Fulfilled

It's not so easy to just say that Jesus, the Lion of Judah, laid down the kingship with His life. That He undid what kingship had done to the covenant and restored us to direct relationship with God. Because what is equally true is that even as He did all that, He did something else: 

He perfectly fulfilled the kingship.

If you'll remember from yesterday, this whole idea of kingship in Israel was a game-changer. In the cultures surrounding the Israelites, kingship was a divine appointment. It was the king's responsibility to be a conduit for the gods to the people. The king stood between the world and the heavens and facilitated the dialogue between the people and their gods, and between the gods and their people. When Israel asked for a king, they weren't just taking on a political structure; it changed the very nature of the covenant they shared with God. They were asking for someone to stand in the middle.

And, of course, God promised a King. He promised the King of Kings. He promised one final King for all time who would be the leader of the people. So when we say that Jesus laid down this kingship and restored God and man to the original covenant, that's only part of the story. We miss that He also fulfilled this kingship.

Jesus came and did what a king was supposed to do. He stood in the gap between the heavens and the earth. He became a conduit for what God was doing among His people. He brought God's favor to the people, and the people's atonement to God. He connected the people anew to their God, and connected God anew to His people. He was a King in every sense of the word, even if His royal throne looked more like a Roman cross and His palace, more like a tomb. 

It was only because of this, because He was a king at all, that He could lay the kingship down. So yes, Jesus removed the barriers between man and God. He restored the covenant relationship to its original intent - God directly with His people. 

But only because He first fulfilled it.