What is the significance and of Jesus’ kingship for us? Kingship today seems outdated and use- less, especially in democratic societies where everyone is supposed to be treated equal and free. Many rulers in past ages claimed they had sovereign authority to rule by divine edict. But God did not give his people Israel a king at first. Why? Because God alone was their King and they needed no other. Nonetheless, God relented and chose David as King over Israel with the promise that God would raise up through David’s royal line a Saviour who would establish an everlasting kingdom of righteousness and peace that would endure for all ages (Psalm 89:29). The Jews understood that the Messiah (“Anointed One”) would come as God’s anointed King to restore paradise and establish God’s reign of peace for them. They wanted a Messianic King who would free them from strife and division and from foreign oppression. Many had high hopes that Jesus would be the Messiah and Rul- er for Israel. Little did they understand what kind of kingship Jesus claimed to possess. Jesus came to deliver his people, and the whole world, from the worst kind of tyranny possible – from bondage to sin, guilt and condem- nation, and from the wages of sin which is death (Romans 6:23) and separation from an all-merciful and just Fa- ther who gave us his son to set us free and to adopt us as his beloved sons and daughters. Jesus came to conquer hearts and souls for an imperishable kingdom – a kingdom ruled not by force or fear – but by the power of God’s righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17).