Mediatorial Kingdom

Pastor Martin opens a new series within Here We Stand on the kingly office of Christ. He establishes the biblical concept of a king as one who possesses a real throne, wields a real scepter, and rules a real kingdom with absolute, unrivaled authority, and distinguishes Christ's eternal essential kingship as the second person of the Godhead from the mediatorial kingship He receives as the God-man Redeemer. Tracing the artist's brush strokes from Genesis 3:15 through Genesis 49 and Numbers 24, he begins to show how the Old Testament progressively reveals that the promised Redeemer must come as a true conquering king from the tribe of Judah.

Returning after illness and a trip to New Zealand, Pastor Martin expounds 1 Corinthians 15:20-28, focusing on verses 25-26: 'For he must reign till he hath put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be abolished is death.' After tracing Paul's argument that the bodily resurrection of Christ is the pledge and pattern of the believer's resurrection, he draws two pivotal assertions from the text: Christ is presently reigning as the King of grace (not merely a coming King), and the primary concern of His kingship is the salvation of His people. He closes with four consequences of denying Christ's present reign, and a caution against over-realized forms that would impose His kingship by carnal weapons.