“You can’t tell the Christmas story without including the visit of the wise men. They have always been favorites of mine for some reason. Every year, I would try to land the part of playing one of them in the church Christmas program and one of the first carols I learned was, We Three Kings.
Jesus came as the Savior of the world. We know that He will come again as King of Kings. To those of us who are believers in Him, this time of year is a wonderful celebration of the birth of our Savior. Between now and Easter we will think about His life, ministry, death and, of course, His resurrection. Our Savior and our salvation are real and that is a cause of great joy for us, is it not?
I am afraid, though, that many Christians do not celebrate Him as our king. We often think of His sovereignty in an abstract sense, some foggy concept of a future kingdom here on earth where He will rule the nations with a rod of iron.
And yet according to Philippians 2, God has already rewarded His obedience with a name that is above every name. Romans 8:9-10 states that we must believe in the “Lord Jesus Christ” in order to be saved. He is Lord and King right now. We cannot divorce His identity as Savior from His identity as King.
There are some who want Him to be the Lord over certain parts of their lives. They want His lordship to reign over their illnesses, their needs, their weaknesses and their negative circumstances, but they are not willing to submit their strengths, their abundances and their good times to Him.
The wise men came to Jesus on His terms as God had called them. They worshipped Him as He was, for Who He was. Whether or not they understood the full reason for His coming is unclear, but one thing is for sure, these men knew royalty when they saw it, and in the Christ child, they saw their King.
I hope that each of us will celebrate Him as Savior during this season but may that celebration continue throughout the whole year as we live our lives in submission to the commands of our King.”