Most Christians would answer the question: “Is Christ Our King?” with a resounding Yes, but most biblically studied grace believers would respond with an emphatic “no,” for Christ is our “head.”

You see, the grace believer knows that the people of Israel lived in an earthly kingdom (I Sam. 24:20), and they know that the Lord who was born “King of the Jews” (Matt. 2:2) will one-day rule over Israel and all the kingdoms of the earth in the coming ‘kingdom of (from) heaven on earth.’

The studied grace believer rightly reasons that a ‘kingdom’ is ruled by a ‘king’ … but that the Christ-indwelled believers today are members of “the church, the Body of Christ” (I Cor. 12:13, 27). Unlike an earthly kingdom’s king, a body is ruled by its ‘head.’ Every function of the physical body follows the inner instructions that flow from the brain in the “head.” Today Christ is the head of His “body,” and we are His body members in particular.  

“Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” (1 Corinthians 12:27 (KJV)

Since Christ is our “Head” (Eph. 4:15), it’s easy then to see why we can say He is not our King. We have a more intimate relationship with Him… we actually share the One “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” with Him (Rom. 8:2a, 1Cor 6:17). And, the one main characteristic of the nature of the “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” is His unconditional “love,” which is now ‘in us’; He desires to flow His love through us to others.

“But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: (Ephesians 4:15 (KJV)

I should, also, address this seeming contradiction. Paul tells us we are members of Christ’s “body,” but then he tells us that “the Father…hath translated us into the ‘kingdom’ of His dear Son” (Col. 1:12-13). Paul here is speaking of God’s overall kingdom over the heaven and the earth, which included the saved of all ages, and any kingdom, by definition, is governed by a king.

There are, of course, some dispensational differences to consider.

• Any earthly kingdom has to be governed by external written laws, so God gave Israel the law, a law that said that if your neighbor is hungry you should feed him (Deut. 15:8). In an earthly kingdom, you have to have laws that say things such as “thou shalt not kill,” and “thou shalt not steal,” so God gave the kingdom of Israel a law that said things like that.
• But, as a metaphor for His loving life in the members of “His body,” the workings of our physical bodies aren’t governed by external written laws, but rather a living, inner, law of life… which governs by love. When you sense your stomach is hungry, your head doesn’t need an external law to tell you to feed it. You sense it inwardly and feed it because “no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it” (Eph. 5:29).

Paul also says that laws like “thou shalt not kill” and “thou shalt not steal” are “briefly comprehended in this…Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself…” (Rom. 13:9-10). So, after telling the Romans and Galatians that we are “not under the (external) law but under grace,” Paul admonishes them, “by love serve one another” (Gal. 5:13). Under grace, we don’t kill or steal from one another because we love one another!

Now ask yourself, what would happen in the ‘kingdom of Chicago’ if the mayor announced that he was suspending all laws, and from now on everyone should just love one another? It wouldn’t take long for people to realize that love works well when it comes to governing a physical body… but an earthly kingdom needs external laws!