“Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in! Who is the King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in! Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory…” Psalms 24:7-10

The ancient doors of heaven were commanded to open up so that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? He is Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. How did Jesus become the King of glory? The Scriptures answer that question: “…As for Me [the Lord God], I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.” Psalm 2:6 God Himself exalted His only begotten Son to the throne of glory.

What is the glory that He is King of? Certainly, it will be glory when this Scripture is fulfilled: “…Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him” Daniel 7:27

But I’m thinking of another glory that is greater than that: the glory of God’s grace. “…The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men…” Titus 2:11 Jesus Christ was the perfect, living image of God’s grace. John wrote of Jesus, “…The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth…the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” John 1:14, 17

The word grace can be defined by looking up the word in a dictionary, but, if one picture is worth a thousand words, Jesus’ life is worth a million words. The gospels speak so clearly of the grace of God given so freely to all who came to Jesus. The sick, the broken hearted, those loaded with sin, the demon-possessed, they all tasted of the goodness and mercy of God, freely given by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. It was God’s glory to show mercy, and Jesus was King of that glory. But after Jesus was seated in heaven as Lord, He poured out the glory of God’s love abundantly on sinners, as evidenced in this truth:

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and has raised us up together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:4-6

Who is this King of glory? He is the LORD strong and mighty, mighty in battle. Yes, the Devil engaged Jesus in battle, and the Father allowed the Devil and his servants to do all they could to Jesus physically: they rejected Him, accused Him, harassed Him, plucked his whiskers out of His face, slapped, spit on, beat, crowned His head with thorns and then beat His head with a rod, mocked Him and finally, nailed Him to a cross and killed the King of glory.

But the grave couldn’t hold Him! “God raised Him up and has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11

  Forty days after Jesus’ resurrection, He ascended into heaven and the command was given to open the everlasting doors so the King of glory could come in. And know this: the King of glory was made LORD for you and I. Jesus didn’t return to heaven for Himself, because that’s where He came from when He came to earth. No, the battle fought, and the victory won was for your eternal soul and mine. The LORD opened the gates of heaven for all who would come to Him.

“…Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us…” Hebrews 9:24

The King of glory is our glory!

Brother Bill is a Bible teacher and can be contacted at bboldham@sbcglobal.net