Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. ~Psalm 2:10-12
Warriors fight from a position of love and unto love; a greater and Authentic Love. Their very bodies often bear the scars of their combat and endeavor. These unfading marks testify that they have intimately known and displayed the eternal truth of “No greater love is there than this, that a man would lay down his life for his friends” [John 15:13]. They have not loved their own lives so much as they were afraid to lose it [Rev. 12:11] and were not of those who shrink back from the rigors of the fight [Heb. 10:36]. They signify a willingness to be undone, utterly undone, for those to whom their hearts beat; nothing withheld.
This is the authentication of a Warrior; the authentication of love. It is rooted in the truism that love will always manifest itself in the degree to which it is willing to sacrifice towards the object of its love; be it a spouse, child, brother, friend, stranger, a nation or ideal, or even an enemy.
{Think on this}
Christ Jesus, the True and Better Warrior King: He is the manifestation of Love Itself. The King of all kings and the Lord over all lords {Who is Spirit, mind you} has chosen to dwell in bodily form, in incorruptible flesh, throughout all of eternity. Astonishingly, and in a cosmically-radical attestation of the afflictions of the Combat, He too has chosen to carry on His glorified body the very scars of combat; scars which stand as a symbol immovable of the Battle fought and the War won [John 20:20]. They are the validation of the love-compulsed foundations of His Campaign. They are the declaration of the degree of His sacrifice.
Who is this King we serve and love? How incomprehensible is the majesty of His endeavor?
It was, and continues to be, a very high-stakes Campaign. The very War of the Ages; a full-on offensive action against the Axis of Evil in this present generation and all that have preceded it (Col 1:13-14, John 10:9-11, Eph 6:12-13, 1 Peter 2:9, 2 Cor 10:3-4). It is a Theater of Operation that begins with a warring Insurgent Force [Gen. 1:1, Gen. 3:15] and ends with a warring Insurgent Force [Rev 19:11-21].
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. ~1 John 3:8b
However, the greater marvel is that of the War that has been won; a costly war for the freedom of humanity. It is the marvel of an Everlasting Peace Accord sealed in the blood of the King, which was secured forevermore that very day when the rock was rolled back; that day when Messiah ben David, the Conquering King, destroyed the Enemy and sat down once more at the right hand of the Father. It is the marvel of consummate victory forevermore
[1 Cor. 2:8, 1 Cor 15:55-56, Phil 2:8-10]!
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. ~Galatians 1:3-5
Jesus Christ, the True and Better Warrior: So inimitable is His love that He came with sword in hand [1 John 3:8, Matt 10:34-42]. So inimitable is His love that He charges into the fray, leading from the front in the “war to end all wars” [Rev 19:11, Rev 1:18]. So fierce is His countenance that He Himself treads the winepress of the wrath of God Almighty. He does not sit loftily on a distant hilltop commanding the Heaven’s Armies to carry out His will. No, our King is so fierce in countenance and so compelled by love that His very robe is dripping with blood from the intimacies of combat [Rev 19:11-21].
Jesus Christ, the True and Better Warrior: How radical, how wise, how majestic, how good! Rather than assuming a glorified form, free of the bearing costs of conquering Sin and Death, has chosen instead to brandish the scars for all eternity; the hallmarks of a Warrior. He has done this so that we do not have to; bearing scars so that we can be free of them [Isa. 53:5]! He has done this as an unfading, everlasting witness of the great cost of freedom; payment made in full through the ultimate sacrifice and therefore, an authentication of His love.
And so now for all eternity, we bow low. And as we kiss the hand of the King in reverent awe, our lips will forever feel the traumas of War. It is here, gazing into His eyes glistening with love, that our hearts will thus explode with songs of praise and adoration from everlasting to everlasting!
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. ~Romans 8:31-39
To this you have been enlisted, Beloved! We are within the ranks of a Kingdom that cannot be shaken [Heb. 12:28] and the Battle Flag unfurled amid throes of combat is Love [Songs 2:4]. May we ever be a people who makes much of the Son with scar-borne hands.
With Jesus Christ, the Warrior King, as our Perfect Example on which to fix our eyes, may we too make war against all Enemies without and the enemy of our very flesh within. And may we with humble hearts, worshipful, and tenacious hearts, get in the fight on behalf of the ones we love, and the One we love!
"KNEEL, AND KISS THE SON"
And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. ~ Revelation 12:11