Messiah - King of Kings

Tonight, I enjoyed a sing-along performance of Handel's Messiah. I've blogged about the Messiah a handful of times, but apparently, so far, I've only ever blogged about one song from the Messiah, "All We, Like Sheep, Have Gone Astray." Another few times, I've blogged about the hymn "Rejoice, the Lord is King," which has a message similar to "Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth," but for the most part, I haven't really gone into the lyrics of the hymns in the Messiah and the messages we can learn from them. I plan to correct that starting tonight.

Part of the Hallelujah chorus describes God as "King of Kings and Lord of Lords." We've probably all heard that title of God, but it was only recently that I thought about what that title implies. We acknowledge God as our King, but this title implies that the beings over which He is King is or will be, or at least can become, kings themselves.

This is an allusion to one of my favorite principles of the Gospel: the principle of Eternal Progression. Eternal Progression, as I'm sure I've blogged about before, means at least two things. It means that we can continue progressing forever, and that eternal progression means that our potential is literally limitless. We can ultimately become as wise, as powerful, and as great as God is. We can become Kings.

Yet, even when we become Kings, God will still be our King. Another part of the Hallelujah chorus, which I may blog about later, says that "He shall reign forever and ever," even when we become Kings ourselves. One thing about Eternal Progression that some people don't get is that our progress doesn't cheapen God's. Some say that the idea that we can become as great as God is sacrilegious, because we could never be as great as God is, but they're only half right. We can become as great as God is now, but we will never become equal with God because He has Eternal Progression, too.

In fact, I believe that our advancement increases God's glory. Perhaps an analogy would help me explain that view. Imagine a balloon with infinite elasticity. It can hold as much air as you can pump into it, and it can grow as large as the universe itself. Pump some air into that balloon so that it grows only slightly larger than a balloon usually gets. This represents the progress God has made up to this point. Now put an uninflated balloon inside the first. This represents us. Pump some air into the second balloon. As the second balloon inflates, it pushes more and more against the air already inside the first balloon, making it grow even larger. The larger the second balloon grows, the larger the first balloon grows, and the size of the second balloon will never exceed that of the first.

Thus, as we increase in glory, God's glory also increases. Our greatness doesn't diminish God's greatness; it improves it. No matter how Godlike we become, God will always be more Godlike, because God will always be a God to us. God is already, and will always be, our King. He will only become more Kingly as His subjects become Kings as well.