Kingship and Authority

            In the American culture, when one dubs themselves as king, or someone else does for them, it often means that they are the best at what they do.  In the past fifty years, we have had the king of rock n roll (Elvis), the king of pop (Michael Jackson), or King James (basketball player).  These people are either considered the best at what they do, or have the most potential to be the best at what they do.  Being king often comes with the expectation of that they are not only the best at what they do, and they have authority, whether self ascribed or ascribed by others.  This type of kingship and authority often leads down a very destructive and painful road.  Having this type of authority, makes us want to be like Eric Cartman and yell respect my authority and when we say this, things never end well.  Looking back on the lives of Michael Jackson and Elvis, the end of their lives were nothing to be followed or desired and lead to their untimely and unfortunate deaths.  We all have someone(s) or something(s) that rule over us and act as authority in our lives, it is just a matter of is it constructive or destructive to our current lifestyle and our eternal one.

            Romans 6 talks about this idea of kingship and authority in our lives and who or what has this authority.  It is more than who serves as our elected leaders on a local, state, and a national level, which is an important discussion for a later time, but it is who rules our heart, action and lives.  In this chapter Paul is sharing with the Roman church the two authorities that are not only trying to grab our attention, but are trying to grab our hearts and our allegiances and these authorities are in contrast with each other.  One authority is sin and sin is anything that takes us out of a right relationship with God.  Sin often manifest itself in being self centered, hedonistic, or self destructive patterns.  I think that Frank Sinatra has a pretty good definition of sin and that’s doing things my way.  Doing things my way often leads us down a self destructive path that if we are responsible for getting ourselves out of, we can’t.  It’s because we have let sin rule over us and we are under its authority and we become servants of this destructive lifestyle.  But here is the good news, we do not have to be under the authority of sin and live this self destructive lifestyle.   

            Paul touches on this idea of should I keep on sinning so that grace may expound.  Essentially Paul is asking the question of, should I keep dishonoring Him to gain His mercy and favor.  Paul emphatically says no way.  To sum it up, we are turning God’s gift into a cheap perfume that doesn’t smell good.  God’s gift to us, which is Jesus death and resurrection, gives us the ability to have power over sin and not to continue in it.  Paul contrast of sinning all the time to get Gods grace with being an instrument of God’s grace to the world we live in.  Being an instrument for God, takes on many forms, but the main constant is this; it is sharing and doing for others what God has done for us.  The question is, are we going to be obedient to Gods grace and work within us and through us, to be instruments of peace and reconciliation to a hurting and broken world.  Or are we going to go and be obedient to our hedonistic selves and be destructive.  We are kind of like bulldozers, they can be useful in building roads and buildings, but also can be very destructive in ripping things apart and causing mayhem.  So what kind of instruments are we going to be today and how are we going to let God use us for His glory.  In the end, it is not about respecting my authority or kingship that I might have, but it is point to the One who has authority over all and is the Creator of the Universe.