In view of recent events on our political stage, there is an urgent need to recover the affirmation that Christ is king. He is the king to whom our allegiance ought to be uncompromising. Our allegiance must never be divided. The Scriptures nowhere teach that Christ has a vicegerent whom he deputizes to rule in his stead, not even a strong leader among our fellow citizens in these United States, neither Republican nor Democrat, not now, not ever. Most Christians in America today will agree with this in theory, but it is not always clear that they agree with it in practice, especially in recent years.  
What accounts for this tendency to give our allegiance to a mere human being, a political leader, a tendency that for each generation is an ever-present danger? In short, it is unbelief. This takes a subtle form. Author Paul F. Zahl points out that it is natural for us, especially in a culture that has been influenced by Christianity, to settle for a sort of “Christianity-as-great-idea” view of religion: Jesus as the teacher, Jesus as the law-giver, Jesus as the way-shower. These are ideas with which we all grew up, especially if our parents brought us up in church. We can admire Christ and be moved by his example in word and deed, but still be on the outside of anything objectively real with respect to him.   
This is a dangerous place to be. It happens when people regard Christ as no more than a set of ideas. But here’s where the danger lies. Ideas are transferrable. One person, as well as the next, can embody them. If this is the case, then the next person in effect replaces his predecessor. The people then turn to him to guard and keep them and their way of life. They invest their hopes in him. But at what point does this political leader morph from the embodiment of the Christ idea into the Christ figure? At that point, there is idol worship.  
In this connection, author Matthew W. Bates invites us to consider the following. We are created in the image of God. As such, we have been made to reflect God’s glory. But the glory that this image is meant to irradiate has been distorted by the fall. As a result, we, along with the rest of creation, fail to experience God’s glory in creation through his image-bearers as God originally intended it, and the creation falls into corruption. To persist in our expectation that a mere fallen human being can mediate God’s glory is to deny this fundamental truth. “For all have sinned and lack the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). And this denial does real damage to us. We need look no further than the stories of murder, sexual degradation, violence, and hubris in Genesis 4–11 or Romans 1 (or the news on TV or the Internet) to see what happens to us and to creation when we fail in our vocation as God’s image-bearers.  
The good news is that in the incarnation, the Son of God comes to us as true man. In his humanity he fully images God. He flawlessly reflects the glory of God. And in his humanity he has been exalted as king to God’s right hand. We affirm this implicitly whenever we acknowledge Jesus as the “Christ.”   
There is more. The Apostle Paul tells us that as we behold his glory, we are being transformed into the same image (2 Cor. 3:18). In him, God is setting us free to be truly human as we are increasingly conformed to the image of the Son, the one who fully images God. Indeed, the whole creation longingly awaits this transformation (Rom. 8:19): for it is with the freedom of the glory of the children of God that the creation will, at last, be released from its bondage to corruption (Rom. 8:21).  
Jesus is the king, and he will share his power with no earthly ruler. He is the only one who will ultimately satisfy our hopes and aspirations. He is the only one who has the power to establish the peace and prosperity that is the legitimate longing of every human heart in this fallen world. When times are chaotic, when our institutions break down, and there is profound civil unrest everywhere, we long for a strong leader to restore order and to heal our divisions. By all means, let us work for the common good with our elected leaders, whomever they are, avoiding divisive partisanship, wherever we can. But let us not give our ultimate allegiance to them. They can’t save us. Let us instead pledge our loyalty to the crucified, resurrected, and ascended Jesus, the king of kings and Lord of lords. Let us find our courage in him in unstable times. He is the wise and benevolent king. He is faithful to watch over us and provide for us. He is seated on a throne that cannot be shaken. In him, we and the entire creation will be renewed.  

Pastor Chris