Are You Walking or Riding?
1
Are You Walking or Riding?
Imagine what it would be like to feature an interview with King Solomon on a TV news show. He was “wiser than any other man” (1 Kings 4:31), the composer of more than a thousand songs, and author of three thousand proverbs. (Imagine the books and CDs he could sell!) He could intelligently discuss trees, animals, birds, insects, and fish, and he was no ignoramus when it came to buildings, horses, money, or (sad to say) idolatrous women. He was a keen observer of the world around him and was able to draw wisdom from events that would appear insignificant to other people.
One day he looked out his window and saw some travelers going by, some walking and some riding horses. He wrote in his journal: “There is an evil I have seen under the sun, the sort of error that arises from a ruler: Fools are put in many high positions, while the rich occupy the low ones. I have seen slaves on horseback, while princes go on foot like slaves” (Ecclesiastes 10:5–7).
Princes are supposed to ride on horses, and their slaves are supposed to walk beside them. But Solomon saw the situation reversed: Those who were supposed to serve were ruling, and those who were supposed to rule were serving. The world was topsy- turvy—and it still is today.
Take, for example, the marvelous machine we call the human body. God made it to be the servant of the spirit, but in the lives of many people it is the master. The appetites ride on horseback while the spirit trudges along on foot. The same reversal exists when it comes to money and material things. God gave them to be our servants, but somehow they have become our masters.
In other words, too many people are walking when they should be riding. Too many people are acting like servants when in fact they are princes, heirs of the King.
God created us to rule as His heirs, and everything else is to be our servant. The fact that we are created in the image of God is proof enough of this statement. But God’s words to the first man and woman make our rulership even more exciting: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground’ ”(Genesis 1:28). “Rule over” means “live like a king!” Our first parents were not simply tenants in Paradise; they were the rulers.
“If God created us to be His heirs and live like kings,” you may be asking at this point, “then what happened?” Humans certainly don’t have dominion over the fish and fowl and animals today. For that matter, they don’t even have dominion over themselves.”
Good question. What did happen so that people stopped living like kings and started living like servants? When did they get off their horses and start walking? When they disobeyed God. When Adam and Eve deliberately disobeyed God’s commandment, they went from sovereigns to sinners to servants. They lost their crowns. They got off the horse and started walking, and they became the servants instead of the rulers. And every child of Adam (and that means each one of us) is born a slave.
Can we do anything to change the situation? Yes. For just as God the Father created us, His heirs, to be kings, God the Son redeemed us to be kings. In His death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus Christ undid all that Adam’s sin accomplished—and much more. The dominion that was lost through Adam’s disobedience has been regained through Christ’s obedience, and there is no longer any need for you and me to be walking like slaves. Romans 5:17 puts it beautifully: “For if, by the trespass of the one man [Adam], death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.”
Note those key words: They will “reign in life.” Who will reign in life? Those who have received God’s free gift of grace and righteousness in Jesus Christ. And it does not say reign in death or reign in future kingdom. It says reign in life. That means we may live like an heir of the King right here and now.
In my ministry I have met many slaves who have become kings by yielding themselves to Jesus Christ. I remember Harry, who, with his wife, stopped at the church study one Friday afternoon. He was a church member, but he was also an alcoholic. Nobody knew it except Harry and his wife and a few close drinking pals. This had been going on for years. Harry would work hard at his job all week and never touch a drop. Then Friday night would arrive, and he would take off for the tavern. He would be “under the influence” all that night and all day Saturday and would sober up in time to be in Sunday school Sunday morning.
“I’m sick of it,” he told me. “Tell me what to do.”
I told him what to do. “Harry, you’ve got to turn yourself over to Jesus Christ and let Him be the Lord of your life.”
He did it, and the change was immediate. He got back on the horse and started living like a king. And not only that, but he devoted himself to helping others find their true kingship in Jesus Christ. Whenever people having problems with alcohol called on me, I always sent them to Harry, because he could help them better than I could. The last I heard, Harry was still riding on the horse, and his body was his servant instead of his master.
God the Father created you to be a king, God the Son redeemed you to be a king, and God the Spirit can empower you to be a king. We reign in life through the power of the Spirit of God. “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20). If left to ourselves, we fail; but if we yield to the indwelling Holy Spirit, we succeed. He alone can empower us to live like kings.
The question you must answer is, Am I walking or riding? Or, to put it another way, Am I serving my servants, or are they serving me? Are you ruling over the appetites of the body? Are you in control of money and material things? (Money is a wonderful servant but a terrible master.) Are you reigning in life?
You can.
This is what the Beatitudes are all about. They explain how you can reign in life and live like an heir of the King. Most people think of the Beatitudes as a collection of idealistic sayings—beautiful to read but impossible to practice. How wrong they are! In fact, the entire Sermon on the Mount is a glorious explanation of what life is really like when you reign through the power of the Holy Spirit. Dr. G. Campbell Morgan called the Sermon on the Mount “The Manifesto of the King,” and that is just what it is. Jesus Christ the King is telling us how to live like kings. He is explaining how to reign over such servants as ego, so that you practice humility and not pride; power, so that you build up and do not destroy; appetite, so that you crave purity and not sin. The Beatitudes tell you how to get back in the saddle so that you are riding like a king and not trudging like a slave.
Believe me, you can live like a king, provided you know Jesus Christ as your Savior and completely yield to Him. We “reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17). Jesus Christ is the only king that God will recognize. Jesus was born a king: “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:2). He lived as a king in spite of the opposition of wicked people and Satan himself.
Since Adam, Jesus Christ is the only man to walk this earth and exercise the kind of dominion that God originally gave us when He created us. For example, Jesus had dominion over the fish of the sea. He gave Peter a great catch of fish when it seemed impossible to catch anything (Luke 5:1–11); He even brought one fish to Peter’s hook when the apostle had to pay his temple tax (Matthew 17:24–27). Jesus also had dominion over the fowl of the air. He kept every bird in Jerusalem quiet until the cock was supposed to crow, announcing Peter’s denial of Christ. Jesus even had dominion over the beasts of the field. During His temptation, He was in the wilderness “with the wild animals” (Mark 1:13). And He rode into Jerusalem on a colt “which no one [had] ever ridden” (Mark 11:2). Jesus Christ is the last Adam, exercising the dominion lost by the disobedience of the first Adam, and He wants to share that dominion with you and me.
Jesus Christ was born a king, He lived as a king, and He died as a king. True, the only crown He wore was a mocking crown of thorns. And His only throne was a cross bearing the inscription, “This is the King of the Jews.” To human eyes, His crucifixion seemed like defeat, but to the King it meant victory. His supreme act of sovereignty was laying down His life for the sins of the world. He was not murdered; He willingly gave His life as your substitute and mine. Never was His kingship more evident than in Gethsemane and at Golgotha, where He “became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:8). The greatest test of our kingship is how we use our authority. Jesus used His authority to save others, even though it meant He could not save Himself.
Today Jesus Christ reigns as king, for God “raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all” (Ephesians 1:20–21). “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet”(1 Corinthians 15:25).
The tragedy is that too many people echo that rebellious cry of centuries ago: “We don’t want this man to be our king” (Luke 19:14). This rebellion is the explanation for the problems in our world today: People believe they are free when in reality they are slaves. “The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. ‘Let us break their chains,’ they say, ‘and throw off their fetters.’ ” (Psalm 2:2–3). But in rejecting Christ and refusing to submit to God’s Word, people are only forfeiting their own kingship. We reign in life by submitting to the authority of God.
George Matheson expressed it perfectly:
My will is not my own
Till Thou hast made it Thine;
If it would reach the monarch’s throne,
It must its crown resign.
God the Father created you to be a king, and you cannot enjoy the fulfillment of your life until you experience this kingship through Jesus Christ. God the Son redeemed you to be a king, but you cannot reign in life until He is your Savior and Lord. God the Spirit can enable you to live like a king, but His power is limited until you yield your all to Him. Your kingship depends on your relationship to God, and your relationship to God depends on the decision of your own will.
“I have seen slaves on horseback, while princes go on foot like slaves.”
As a prince, an heir of the King, you were meant to live like a king.
Are you walking or riding?