In recent articles I have explained how every believer is called to be a king – to exercise kingly authority and live from the abundant provision of God’s supply.
Paul said those who receive grace and righteousness will reign in life (Rom. 5:17). So the test of a king—your sword in the stone, if you like—is whether you have taken hold of the Lord’s righteousness. If you don’t receive it you won’t reign. You will toil like Adam and curse what God has blessed. Even though you are free in Christ, you won’t live free. You will bear the heavy yoke of manmade religion and become easy prey for the spirit of intimidation. You will come under the demonic control of others. Something like this happened in Peter’s life.
Dinner for schmucks
Peter had a revelation that Christ died for all people and not just the Jews. This revelation changed him. As he allowed the heart of Christ to be revealed in his own life, Peter began to accept Gentiles even to the point of eating with them.
However, when certain men from James came to Antioch, Peter drew back from the Gentiles in fear. He separated himself because he was unsure of his righteousness. “Am I right? Maybe I’m not. Those Judaizers look the business. They’ve got titles. They’ve got theology and a list of scriptures explaining why I am wrong. I had better listen to them.” Instead of standing up for the Gentiles like a king, Peter stood with the critics like a schmuck and Paul rebuked him for it (see Gal. 2:11–13).
The strange thing about Peter’s behavior is that he should have known better. God accepts people from every nation and Peter knew this. God had given him a dramatic rooftop vision featuring animals and sheets that somehow made everything clear (see Acts 10:9–28).
But when push came to shove, Peter abdicated his kingly role and took himself out of the game. He feared those of the circumcision group because they were more confident of their self-righteousness than he was of his righteousness in Christ Jesus.
The source of our confidence
Kings are confident and that confidence comes from knowing you are righteous with the righteousness that comes from God. When you know that God has made you righteous and that he loves you, accepts you, and is well pleased with you, it changes everything. You no longer hang back on the fringes of the kingdom like a fraud and you no longer tolerate the grace-killing lies of religion. You begin to reign. You begin to walk and talk like a child of the Most High. You begin to live out your destiny.
You don’t need to go to King School to become a king. You just need to see yourself as your Father sees you. You need to receive in your heart what he has said, act on it, and leave the results to him.
The gospel declares that in him you are righteous (Php 3:9). As you walk in this revelation, your confidence will grow and you will start to exercise your kingly influence. You will pray less like a beggar and more like a commander. If someone in your family gets sick, something inside of you will respond, “Not on my watch.” You will rebuke the sickness and appropriate by faith the healing that Jesus paid for.
And after you have seen one or two get healed—after you have killed your lion and your bear—you will have the confidence to start gunning for the giants that terrorize your land.
Then you will be a king indeed.
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Extracted and adapted from The Gospel in Ten Words.
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