What is the meaning of the saying "Christ is King"?

Yet another name is given: in verse 16 it is said, "And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." The context explains at once the force of this title, showing that, in harmony with the whole book, it has relation to the earth. In the preceding verse, we are told that He will smite the nations, and rule them with a rod of iron; and the name, or title, we are considering, indicates that it is consequent upon this that our blessed Lord will establish His throne of universal supremacy upon the earth. Already exalted at the right hand of God, "angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him," He will in the day of which our passage speaks, be exalted also in this world, when He will "have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth." It will be the fulfilment of the promise, "Also I will make Him My Firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth." (Psalm 89:27.)

As He has many crowns, so His names are many, and now the name is added on His garment and on His thigh, “King of kings and Lord of lords” (v. 16). Whatever kings there may be, He is King over them all; and every titled lord is subservient to Him. The name on the thigh is where the sword usually would hang.

Lastly, His Name, "King of kings and Lord of lords," is written on His vesture; that is, externally, where every eye may see it. It is also on His thigh; internally, in the place of His secret strength. It is hardly an eternal designation like the others, for it could hardly be assumed until kings and lords came into existence as created by Him. Still it will be of the first importance in His glorious appearing. Kings are earthly potentates, whereas "lords," we think, would-cover heavenly as well as earthly dignitaries. In His appearing the Lord Jesus comes forth "to subdue all things to Himself" (Phil. 3:21). The many crowns, of which verse 12 speaks, being kingly diadems, are in keeping with this.

Rev. 17:14. — “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them; for He is Lord of lords and King of kings: and they that are with Him called, and chosen, and faithful.” Here is recorded the final public act of the Beast and his allies. The conflict itself is fully described in Revelation 19:19-21. The angel here simply notes the fact, passing over many intervening events. The war has not been actually entered upon, but it is anticipated. Its issue is in no wise doubtful. “The Lamb shall overcome them.” Victory is assured ere the conflict is entered upon, for the mighty Conqueror is King of all who reign, and Lord of all who exercise authority. He is supreme. All power in Heaven and on earth is His (Matt. 28:18). Oh, what madness and folly for men and governments to enter the lists with God’s Lamb Who will publicly wield the authority of Jehovah’s throne! How touching the blessed association of the Lamb with the mighty King — tenderness and power combined (Rev. 5:5-6).

Besides His unrevealed name, He has also three others, each one being in keeping with His solemn work as He "treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." They are as follows: — "Faithful and True," the "Word of God," "King of kings and Lord of lords." He is about to vindicate God's character as faithful and true, whether in connection with the past, the present, or the future; to maintain God's word at all cost, and to bring every opposing force into complete subjection to God's will, as "King of kings and Lord of lords." Let Scripture tell its own tale as to the issue of that stupendous conflict between the respective armies of heaven and earth. "And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth; and all the fowls were filled with their flesh."

As terrible as this apparition may be to unbelievers, the believer sees another side and rejoices with all his heart. It says: "He has a name written on his robe and on his thigh". This name is "King of kings and Lord of lords". He had once been the rejected one and had been crucified as "King of the Jews". Now He is honoured and bears a name that expresses His dignity.

294 Pilate asks Jesus if He was the King of the Jews. The Lord explains that His kingdom is not of this world, otherwise He would have made good His claims as the world does. But in every sense, His kingdom, at this moment, was not established in this world as a kingdom of the world. His presence as accused before Pilate was the proof of it. Jesus does not fail to confess openly that He is King, when Pilate asks Him He will establish, later on, a power which nothing will be able to resist, but the time was not yet come. According to the truth, He was King, and He bears witness to the truth. According to the work of God in that moment, He was numbered amongst the transgressors. For Pilate, an infidel and a rationalist, what was truth? He was very guilty in yielding to the urgent demands of the Jews, but it was the Jews who were the instigators of the death of Jesus. They were accomplishing, without knowing it, the counsels of God, and Jesus was there in His perfect obedience. We have before us the truth, the King, the propitiatory Victim, accomplishing a work far deeper and more important than even royalty; we see there also the head of the Gentiles, representing the emperor, then the furious hatred of this poor people against God manifested in goodness, their Saviour. Everything assumes its true character, God's counsels are accomplished, and every actor in this scene takes his true place. But the actors, Jews and Gentiles, are to disappear condemned, but for grace; and the condemned malefactor, who, humanly speaking, disappears, leaves the scene to be Lord over all, to sit upon the Father's throne.

No wonder that as Pilate listened to these words that he could not comprehend, there was forced from him the question. "Art Thou a King then?" Jesus answered, "Thou sayest that I am a King. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should hear witness to the truth. Everyone that is of the truth bears My voice." There shone with steady glow the glory of His person and the greatness of His mission. He was a King, indeed! He was the King eternal, and He had come into the world to establish a kingdom that would never be moved The "Word was made flesh" and He was "full of grace and truth." He came to bear witness to the truth: to tell out what God is, in a world blinded and blighted by the devil's lie He was the truth Himself, for that is what He meant, surely, when He said, "Every one that is of the truth hears My voice." His kingdom is truth, there is no lie in it, and to hear His voice means to obey the truth, and to be in His kingdom means to be subject to Him. No man knows the truth who does not obey it and no man is in His kingdom who has not submitted to Him.

Nevertheless it may be remarked, that these saints are not said to be executers of judgment as Christ is.* It is to Him that God has given all judgment, not necessarily to us. We may have a special task in it; but this is not the work for us. We are to judge the world, even angels (1 Cor. 6); but this will be in our reigning with Christ. Hence there is no sword proceeding out of our mouth; nor are the saints or heavenly hosts said to be arrayed in such a fashion as the Lord. It is simply said that the glorified are to follow the Lord in victorious power, and nothing more "clothed in fine linen, bright, pure." Angels, we know from other scriptures, will be there; yet of this we hear nothing here. But "out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron." What makes it all the more notable is that the rod of iron is promised to us, not the sword. There is the reigning dignity, but not the execution of judgment in the awful emblems attributed to the Lord Himself. For He "treadeth the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty," another character of judgment never attributed to the saints. "And he hath upon his garment and upon his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords." Supremacy of rule and lordship belongs to Him no less than to the Father, or God as God (1 Tim. 6:15).

But secondly, He affirmed that His kingdom was neither "of this world," nor "from hence." It does not bear the character or stamp of this world nor does it derive its authority and power from this place. His Kingdom of course derives all its authority and power from Heaven, and it bears the heavenly character; but instead of stating this positively He put the matter in that negative light which tacitly put a sentence of condemnation and repudiation upon this world and this place. It was a bold statement to make in the presence of the man who represented the greatest existing earthly power.