For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet.
The reign of Christ
This world is His battlefield now; and when this conflict is at an end there will be an end to something else, “He shall reign till--,” and no longer.
I. Who are Christ’s enemies?
1. All those agencies in the world which are opposed to God. Christ is on the throne for God; so that whatever in evil spirits, in bad men, in society, in institutions, habits, experiences, is warring against God, is against Christ, and He is against it.
2. All those agencies in the world which are against us. He is on the throne for us. Our cause is His. Every evil which injures or threatens us.
(1) All our intellectual enemies--ignorance or error.
(2) All our moral enemies--sin in every form.
(3) All our physical enemies--pain, sickness, disease, death--all these are included among Christ’s enemies.
3. We may answer the question by referring to Christ’s life in the flesh. He came here to do battle; and all His life He was engaged in the conflict, attacking--not men; He never touched a man in any way but to bless him--but He was in conflict with all the powers of evil of which men were the instruments and victims. And the battle is still the same. Through His true people He is now carrying on the war with ignorance, unrighteousness, pain. And we may be sure that He will be victorious, not only because it is said in the Bible, and we therefore believe it, but because it is God that is engaged in the conflict.
II. What should be our supremest cares in reference to this great conflict?
1. To be ourselves delivered. We must each ask himself, will He put my enemies under His feet? It depends on whether you will let Him undertake for you. Your faith must lay hold of His strength.
2. To take our part in it on His side. In this great conflict there is no neutrality. And for what reasons should it be our great care to range ourselves in this battle on His side? Because--
(1) It is an honourable service. Frenchmen speak with no unnatural pride of having served under the “Great Napoleon.” Something of the lustre of the name and achievements of the great captain is reflected in his humblest follower. And so it is in the spiritual conflict.
(2) Christ has a claim upon our service. It is our cause that He is contending for, and it cost Him His life.
(3) It is a strife for goodness and human happiness.
(4) There is victory with that side.
3. To engage ourselves in that part of the field where spiritual evils are the enemies combated against. Noble is it to follow Christ in the war He waged with physical evils; but the noblest work is to spread Christ’s truth, for where that is spread all evils diminish. And further, what is the life of the body compared with the life of the soul? (D. Thomas, B.A.)
Christ’s conquests
This world is a vast stage erected for the display consummation of a mighty design by the power of the Lord Jesus. Scripture has distinctly affirmed that “all things were created by Him and for Him.” The world was made for Jesus; and man, the most distinguished of its tenants, was called into existence chiefly that he might add to the Mediator’s glory. In His glory the eternal blessedness of millions is involved; and the consummation of His mighty work will be the seal and fulness of the felicity of the redeemed. Now in the management of this stupendous design, the Mediator is pursuing His way to the glory which awaits Him through the midst of foes. There are foes in whose destruction we may not be able to trace any of that consolation which it is the apostle’s object to afford. The priests and Scribes of Israel constituted themselves His personal enemies, and “the stone which the builders rejected” has fallen upon them and crushed them to powder; but our comfort or advantage appears to be this, that the enemies rather of the Saviour’s cause than of His person are spoken of; and with that cause Jesus has so entirely identified Himself, that He reckons hostility to it as hostility against Himself. There is--
I. Satan, who from the first has evinced himself the foe of the cause of Jesus. But his power is day by day contracting; and one by one are his strongholds wrested out of his hands. His most formidable opposition was his personal struggle with the Saviour, in which he enjoyed a momentary triumph; but it was a triumph which placed a lever underneath the foundations of his throne. The gospel of which that day’s achievement forms both the power and the theme, has gone forth under the sanction of the Redeemer’s command, over those tracts and territories where “the god of this world” had long held unbroken sway. And the means by which the Saviour has enlarged His kingdom are marvellous. Satan, as he was upon the day of the world’s redemption, is defeated with his own weapons. Though covetousness may have sent ships to far distant shores, and rapine may have subjugated one country to another, and injustice may have torn the slave from kindred and from home--still see we not, that in more territories being laid open to the inroads of the gospel, and other influences being brought to bear upon benighted lands, that Satan has been foiled by superior wisdom, and the empire of the Mediator increased by his defeated policy!
II. Corruption in the hearts of God’s believing people. The Mediator’s most glorious title is “the King of Saints”; and that which chiefly prevents Him from being so now, in the fulness and majesty of the expression, is the existence of that secret and unholy principle in the hearts of Christians. But this corruption under the laws of the Mediator’s reign is destined at length to be totally dethroned. The work of subduing it is one of mystery and time, and for the subduing of it Jesus has a train of instrumentalities at His disposal. By troubles, trials, disappointments, the hand of illness and bereavements. In every child of God it is daily waxing more feeble, which shows that, ultimately, it must be utterly extinguished, for “Jesus must reign,” etc.
III. The ungodly. These may not all take Paine for their text-book, or Voltaire for their leader; but yet from the circumstance of their being unconverted; they must be reckoned among His enemies. “The carnal mind is enmity against God”--“They that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Now such the Mediator will put under His feet. Contrary to the usual course of His government, He will do little towards effecting this object here. But, while an enemy remains unpunished, the throne of the Mediator must stand.
IV. Death. The trophy and the triumph of the Satanic hosts. It was among the firstfruits of their victory. But in the arrangements of the Mediator’s rule this enemy is destined for destruction! Even now is his power abridged, and his strength much departed from him; for Jesus has gone down into death’s domains, and, in the dark seclusion of the tomb, passed through a conflict with him, from which He has returned a conqueror! And this victory He perpetuates in the persons of the members of His kingdom; for there is not one of them who feels not that death, though he may awe, can no longer terrify. Even upon this world, death to them has ceased to be an enemy; but oh! if we would see him, not simply shorn of his strength, but stripped of his existence, we must throw forward our glance to the resurrection morning. That hour shall see all enemies subdued. (Dean Boyd.)
The victories of Christianity
How real was the faith of St. Paul! Only some twenty years had passed since the Crucifixion. The memory of it was fresh; the shame and stigma recent. Nevertheless, the apostle declares his faith not only in the resurrection of Jesus, but in His universal dominion. The vividness and reality of the apostle’s faith was common to all the Christians of that first age, and is very quickening and reassuring to ours. When St. Paul wrote these words the believers were but a handful. As yet they had mastered no stronghold of the enemy. In but three or four of the great cities of the world they had barely effected a lodgment. At Rome they had scarcely as yet been heard of. And yet says the apostle, “He must reign,” etc. The apostle’s great word is now in course of fulfilment. Though even yet we by no means see all things put under Christ, still the pledge has been already afforded of victory in every kind and over every form of opposition. We have but to pursue the advantages we have gained.
I. The earliest triumphs of Christianity over idolatry are the pledge to us of her ultimate victory over every form of heathenism.
1. The two great historical triumphs were--
(1) Over classic paganism and other old-world idolatries. When Paul and Barnabas set forth from Antioch on the first missionary advance, the whole world was “wholly given to idolatry.” Heaven, earth, ocean, and the great underworld teemed with divinities. Idolatry coloured all life, embraced every relation of being, held all things whatsoever under its spell and its thraldom. How wonderful an undertaking, then, was it for the obscure missionaries to set forth upon their errand! Can we wonder greatly that John and Mark shrank back from such an enterprise? And what must have been the courage and faith of Paul when, in the renowned “eve of Greece,” he stood up, without a friend or comrade, to challenge alike philosophers and idolaters? or when he undertook at Corinth--the lascivious and the worldly--to preach Christ and Him crucified, as Wisdom, Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Redemption? or when he planted himself at Ephesus, where all the inhabitants were fanatics in their worship of their “great goddess”? But the word of God everywhere grew mightily and prevailed. And so with the other Christian pioneers. The work spread and leapt from province to province, from shore to shore, from age to age. About the beginning of the second century, Pliny wrote that in Bithynia the new faith had so spread that the temples were everywhere deserted. Half a century later Justin Martyr testifies that there was no nation in whose language prayers and thanksgivings were not offered to God in the name of Jesus. Yet a little later--Tertullian grandly boasts that, though “but a people of yesterday,” the Christians had filled every place except the heathen temples. For three centuries did the Roman State keep up a relentless persecution, but all in vain. At length, Diocletian having exhausted in vain all the resources of power and cruelty, the Christian Church came forth finally victorious.
(2) Scarcely, however, was this struggle over before another began. After the destruction of the Western Empire by the barbarian invaders, Christianity had to address itself anew to the task of conquering the conquerors of the world. But the Northern tribes in succession came within the pale of Christian profession. The Christian faith survived the wreck of all things else. A deep, dense night rested upon the face of the mingled nations. But the Spirit of God in the midst of the thick darkness was moving upon the chaotic waters, and by the results, when the curtain began to lift, we know that the work was going on. The victory over the Northern barbarians won Europe for Christ, and we inherit its results in the purer, more vigorous and enlightened Christianity of to-day.
2. These things being so, how can we doubt what the results must be of the contest now being waged by Christianity against heathenism? The Christianity of the present day is in all respects superior to that of the age of Constantine, and to that which overcame the heathenism of the Goth, the Teuton, and the Kelt.
(1) How then can the heathenism of India and China withstand it? As a matter of fact, the progress of Christianity in some parts of India, and especially in Ceylon, during the last forty years has been such as to demonstrate that in less time than it took for our holy religion to vanquish Roman idolatry the heathenism of India shall yet yield to the power of Christ’s gospel. As for China, we have hardly taken hold of its fringe, but we have already seen enough to prove that the power of Christianity needs only to be faithfully applied by an adequate missionary force, and China, like all the world besides, must yield to the gospel.
(2) As for the barbarian idolatries of to-day, we have evidence all the world over how surely and swiftly they are vanquished by the word of Christ. The negro race has already largely yielded to the truth. New Zealanders and American Indians, Fijian and Burmese have accepted the faith of Jesus. Everywhere the like result must follow.
II. In the past successes of Christianity we have a pledge of the triumph of free and pure Christian faith over Popish tyranny and corruption.
I. Popery proper, the special creation of the Roman Ecclesiastical Court and Empire, is a priestly growth and usurpation. It is a selfish corruption--and throughout there has been a struggling protest against it. There has been a lay mind in continual revolt, and many even among the priesthood abhor the yoke by which they are bound. The pretensions of the Papacy are doubtless as arrogant and as blasphemous as ever. But this is perfectly consistent with the real weakening of the Roman power. Pius IX could not enact the part of a Hildebrand, though he did summon a so-called OEcumenical Council. He could claim for himself infallibility, but he could not set his foot upon the neck of princes nor cast an interdict over an empire. He could not even prevent his holy city from being wrested from his hands and made the capital of a free kingdom. The Pope is no longer the great Potentate of the world.
2. The effect of the Vatican Council has been to produce alienation in the minds of the noblest among those who felt the spell and attraction of a Church so ancient, so vast, and in many respects so grand in its memories and its achievements.
3. Immense was the power of the Papacy, forty years ago, over every Catholic country of Europe. Now there is scarcely one land in which religion is not, at least professedly, free, and the gospel of Christ in its purity is not more or less preached.
4. Now if the Christianity of the fourth century prevailed to subdue the Imperial heathenism of Rome, much more shall the purer, more powerful, and better organised evangelical Christian life and truth of to-day prevail over this Papal heathenism. What is needed is that the truth and the falsehood should be distinctly defined and discriminated, that the gospel should be known as gospel, and the heathen superstition discerned as heathen superstition. If we cannot yet say that “Babylon is fallen”--though assuredly some of its grandest towers have been overthrown never to be restored--we may at least be confident that the politico-ecclesiastic power of Rome is now at an end, and that she can no longer, as in the past, cause the nations to drink of the mingled cup of her abominations.
III. The past victories of Christianity over heathen and sceptical philosophy are the pledge of its future triumphs. It is often said that science is the great enemy of faith. But science, as such, has nothing to say as to the contents of Revelation or the articles of our faith. Its proper sphere lies wholly apart. Some of the profoundest men of science have found no incompatibility whatever between their science and the faith of a Christian. It remains, accordingly, that the sources of scepticism must be in what are called philosophical doubts or in historical criticism.
1. Whether Atheistic or Pantheistic in its form, Philosophical Scepticism can never extensively prevail. It has many times striven to assert itself against the Christian faith, but always only to be defeated. Of old the philosophy of Epicurus and his school was overborne by the living witness of Christianity. The philosophers, whether Stein or Platonic, could not arrest the triumphant progress of St. Paul. The Pantheistical Neo-Platonism of Alexandria did its utmost to oppose the power of Christianity, but in the end was entirely overthrown. In modern times Hume found his subtlety vain against the rising tide of evangelical faith and power. The infidelity of France was rebuked and put to shame by the horrors of the French Revolution, so manifestly the fruit of French infidelity. And to-day what is the weight, the force, of speculative philosophy in comparison of the living powers and forces of Christianity, which were never so mighty as they are at this present time?
2. As to historical criticism, the essential arguments on behalf of Christianity to-day are the same as those which triumphed in the last century. The forms of objection are, doubtless, varied, and the details differ, but the nature of them is essentially the same, and the answer is essentially the same. The victory won in the last century will not be lost in this. And to-day the vaunting foes of Christianity are boldly met, and the battle is turned to the gate. Never was there so goodly a company of Christian believers gathered from every rank of life, and including not only men of ordinary capacity and of average character and influence, but the highest intellects and the most influential personalities in the land. (J. H. Rigg, D.D.)
Good news for loyal subjects
“Must” is for the king; and concerning King Jesus there is a Divine necessity that He must reign. He was once the King of misery--in that kingdom He reigned supreme. That thorn-crown is pre-eminent in the sorrows which it signifies. To-day He is the King of glory, enthroned far above all principalities and powers. He must reign because He is God. “The Lord reigneth” must ever stand a truth. He must reign as man; for the Lord has made a covenant with David that of his seed there should sit upon the throne of Israel for ever a King to rule in righteousness, and Jesus of Nazareth is that King. He must reign also as the Mediator. At this time the sovereignty of the world is committed to His keeping, the headship of His Church, the government of providence, the ruling of heaven, and earth, and hell, as the mediatorial monarch.
I. What are thy reasons for this “must”? The lamb as seen by John had seven horns of power, and here are seven reasons why he should possess the throne for ever.
1. His empire in itself is such as to ensure perpetuity. There have been many empires of which men said that if they were overthrown, the very pillars of the earth would be removed; yet in due time they were swept away. Christ must reign because--
(1) His reign over the human mind is based upon truth. At one time Plato reigned supreme over thoughtful minds; then Aristotle; but another philosophy supplanted him, to be in its turn subverted by the next. Things which were accounted sure and wise are now ridiculed. And why? Because these systems of philosophy and thought have not been based upon truth. But the truth which Jesus taught, reads as if it were delivered but yesterday. Christianity is as suitable to the nineteenth century as to the first.
(2) His dominion over human hearts is based upon love. Napoleon said at St. Helena:--“My empire has passed away. I founded it upon the sword, and it is gone. Jesus Christ established an empire upon love, and it will last for ever.” His person is the incarnation of love, His teachings are the doctrines of love, His precepts are the rule of love, His Spirit is the creator of love, His whole religion is saturated with love, and because of this His kingdom cannot be moved.
(3) It is the one great remedy which this sad woe-begone world requires. The world is like the troubled sea that cannot rest, and there is but one foot which can tread its waves, and but one voice which can say, “Peace, be still.” Jesus is the true liberator of captive nations. The agonising groans of earth demand the sovereignty of Jesus, and therefore we believe that He must reign, for God will yet give His creature what it needs. His Father decrees it. Up till now God has maintained the throne of His Son. Read Psalms 2:1-12 and see.
3. Divine justice demands it. The Father promised that He should be a leader and a commander of the people, and determined as the result of His humiliation that He should mount to a superior throne as the Son of man and the Son of God. Shall God belie His word?
4. It is inwrought into the order of providence. A few months ago the trees were bare; but it was in the order of providence that there should be a spring, and here it is. We cannot say that in any one day it seemed to make any great advance. Even when the days lengthened we saw no great progress, but, surely and steadily the veins of the trees were filled with sap and the buds first swelled and then revealed their glories. So Christ’s reigning is woven into the warp and woof of providence, and though He has not yet drawn all men unto Him, it is coming.
5. The Holy Spirit has been given to the Church to subserve this glorious end. He can soften the most obdurate, He can turn to kindness the most cruel, and lead into light the most darkened. Now, the possession of the Holy Spirit is the Church’s treasury. Here is her battleaxe, and here are her weapons of war. You who preach Christ, or teach Him in the school, do not become discouraged under difficulties, when you recollect that you are workers together with God.
6. Christ is naturally the chief of the human race. “He is the chief among ten thousand and the altogether lovely.” There is none to rival Him.
7. The power to reign belongs to Him. “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” “Go ye, therefore,” saith He, “and teach all nations.” Jesus Christ is no puny pretender to the throne, nor a rightful owner without power to win His own, but as His cause is good, His arm is strong. Ours is no desperate warfare, but a royal crusade, in which every soldier is even now a priest and a king, and is on the way to the banquetting-halls where men feast with God, and Jesus for ever and ever wears the fadeless diadem.
II. The encouragement to be gathered from this “must.” If Christ must reign, then--
1. All our enemies shall be subdued,
(1) Now, you are called to fight daily with sin, and here is your consolation, Jesus must reign. The Christ in you must bruise Satan under your feet. He shall put His foot on the neck of my pride, and shall command my every thought and wish. Where I cannot rule, Jesus can. Jesus has made us kings and priests that we may reign over the triple monarchy of our nature--spirit, soul, and body, and that, by our self-conquest, He may be undisputed sovereign of the Isle of Man. Corruption is very strong, but Christ is stronger.
(2) When the last enemy appears in view, it shall only be an opportunity for new triumphs, when the Lord of life shall reveal Himself with renewed splendour.
2. Our efforts are, after all, not in vain. If Christ must reign, then every soldier who fights for Christ is contributing to the victory, and every one who in any way advances the cause is working with sure and great results.
3. What becomes of us is of no consequence at all. If He will only take me into the royal galley, and let me pull till I have no more life left, I will be satisfied, if I may but row my Lord towards His throne, and have but the smallest share in making Him glorious in the eyes of men and angels. What cares my heart for herself if she may but see Jesus set on high? How this ought to inspirit all of you who grow downhearted about the cause of Christ! Do you not believe in the gospel as the power of God?
III. An admonition.
1. “Jesus must reign.” You have been opposing Him, have you? You are kicking against the pricks with naked feet: you are stumbling upon this stone, and you will be broken; and if the stone shall take to rolling down, like a massive rock, on you, it will grind you to powder.
2. If Jesus Christ must reign, then you who have never submitted yourselves to Him to accept Him as your monarch, will find His reign as terrible as it is sure. He will reign over you, either by your own consent or without it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)