“Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, ‘Are You the King of the Jews?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?’ Pilate answered, ‘Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?’ Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.’ Pilate therefore said to Him, ‘Are You a king then?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.’ Pilate said to Him, ‘What is truth?’ And when he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, ‘I find no fault in Him at all.’” John 18:33-38
Jesus was charged and put to death under the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, as being “the King of the Jews.” This was the charge brought by the Jewish leaders, and this was the inscription on His cross. But was Jesus “the King of the Jews”?
Pontius Pilate asked Jesus that very question (v. 33), but Jesus’ answer to being a king and having a kingdom revealed a wholly different type of kingship and kingdom: “Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.’ Pilate therefore said to Him, ‘Are You a king then?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice’” (John 18:36-37).
Jesus’ kingdom is not a worldly kingdom; it is a spiritual kingdom, the kingdom described in Daniel’s interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream regarding the kingdoms of this world being supplanted by a coming heavenly kingdom, recorded in Daniel 2:44: “And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.”
The establishment of this kingdom and Jesus’ rule over the subjects of this kingdom will not be by earthly weapons and power. Instead, it will be through the preaching of the truth revealed in God’s Word. Those who are of the truth — who by the grace of God are chosen out of this world — will hear Jesus’ voice and believe the truth (cf. v. 37; John 8:31-32; Eph. 1:3-14; 2 Thess. 2:13-14; 1 John 1:5–2:2). They will believe the Word of God which tells them of their utter sinfulness and guilt before God; and they will believe that through faith in Jesus — who is “the way, the truth, and the life” and the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world — they have forgiveness for all their sins and life everlasting (John 14:6; cf. John 1:29; 1 John 2:2).
The world cannot now see or understand this kingdom or Jesus’ kingship, but those who are born again from above — born not of the flesh but of water and the Spirit, those who trust in Christ Jesus as their Savior and Lord and are baptized in His name, becoming partakers of the new covenant of mercy and forgiveness established through the shedding of Jesus’ holy and precious blood — are a part of this everlasting kingdom and have an eternal inheritance awaiting them in heaven (cf. John 3:3ff.; Gal. 3:26-29; Eph. 2:19-22; 1 Pet. 1:3ff.).
O Dearest Jesus, our Savior and King, grant that we hear and believe the truth, trusting in You for our salvation and submitting to Your rule over us through Your holy Word. Amen.
[Scripture is taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.]