Royal Decrees

Kingship and authority go hand in hand. In other words, a king without authority is no king at all. The visible, tangible symbol of the king's authority is law, which is defined by Merriam-Webster as "a rule of conduct or action prescribed or formally recognized as binding or enforced by a controlling authority." The authority - in this case, the king - establishes his dominance and control by placing his subjects under some kind of "rule of conduct." Without an expressed form of law, the king's authority is intangible and meaningless. Of course, it's not only a matter of binding a law upon the citizenry; as the definition above from Merriam-Webster states, that law must also be enforced. Otherwise, the king's authority is a mere facade. Right? Right!

I've established in the previous two articles that Jesus Christ is currently reigning as King over His kingdom (John 18:36-37; Acts 2:33; 1 Tim. 6:15). The kingdom is the church (Mt. 16:18-19) and consists of Christians (Col. 1:13-14). In light of these undeniable facts, we as Christians must view Christ, not only as our Savior, but as our King. And as such, He has authority over our lives...which necessarily means that He binds upon us a law and will enforce that law!

More and more Christians are failing to make these connections. More and more Christians are growing increasingly irritated at the mere mention that there may be a "law" to which we are bound. I've witnessed conversations where certain ones have implies that the New Testament makes no mention of a law. They act as if this is the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament; in the days of Moses and David, the Jews were bound to a strict law, but we today are saved by "grace alone through faith alone."

But again, if Jesus Christ is currently reigning as our King, then there must be a law. Otherwise, what did He mean when He told the apostles in Matthew 28:18, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth"?

Now, when pressed, many of those who deny the existence of "Christian law" will admit that we as Christians must serve Christ; they'll admit that He has all authority over us. They will agree that there are commands in the New Testament and that we must obey those commands.

According to what standard do we serve Christ? In what tangible way does Christ express His authority over us? In what tangible way do we express our submission to His rule? And is it possible to be bound to certain commands (found in the New Testament) all the while not being subject to any law?

Here's my observation...

These religious people who question the existence of a law or only doing so because they don't like the extent to which some of us stress law. For example, they don't like how we are so strict in our view of the worship of the church, the works of the church and the organization of the church; they believe that we ought to be more tolerant of diversity in these church matters. They don't like the way that some of us may stress a very particular path to salvation; they believe that we ought not be so "judgmental" or "narrow-minded." And so in an effort to debunk such a strict hermeneutic, they deny the existence of law altogether.

And yet they still want to argue that Christians must bear the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23), that we must do good in the world (James 1:27), that we must express our love for Christ by worshiping Him (Heb. 13:15), that we must pray and study and be spiritually-minded (Rom. 12:1-2). By what standard can we reject certain revealed truths but demand others?

And so what it amounts to is not a rejection of law altogether, but a rejection of law selectively. They will not and cannot usurp the authority of Christ in matters of personal conduct, but they do reject the notion that Christ has express His authority over church conduct.

Listen, Christ has been given ALL authority (Mt. 28:18). His authority is tangibly expressed in the form of a law. The very definition of "sin" in 1 John 3:4 is the transgression of that law, and specifically, the law, or doctrine, of Christ (2 John 9). As Christians, we're commanded to do all things in His name, or by His authority (Col. 3:17).

So as we begin this series of studies, let's get this straight: no one can reasonably reject the notion that Christ is our King, and no one can reasonably object to the notion that He has expressed His royal authority over us by giving us a law. And because the kingdom and church are the same, or at least irrevocably interconnected, we cannot say that church conduct is somehow left up to us. To put it simply, as Christians, we must become subservient to Christ in all matters of religious practice.

This begs the question: what constitutes the law or doctrine of Christ? In other words, even if we accept that there is a law, for Christ is our King, how can we identify the tenets of that law? This is a great question that we'll begin to answer in our next article which you can access by clicking here.