“I’m an atheist; what does the Kingship of Christ mean?” an acquaintance asked recently. “Is he signing treaties? Declaring war? Marrying off his daughter for diplomatic negotiations?”

At first I chuckled…until I realized she was serious.

How to answer? Christians toss the phrase around so much, it’s difficult to realize many people have no idea what it means. I tried to keep my answer brief; all the earth is Jesus Christ’s and one day every knee will bow and confess Him as King of King and Lord of Lords.

I also mentioned that God gave us free will to follow our own way or Christ’s. This makes the Kingship of Jesus a simple concept, but not easy.

My family attends an Anglican church. Good portions of the service are spent kneeling in the pews — a tradition my core strength is still getting used to. As my physical body builds strength to sustain the posture in worship, my spiritual core must also get used to bending the knee before my Savior and King. And it’s much easier to kneel through the “Canon of the Mass” than it is to continually say “not my will, but Thine” when my way looks so, so much more enjoyable than submission and obedience to Christ.

But that obedience is the beginning of letting God use me to be a light in the darkness, to reach those who have never heard His name. I pray that God will take my very insufficient explanation and my very imperfect obedience, to reach my atheist friend so that one day she and I may kneel together before His throne and proclaim him Lord — and King! — of all.

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This post was originally written and published for the St. Barnabas Journal, October 2025.

Painting of Christ in Majesty from the Ghent Altarpiece by Hubert and Jan van Eyck (AD 1427)