Christ the Excellent King Part 1
A Study of Christ through The Song of Solomon
I encourage you to read The Song of Solomon through two sets of lenses to see a clear and transparent
vision of the Christ that is our Bridegroom. To begin this study, I thought it only appropriate that we
look at how He is the excellent King. After all, getting excited over being the Bride has to come as a
result of excitement over that person who wants us! We must see how amazing and excellent this King
is, the One, who has chosen us among all others, to be His Bride.
WHY SHOULD WE GRASP THE EXCELLENCE OF CHRIST?
Jonathon Edwards explained why the true believer, the one who really wants to know this Christ, will
want to truly grasp His excellence. And remember, that Jesus is one with God and their names are
interchangeable:
“(It is) a true sense…of the excellency of God and Jesus Christ, and of the word of
redemption, and the ways and works of God revealed in the gospel. There is a divine and
superlative glory in these things, an excellency that is of a vastly higher kind and more sublime
nature than in other things, and a glory greatly distinguishing them from all that is earthly and
temporal. He that is spiritually enlightened truly apprehends and sees it, or has a sense of it. He
does not merely rationally believe that God (and Christ) are glorious, but he has a sense of the
gloriousness of them in his heart.”
It is this sense of the gloriousness of Christ that I want us to be able to grasp in this lesson. And we can
get a good sense of it in The Song of Solomon. The passages you read below point to His majesty and
glory. They give you the nature of His excellence in the way the Shulamite woman describes Him. As
you read them, understand and see the reference to Christ as the Bridegroom and His Church as the
Bride.
Psalm 45:7 says,
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.
That is very reminiscent of Psalm 110:1 where David says,
The Lord says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
If Jesus said He and God are the same, then Psalm 45 is talking about the King anointed by God, Jesus.
This psalm is very obviously a description of Jesus being anointed King over the earth by God and His
Church as His Bride. We have here a beautiful painting of the excellence of our eternal King.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND CHRIST’S EXCELLENCE?
Before we delve into this study on His excellence, we have to ask the question: Why is understanding
His excellence important? Why is it something we must understand in order to also accept and
appreciate His divine and unending love?
For this we’re going to have to go back to an analogy I used some time ago on how we were made, so
bear with me if you’ve heard this before.
Think about the things that bring us awe and incomparable joy. The moments in time when I am utterly
speechless with the magnitude of beauty and glory, are those moments outside of myself. I never look at
myself and feel that kind of awe. I feel it when I look at the Grand Canyon, the Rocky Mountains or the
ocean. Those are the moments I stand in sheer speechless awe at that kind of beauty.
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We were made to feel that outside of ourselves. And yet, we have come to believe we receive love when
others make much of us. We have come to think that we can only receive love or feel it when we’ve been
made much of.
Can you honestly say you feel the most love for your children when they give you things, or do you feel
it most when you give them things? Do you feel it when they make much of you or when you make
much of them? We feel it when we make much of them, don’t we?
That’s not an accident. God made us to truly feel love when we see majesty and beauty outside of
ourselves. That’s how He created us to feel and accept love. That’s why you feel like you do when you
look out at the Grand Canyon or the ocean or wherever. I like how John Piper puts it:
“Paradise won’t be a hall of mirrors. It will be a display of majesty.”
HOW DOES THIS EQUATE WITH THE LOVE OF JESUS?
Well, if this is true, and Jesus is the most majestic reality in the universe, then what do you think His love
for us will look like? Look with me at what Jesus said in John 17:24:
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you
have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Jesus said He wanted us with Him so we would “see His glory.” That means in order for us to be as
happy as we can be, we must see and savor the excellence and glory of Jesus Christ. In order to love us,
Jesus must seek the fullness of His glory and offer it to us for our enjoyment.
When we see this excellence, we can better appreciate how amazing it is that this glorious person has
chosen us as His Bride. We must understand Jesus’ excellence so that we can feel the love He has for us.
It’s how we were made.
IS JESUS DIVINE?
One more issue is prevalent today before we examine our Excellent King. That question concerns the
true divinity of Jesus Christ. Is Jesus divine?
This is an important matter to decide before we go any further. After all, how can you appreciate the
Excellence of our King if you don’t really believe He is a King? Even His disciples, by their own
admission, wrestled with His identity. It wasn’t until after the ascension and Pentecost that they began to
have no doubt about who Jesus was.
The discussion in any intellectual or philosophical, even some so-called Christian, communities about
the deity of Christ is enough to give anyone a headache. Some say Jesus was a fraud. Some academics
say Jesus was the first feminist or gay-rights activist or the beginning of whatever new thought is out
there. Twisting Jesus’ teaching to fit their paradigms is common. Some have even said Jesus a was the
founder of chauvinistic, anti-environmental and hopelessly patriarchal religious regime. Some will even
admit He was a “Divine Man” in some way, but they will argue ceaselessly He was and is somehow
“divine.”
What I find most disturbing, however, are the conversations among supposed Christian scholars on who
Christ was. Some report Jesus never actually claimed to be God. Seminary professors will sometimes
paint Jesus as a good and decent man or a great moral teacher, but certainly not deity.
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JESUS CAN’T BE JUST GOOD OR MORAL
I’m sure many of you have heard the answer to that argument as it was given by CS Lewis. Jesus, by
virtue of His own claims about Himself, cannot be classified as simply a good man. He is either our
Lord and Savior, or He is the worst kind of liar and charlatan. I mean, how can you say someone is
good and moral, if He claims to be God and is not? That would make Him a liar and a cheat. There is
no middle ground here; He’s God or He’s not. Plain and simple.
Why is there such a modern controversy over the deity of Christ? The answer is, aside from the
workings of Satan, the outworkings of the enlightenment and skepticism from something called
Kantian transcendentalism. These movements have put all of their focus on the inerrant man, stressing
he look inside himself and then search for answers in history. Most of this began in the late 18th
Century and even though most don’t realize their thought patterns stem from these periods, they
absolutely do.
2 REASONS PEOPLE CONCLUDE JESUS IS NOT GOD
There are probably best said to be two reasons or presuppositions made by people for coming to the
conclusions that Jesus is not God, He is not King, and therefore, He cannot be worshipped or viewed as
such.
1. Many of those with this new approach to the Gospels as they pertain to Christ feel the things
the Church teaches about Christ were put together at the Council of Chalcedon of 451 A.D.
They think these teachings were made up, as it were, by those in attendance at the Council, much
like they arbitrarily decided which books of the Bible would become canonized. These new
teachers actually think they are saving us from this misconception and enlightening us with the
truth.
As I’ve stated before, those men at the Council no more invented the Word any more than Newton
invented the law of gravity. They simply made official what was already true. This is the inspired Word
of God, thus also of Christ.
2. These new biblical critics are no longer using the Gospels as their primary sources for study.
They think these books cannot be trusted nor followed as the source of truth about Jesus.
Which, if you think about it, is ludicrous since He is the author! But, one must have that
knowledge as given by the Holy Spirit in order to understand and accept it. These “new
Christians” obviously don’t have it, which also means they shouldn’t be called Christians at all. In
fact, these critics say that we need to “get behind” or “get past” the Gospels so that we can have
a better understanding of who this historic Jesus really was.
Look in your Bible at 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. Pause for a moment and read those verses.
They do not understand and they do not know because did not reveal it to them. He has revealed it to
those of us who really believe. We know that Christ is King. He is Lord and He is Divine.
PASSAGES THAT LAY CLAIM TO CHRIST’S DEITY
Therefore, because we believe the Bible is the ultimate source of wisdom and knowledge, then we can’t
ignore the innumerable passages, which lay claim to Christ’s deity:
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means, “God with
us.” (Matthew 1:23)
And the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)
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For David did not ascend into the heavens. But he himself says, “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right
hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.” (Acts 2:34)
For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule
and authority. (Colossians 2:2)
WHY DID JESUS HAVE TO BE GOD?
Now, one other question before we go on to the focal passage today: Why did Jesus have to be God? I
think the answer best came from the Westminster Larger Catechism:
“It was requisite that the Mediator should be God, that he might sustain and keep the human
nature from sinking under the infinite wrath of God, and the power of death; give worth and
efficacy to his sufferings, obedience and intercession; and so satisfy God’s justice, procure his
favor, purchase a peculiar people, give his spirit to them, conquer all their enemies, and bring
them to everlasting salvation.”
Only a King could do all of that. And only a King who was God.
WHAT KIND OF KING IS THIS JESUS? Philippians 2:6-11
Now, if we believe with all of hearts that Jesus is King and that He is God, then what kind of King is
this Jesus? Who is it that calls us to be His Bride? What characteristics envelop a true, Godly King?
To answer that question, I want to work through one of the most beautiful descriptions of Jesus’
excellence and deity in the entire Bible. Read Philippians 2:6-11.
This passage deals with the most important aspect of the Christian faith—the incarnation of Jesus
Christ, God, who came down as man to provide a path for all of His chosen.
In order to fully appreciate the One who loves us as a Bridegroom and a King, we must understand
what king of incarnate King He is. So, in order to do this, I want to take you through this passage, one
phrase at a time, hopefully painting for you the truest picture of our Savior and Bridegroom.
JESUS EXISTED IN THE FORM OF GOD
Let’s look at the end of verse 5 and the beginning of verse 6,
Christ Jesus, who although He was in the form of God,
This is a very profound statement. He existed here, on earth, in the form of God. I want to spend a
little time in the original Greek here so that we fully understand what that phrase, “He was or existed in
the form of God,” means.
The Greek word here for existed is huparcho, and it is always used to express the continuing existence of
things. It literally means “to be.” It is not the common Greek word for “being.” Instead, it is used to
describe things that have always been—past, present, and future. When it was used to describe a person,
it was used to describe the very essence of that person, what was true of a person that can’t be changed.
The other Greek word for “existed” or “was” is morphe, which meant the form of the thing that exists.
That is not the word used here.
My huparcho is that I am a woman. That is my essence. That is unchanging, no matter what. However, my
morphe changes all of the time, which is evidenced by the vast number of sizes of clothes in my closet!
One describes my essence; the other describes the form of my essence.
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The word huparcho was used when saying that Jesus was the form of God because He is, in His very
essence, God. He was God, He is God, and He always will be God. So, who is Jesus? He is God. His
outward form, His morphe, changed when He came to earth, from baby to childhood, to adulthood. His
hubarcho, His essence that is God, took on His morphe, His humanity and He became flesh.
It’s important that we understand, then, that just because He became flesh that He somehow gave up
the right to be God. On the contrary, as we see here, He always was and always will be God. It’s just that
our God became flesh for us!
Hebrews 1:1-4 says, Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these
last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the
world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the
word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having
become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
He is the exact imprint of the nature of God. He is God.
JESUS DIDN’T GRASP HIS RIGHTS AS GOD
Now, look at the second part of verse 6 in Philippians 2,
Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.
Jesus Christ, who was by His very nature God, therefore equal to God, refused to accept this equality.
That means He refused to accept the riches and privileges and heavenly glories that go along with that
equality.
The incarnation of Jesus Christ begins with unselfishness. He gives up all that is rightfully His for us,
His Bride. This is the glory He has had since before the world began and He gives it up for us.
And this unselfish act is described as we read on in verse 7,
but made himself nothing.
Jesus did not empty Himself of His deity; He couldn’t do that or He would cease to exist. If He
emptied Himself of being God, which is by His very nature who He is, then He couldn’t be. He didn’t
empty Himself of His deity; He emptied Himself by not demanding His rights as God.
In John 17, he says He set aside His heavenly glory to come to this sin-stained planet. In John 5, he says
He set aside His independent authority and acted only as His Father commanded. He emptied Himself.
He made Himself nothing. He gave up everything, for a time, so that we could be wed to Him.
C. S. Lewis said,
“No seed ever fell so far from a tree into so dark and cold a soil as the Son of God did.”
He did that for us. What kind of a King is that?
JESUS MADE HIMSELF A SERVANT
We can see further what that entailed if we look a the next part of verse 7,
but make himself nothing, taking the form of a servant.
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He voluntarily became a slave. He didn’t come acting like a slave. The Greek word for form here is morphe
again, which means He didn’t act like a slave. He became a slave; His form took on the form of a slave.
This King of the universe voluntarily, truly, and in all senses of the word, became a slave for His Bride.
Jesus said in Luke 22:27,
I am among you as one who serves.
And in Matthew 20:26-28 He said,
But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your
slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life s a ransom for many.
He came down so far as a servant that you’ll see him in John 13 washing the feet of his bickering, selfish
disciples.
JESUS BECAME HUMAN
Notice, though, the rest of verse 7 in Philippians 2,
But made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Again, the original language here is important. The Greek word for “men” is anthropos, which literally
means “a human being, or being human.” Many people seem to believe that Jesus came down as God in
human form, so of course He could remain sinless, but that is not the case. He became a man, fully
human and took on every characteristic therein that is human.
That is probably why there is little about Jesus in the Bible until He was 12. When he was a baby, he
cried and thought like a baby, a real baby, not a God-baby. When he was two, he acted like a two-year-old
and all that went with that. He wasn’t some holy toddler running around giving profound, Godly
theology.
It wasn’t until Jesus was 12 that he realized who he was. Great favor had been bestowed upon him, and
He announced that he had to be about his Father’s business.
He was truly human in every sense, and He did that voluntarily. Colossians 1:22 says of Him,
He has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above
reproach before him.
He “reconciled in his body of flesh.” He came, subjected to the same law that no one else could keep,
and kept it. He was sinless and tempted in all ways as you and I are today. It’s so important that we come
to grips with this truth. Jesus came down and became completely human because it was the only thing
God would accept as a sacrifice, and He did this voluntarily.
JESUS HUMBLED HIMSELF TO DEATH ON THE CROSS
And not only that. Read on what verse 8 says of Philippians 2,
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a
cross.
The first part of this verse simply reiterates what the previous verse said: Jesus Christ was fully human
and was recognized as being a man by those who saw him. Only those to whom God gave the
knowledge of His true identity saw Him as Lord and Savior. All the rest saw only a man.
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Only those that God chose and revealed it to were able to see that Jesus was God. The rest only saw a
man because He took on the form of a man. (See Matthew 16:13-17).
But the miracle of Christ’s amazing love for us, His Bride, is in the rest of verse 8 that says,
He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Jesus was already humiliated when he was born. He was already humiliated in the life he lived as a child
and a young man. He was already humiliated by just coming down here, but he wasn’t humiliated to the
point that he would be. And he didn’t balk. He didn’t say to God, “That’s it; that’s enough. I can’t take
any more.”
Nope. He not only humbled himself by becoming human and being a servant, he humbled himself to
the point of death, even death on a cross. I think that bears some explaining.
You see, crucifixion was the most horrific and lowliest way to die. It was developed by the Persians and
later adopted by the Romans. It was the most painful, humiliating and cruel form of death imaginable.
Jews wouldn’t even crucify a live person. It was unthinkable. They would, on occasion, hang a body that
was already dead, but for an example and nothing else.
NOT THE KING SCENARIO WE’D CHOOSE
Now, in our human minds as we contemplate kingship, this is not the scenario we’d choose, is it? A king
should be in glory, riding in a chariot, being exalted by all who see him. We would not choose this sort
of entrance for our King, would we?
But then we would be saved. Jesus is the King of kings and the Lord of lords because He exemplifies
what a true King should be. He serves His people. His very incarnation was for our benefit. He is King
because of His humility and servitude.
Isaiah 57: 15 says,
For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high
and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to
revive the heart of the contrite.”
NOT THE END OF THE STORY
And that’s why this isn’t the end of the story. Look at verse 9-11 in Philippians 2,
Therefore…
The Word says that because Jesus was obedient to the point of death and became a man and a servant,
because of this,
…God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
GOD HIGHLY EXALTED HIM
The original Greek word here for “highly exalted” is huperupsoo and is only used here in the entire New
Testament. It literally means “super exalted,” exalting to the highest rank and power. Because Christ set
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aside His rights to all things and gave Himself willingly for us, God has exalted Him further than He has
any other being. God did that for Him.
NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME
And not only did He exalt Christ to a higher position than any other being, He gave to Jesus a name
above every other name. That name was not “Jesus.” The name “Jesus” was just like Joseph or Matthew
or John. The name that God gave to our Lord and Savior, our Bridegroom, is “Lord,” that He is
sovereign.
EVERY KNEE WILL BOW
To make the sovereignty of Christ complete, God ordained that at His name “every knee should bow, in
heaven and on earth and under the earth.”
When we see those in heaven bowing, that includes every angel, seraphim, cherubim, and every single
other heavenly creature that exists there.
On the earth means every soul that has ever lived on this earth, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. And
make no mistake: Everyone will bow to Jesus. There will come a day when His majesty is made public
to everyone, and they will bow, whether they like it or not.
Not only will all people and heavenly beings bow, but all those under the earth. That means Satan and all
of his minions, all of whom some how think they’re going to win. They, too, will bow at the name of
Jesus.
THIS KING COMES FOR US
And I want you to picture this day. This is the day that Jesus will come and take His Bride, us, His
Church, and we will be wedded with Him forever. This King who is the King of all kings and the Lord
of all lords has chosen us as His Bride and will come and take us for His own for eternity.
You see, the Song of Solomon is pre-wedding. That’s why so much of this book talks about the majesty
of the coming King. That’s why so many verses in this book are dedicated to the kingly aromas and
perfumes being attributed to our King. This book is also prophetic and it paints of a picture of that
glorious day when our Bridegroom will come and wed His Bride.
Christ is the Excellent King. He is excellent in his humility and servanthood. He is excellent in His
obedience and grace. And He is excellent in His majesty and power. That is the King described in this
beautiful love song. That is the King who adores us and cherishes us and will come for us. That is the
King who chose us.
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