The kingly office of Christ is corrupted first by the privatizing impulse that confines His reign to the individual heart and the gathered church, while denying His public and universal claim. On this view Jesus may be Lord of one’s private devotions, but the nations, the magistrate, the marketplace, and the public square belong to a neutral, secular sphere over which He makes no claim. But Scripture knows no such partition: the Father has put all things under His feet, made Him head over all, and decreed that every knee shall bow; He is King of kings and Lord of lords, and there is not one square inch of the creation over which the risen Christ does not cry, ‘Mine.’ To shrink His crown rights to the private heart is to dethrone the King in the very realm He claims.

The opposite corruption advances Christ’s kingdom by the world’s carnal weapons—mistaking His reign for a political program to be imposed by force, manipulation, or the sword, as though the gospel triumphed by coercion rather than by the Spirit and the Word. Christ’s kingdom is not of this world in its origin and means: His servants do not fight as the world fights, and His scepter is the gospel preached, not the sword wielded. Yet—and here the two errors must both be answered—though His weapons are spiritual, His claim is total; He advances a kingdom that lays hold of all the world, discipling the nations and bringing every thought captive, not by violence but by the irresistible advance of His Word and Spirit. The faithful response is glad submission to the King: to obey His commands, trust His government even in dark providences, advance His kingdom by gospel means, and long for the day when He has put all enemies under His feet.