet.  This is still to be fulfilled, and it will be in the Millennium.  We know who that Davidic king is, where he is and what he is doing.  He is Jesus, sitting at the right hand of God, and doing what Psalm 110 says he is doing: waiting until God makes his enemies his footstool.  Those enemies will become a footstool during the tribulation and remain so through the Millennium when Jesus is sitting on David’s throne, fulfilling all of the promises.  And finally the last enemy, death, will be conquered when it is thrown into the lake of fire at the final judgment.   

But you know what?  You do not want to wait till all that begins to happen before you seek a kingly pardon from King Jesus.  The world will remain in rebellion to Jesus till they are made a footstool, but you don’t have to go with them.  King Jesus is still making traitors into heirs.  Seize onto that royal grace now before it’s too late.