#15 Jesus's Kingship
Show Notes
In this episode, Cody and Anthony discuss Jesus's kingship as ‘The Anointed One’ or Messiah. We’ll explore how Jesus fulfills the messianic expectations of the Old Testament, taking on the role of both divine Lord and Davidic King. We'll also unpack the significance of Jesus being called ‘the Christ,’ the weight of his authority over all creation, and how this title shapes our understanding of who Jesus is.
Music: Soulful Whispers by Denys Brodovskyi
Podcast TranscripT
Anthony Delgado: This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen (2 Corinthians 4:17–18). In a post-materialistic world filled with immense spiritual noise, we’re here to uncover the ancient Near Eastern context of the Bible to recover the truly mystical faith of our spiritual forefathers.
Welcome to the Biblical Re-Enchantment Podcast, where we bridge the gap between the ancient Hebrew story and modern insights. I’m Anthony Delgado, your host for this journey into the often-overlooked mystical dimension of the Bible.
Cody Urban: And I’m Cody Urban, co-hosting.
Anthony Delgado: Yep. So, we’re on episode 15 today, talking about Jesus’ kingship. In this episode, we’re going to look at Jesus as King, as the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. We’ll explore how he fulfills the messianic expectations of the Old Testament, taking on the roles of both divine Lord and Davidic King. Then we’re going to unpack the significance of Jesus being called the Christ—what that means, the weight of his authority over creation, and how that title shapes our understanding of who Jesus is—or rather, how the title “Christ” shapes who we should see Jesus as.
Cody Urban: You mean Christ isn’t his last name?
Anthony Delgado: Yeah, no, Christ is not his last name. Last names weren’t really a thing back in those days.
In the last episode, we talked about refugees in God’s kingdom. We spoke of God as King, and I believe we mentioned Jesus as King. The big idea of today’s episode is focusing specifically on Jesus as the King. When we look at the biblical storyline, Jesus leaves the kingdom of God, in a sense, and enters the kingdom of the world to establish the fullness of God’s kingdom here and to rescue us from the world into his kingdom. In a sense, that’s kind of the Bible or the gospel summarized.
So, that’s what we’re looking at—what does Jesus do? What makes him the King? Things like that. People were often described by their profession back then. So, as you mentioned a minute ago, Cody, Christ isn’t Jesus’ last name.
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: What is “Christ” if it’s not his last name? How does that work in relation to who Jesus is?
Cody Urban: I guess it almost feels like a last name because, if you think of last names like Smith, those came from professions. Your profession became your last name, as you mentioned. We also have last names that come from professions in other languages, so it might not sound like it, but there’s still a connection.
Anthony Delgado: Mm-hmm.
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: Some kind of description or profession.
Cody Urban: Right. I’m sure people in more secular contexts hear the name “Jesus Christ” and think, “Oh, Christ must be his last name.” Have you ever seen Dances with Wolves, the Kevin Costner movie? The first time I heard the expression “Jesus H. Christ” was in that movie. There’s a guy driving a wagon who says it. I remember being a kid who didn’t regularly go to church thinking, “What’s the H? Is that his middle name? What does it stand for?”
Anthony Delgado: Yeah, like “Hank” or something, right?
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: That’s really funny, actually. But yeah, you’re right—a lot of our last names come from something. My last name is Delgado, which means “thin.” I don’t know—maybe my ancestors were skinny people.
Cody Urban: And that was a defining trait, so they named themselves after it. My last name is Urban, like “city,” so I’m assuming my heritage was connected to urban areas.
Anthony Delgado: Yeah.
Cody Urban: Although the heritage I actually know about is from farmers. I have family from farms in Kansas and places like that, so it’s funny to think of farmers with the last name Urban when they’re very rural—not even suburban.
Anthony Delgado: Yeah. Well, I’m hardly thin, so there’s that. Now, in Jesus’ case, we’re saying Christ isn’t exactly his last name.
Cody Urban: Correct.
Anthony Delgado: I want to give an example of how this works. Can you think of anyone in the biblical storyline where it looks like they have a last name, but it’s not?
Cody Urban: The only one I can think of offhand is Judas Iscariot.
Anthony Delgado: Yeah, so he’s a good example. Judas Iscariot is how he’s identified in most English translations to differentiate him from the other Judas among the disciples. But in Greek, it doesn’t actually say “Judas Iscariot”; it says “Judas the Iscariot.” And you might wonder, what’s an Iscariot? Scholars are fairly certain it means he was a Keriothite, from Kerioth-Arba. It’s similar to how others in the Bible are identified by where they come from or where they live. So, if you’ve got three guys named Judas sitting around the table...
Cody Urban: Right.
Anthony Delgado: ...you’d want to be able to distinguish which one you’re referring to.
Cody Urban: Another example that comes to mind is Mary Magdalene. I’m not sure about “Magdalene,” but when you mentioned where they come from, I thought of Joseph of Arimathea. “Of Arimathea” sounds similar.
Anthony Delgado: Right.
Cody Urban: Oh yeah, and Jesus’ earthly dad was also a Joseph.
Anthony Delgado: Exactly. So in this case, when we see “Jesus Christ,” I think we should read it—at least in our minds—as something more like a title rather than a first and last name. I’m not saying it needs to be translated differently. I’m not a Bible translator, and I haven’t been trained for that, but we should think of it as “Jesus, who is the Christ.”
Cody Urban: Right. Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: Jesus was a fairly common name at the time. So saying “Jesus, who is the Christ” helps clarify who we’re talking about. Now, do you know what “Christ” means?
Cody Urban: Anointed.
Anthony Delgado: Mm-hmm. It refers to Jesus as the Anointed One. That’s important because the Hebrews didn’t throw the term “Christ” around lightly. It was used in the Greek Old Testament—the Septuagint—to translate the concept of anointing from the Hebrew Scriptures. During the Second Temple period, this idea developed further, and they believed, as we do as New Testament Christians, that a Messiah would come.
Cody Urban: Messiah means “anointed” as well, right?
Anthony Delgado: Exactly—anointed.
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: We often talk about how language isn’t one-to-one. You can’t just take a Hebrew word, match it to a Greek word, and then directly to an English word. But in this case, “Messiah” in Hebrew and “Christ” in Greek pretty much mean the same thing.
Cody Urban: Hmm.
Anthony Delgado: Christ means “Anointed One.” We can pretty much settle on that without much debate—there’s not a lot of nuance there. But the nuance comes with the messianic expectation that the Jews had during the Second Temple period. They anticipated a specific type of Anointed One. In the Old Testament, anointing is primarily used for kings.
Cody Urban: Right.
Anthony Delgado: There are other reasons someone might be anointed. For example, anointing could be part of purification rites, but you wouldn’t call someone anointed for purification...
Cody Urban: ...a Messiah. Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: Exactly. You wouldn’t call them a Messiah, much less the Messiah. So when we say that Jesus is the Christ, we’re referring to a very specific Anointed One—one expected to be a king over Israel, coming from the line of David. That’s a reference from 2 Samuel. Do you want to read 2 Samuel 7:16?
Cody Urban: Yes, sir. Let’s see here. Verse 16: “Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever.”
Anthony Delgado: Right. This is the promise Yahweh makes to David. It’s reiterated in various ways throughout the Old Testament and reflected on frequently. There’s no doubt how the Jews understood this promise—they believed someone in David’s line would be their king for the rest of human history. As Christians, we believe that King is the Messiah, the Christ—Jesus.
This is why we have the genealogies.
Cody Urban: Oh yeah. Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: And we don’t have time to get into the differences between Matthew and Luke’s genealogies right now...
Cody Urban: Sure.
Anthony Delgado: ...but if you look at both, they each make a point of tying Jesus to David. That’s the purpose—to show that Jesus is the King.
Cody Urban: So, would you say David was a Messiah? Like, I know the Hebrew language didn’t distinguish between capital and lowercase letters the way we do, but in English, we might think of David as a lowercase “m” messiah and Jesus as a capital “M” Messiah. David was anointed as King over Israel.
Anthony Delgado: Yeah, absolutely. David is referred to as the Lord’s anointed, and that language is specifically used for him. That’s one of the reasons we tie Jesus not just to David, but also to the term Messiah and Christ, because he is the Davidic Anointed One, right?
Now, one thing to be aware of is how we, especially in preaching and teaching, sometimes refer to the entirety of the Old Testament as if it all happened at once.
Cody Urban: Hmm.
Anthony Delgado: But we need to understand that the Old Testament unfolds across three primary eras: the patriarchal period, the period of Israel before the exile, and the Second Temple period—or what’s often called the intertestamental period, the time between the Testaments. Personally, I don’t like the term “intertestamental” because it gives the impression that nothing happened during that time.
Cody Urban: Right. I think people have called those the “silent years” or something like that, as if God was totally absent.
Anthony Delgado: Exactly. Maybe there weren’t prophets standing on street corners making declarations, but God was anything but silent.
Cody Urban: Amen.
Anthony Delgado: Amen. There was significant theological development during that period. It’s worth pointing out that we’re not writing new canon today in the church, but we certainly don’t believe God is silent now.
Cody Urban: Exactly. Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: So, I prefer the term Second Temple period.
Cody Urban: Mm-hmm.
Anthony Delgado: What we’re talking about here is essentially the period from the return of the Jews from exile. And it’s important to note that not all of Israel came out of exile.
Cody Urban: So, like the Ezra and Nehemiah period?
Anthony Delgado: Exactly. From that time until the destruction of the temple in 70 AD—not just up to Matthew.
Cody Urban: Yeah, that makes sense.
Anthony Delgado: That gives us a whole period to consider, one that climaxes with the incarnation and the events surrounding it. So, when we ask, “Was David a Messiah?”—in David’s time, no one would have been going around saying, “Behold, the Messiah, David, the one who sits as king of Israel.” But in retrospect, especially as we compare David to other kings, we see that Jesus is the ultimate David or the ultimate expression of a Davidic King—a Davidic Messiah. In that light, we could say there was something “Messiah-like” about David.
Cody Urban: David seemed to have a real reverence for being an anointed king. I think of the times when he had the chance to attack Saul, but he said, “Far be it from me to harm the Lord’s anointed.”
Anthony Delgado: Exactly. David had a profound understanding of what it meant to be the Lord’s anointed—an understanding that was completely different from what we’re used to. Even in Saul’s day or in the broader ancient world, becoming king was often about being the strongest and killing the reigning king.
Cody Urban: Right. Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: That’s why many Gentile tribes, the pagan tribes of that world, were often led by giants. In the ancient world, strength mattered most. Goliath, for example, was the champion of the Philistine army because he was the biggest and strongest.
Cody Urban: Mm-hmm.
Anthony Delgado: Leading that tribe—that’s what you get when the Israelites said, “Give us a king like the nations.” God provides Saul, who is head and shoulders above the rest. He’s an Israelite, and I don’t think we’re supposed to believe he’s a Nephilim or anything like that. But Saul is presented as this larger-than-life figure. However, Saul doesn’t appear to be a Yahwist. He certainly believes Yahweh is a God in heaven, but he isn’t fully loyal to Yahweh. In fact, it seems like Saul is loyal to Saul.
Cody Urban: Right.
Anthony Delgado: That’s who the kings of the nations were—they were loyal to themselves.
Cody Urban: Mm-hmm.
Anthony Delgado: They might have said they were loyal to their gods, but ultimately, they were in it for the wealth and power.
Cody Urban: Sure. Yep.
Anthony Delgado: David wasn’t like that. David wanted to reflect God’s will and often expressed this in the Psalms. He showed reverence, even for his own kingship, recognizing that he didn’t necessarily deserve it. But he understood that God had placed him there to lead His people.
You’re absolutely right to make those connections. So, Jesus then comes onto the scene as the Messiah. Peter affirms this in one of my favorite passages, Acts 2:36. Do you want to read it?
Cody Urban: Yeah, I’ve got it ready: “Therefore, let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
Anthony Delgado: Yeah. One of the words that jumps out to me in that verse is both.
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: If we think of “Lord” as just, you know, someone who owns land—a landlord—or in a feudal system where someone has authority over others...
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Cody Urban: In that kind of society, where there are lords, lords are underneath the king, right? They’re just wealthy individuals.
Anthony Delgado: Yeah. And the word kyrios, translated as “Lord,” has a broad range of meaning. For example, it could be a term a wife might use for her husband.
Cody Urban: Really? Wow.
Anthony Delgado: Yeah, like in Hebrew, Sarah calls Abraham “lord.” If you look at the Greek text, it uses kyrios there.
Cody Urban: Hmm.
Anthony Delgado: Lord could also mean “master.” It could be a term slaves or servants would use for their master, or even hired workers might use it for their boss. So, it’s a very broad term.
But what’s interesting is Peter saying, “No, no—he is both Lord and Christ.” If Christ refers to his anointed kingship over Israel...
Cody Urban: Mm-hmm.
Anthony Delgado: ...then technically, we wouldn’t need to emphasize that he is also Lord. Lord is the more vague term. Yet Peter creates a distinction, saying, “Both Lord and Christ.” That makes you ask: if we understand what Christ means, what does Peter mean by Lord in this context?
Throughout the New Testament, we see this phrase repeated—the Lord Jesus. They don’t call him a Lord, but the Lord.
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Cody Urban: Right.
Anthony Delgado: That means they’re tying Jesus to a specific Lord. You can probably guess which Lord.
Cody Urban: Well, like the name Yahweh in the Old Testament—it’s often translated as LORD in all capitals. In the Septuagint, are they using the same term?
Anthony Delgado: There are actually two Greek terms for Yahweh. One of them escapes me at the moment—my Septuagint Greek isn’t great—but by the time we get to Jesus, they’re using kyrios almost exclusively. The other term was often used to translate the phrase Adonai Yahweh, and both can be translated as kyrios. That’s why you sometimes end up with the phrase kyrios kyrios in the Greek text.
Cody Urban: Like when Jesus says, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord?” I think we talked about that on the podcast once.
Anthony Delgado: We did. And I think that’s exactly what Jesus is referencing—himself as Adonai.
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: Oftentimes, the Greek text differentiates the terms so they’re not using the same word twice. By the time the New Testament is written, the other term has fallen out of primary usage, which is why kyrios is predominant in the New Testament.
There are numerous theological and scriptural reasons to believe that Jesus understood himself to be Yahweh. Paul, for instance, says that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). How is that not Yahweh? Paul reflects on Genesis 1, where Elohim creates all things, and in Colossians 1:16, he says that Jesus is the agent of that creation. So, if we believe Yahweh created and Paul tells us Jesus created, then we must believe that Jesus is Yahweh. That’s just basic logic.
That’s exactly how the early Christians saw Jesus. He was Yahweh, the Lord of heaven, and also the Christ on Earth.
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: It’s a heaven-and-earth kingship. That’s probably what we should look at next—the divine and human, heaven-and-earth kingship of Jesus.
Cody Urban: What a paradigm shift that must have been—to live in that time expecting just a lineage of David and then realizing, “This is also our God, Yahweh, incarnate in flesh.” Even now, it’s hard to wrap your mind around. How can someone be fully God and fully man?
Cody Urban: You know, maybe we just can’t fully understand it because we’re trying to fathom an infinite God.
Anthony Delgado: Yeah, well, there’s definitely a sense in which some theological circles in Second Temple Judaism—before Christ—were expecting something like an incarnation. They were expecting a Messiah who was more than human. I wrote about this recently in October in an article on my website called The Divine Identity of Jesus as Yahweh in the Scriptures and Second Temple Jewish Thought. I explored the shadows throughout the Old Testament that led to this Second Temple-era thinking, which ultimately helps us understand the incarnation in the New Testament.
Cody Urban: I read that article. It was great. I wish I had it in my back pocket every time I meet someone like a Jehovah’s Witness. I’d say, “Here, just read this little bit of light reading.”
Anthony Delgado: Yeah, because what you really need in your back pocket is a 12,000-word article.
Cody Urban: Yes! Hey, they come to my house with a pamphlet; I should have a pamphlet ready too. “I’ll read yours, but you’ve got to read mine.”
Anthony Delgado: You’ve got to read mine.
Cody Urban: Well...
Anthony Delgado: Maybe I’ll mail you a print version.
Cody Urban: There we go.
Anthony Delgado: So, let’s talk about Jesus’ divine and human kingship. I think it’s best expressed through the doctrine we call the hypostatic union. This doctrine teaches that Jesus embodies both divine and human natures. Do you want to look at the Philippians 2 passage? It’s one of the clearest places where we see this.
Cody Urban: Sure. Seeing Jesus as both King of heaven and earth, here’s Philippians 2:10–11: “So that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow—in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Anthony Delgado: So, here we have Jesus anointed as Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Anthony Delgado: Right. So, Jesus, the anointed Davidic King...
Cody Urban: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: ...is Yahweh.
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: To the glory of God the Father. That’s the statement expressed by every tongue, as Paul says.
Cody Urban: Mm-hmm.
Anthony Delgado: Every knee bows...
Cody Urban: All of them.
Anthony Delgado: ...in heaven and on earth.
Cody Urban: Oh, yeah.
Anthony Delgado: That’s what we call a merism. We see this heaven-and-earth pattern throughout the Scriptures.
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: For example, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). On a superficial level, we read that as the universe and the planet. But on a symbolic level, it also means all things physical and all things metaphysical.
Cody Urban: Yeah. Yes.
Anthony Delgado: That’s why we often use “heaven” to refer to a spiritual place, even though the word originally means “the sky.” So, when Paul says “in heaven and on earth,” it’s a merism—a figure of speech meaning everything. It’s a figure of speech, but it’s one with deep significance.
Cody Urban: Mm-hmm.
Anthony Delgado: What’s interesting is that Paul uses it literally here because he adds, “and under the earth.”
Cody Urban: Right.
Anthony Delgado: In New Testament thought, they’re reflecting more deeply on what happens after people die. We’ll definitely need to do an episode on that.
Cody Urban: Mm-hmm.
Anthony Delgado: Paul is thinking of the rebellious beings—both human and angelic—under the earth. He’s saying that even they have to bend the knee to Jesus, right?
Cody Urban: I’ve always pictured this—and maybe I’m wrong or importing ideas—but I’ve pictured it as those who were dead and buried under the earth. At the resurrection, they’re raised and bending the knee. But I guess they wouldn’t still be under the earth at that time. I don’t know, I’ve just always imagined it that way.
Anthony Delgado: Yeah, I mean, we can go there. This is the Biblical Re-Enchantment Podcast.
Cody Urban: That’s right.
Anthony Delgado: We can talk about enchanted things. We can talk about spiritual things—respectfully, of course, but we should. Something changes between the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament, in the Second Temple period, they thought about the afterlife in ways similar to what we know about Hades in the Greek system. When someone died, the body went into the grave, but the spirit—or, as some in Greek philosophy would say, the soul—descended into Hades. What’s interesting is that pretty much everyone went to Hades.
From there, there was hope of making it out to the Elysian Fields, the Greek idea of heaven. If not, you might end up in Tartarus. The Greek system is more complex, but Second Temple Jews thought similarly about Sheol. They believed there was a good side and a bad side to Sheol.
We see this in the Book of Enoch, where Enoch has a vision. He’s shown Sheol by an angel. There are three dark pits on one side and one light pit on the other. Enoch asks, “What’s going on in the dark pits?” The angel says, “Those are all the people waiting for judgment.” Then Enoch asks about the light pit, where there’s a man with his arms raised, praying, and a beautiful fountain. The angel says, “That’s the righteous side. That’s Abel, and he’s petitioning God for the destruction of Cain’s line on earth.”
Cody Urban: Hmm.
Anthony Delgado: So, that’s the righteous side. And what’s fascinating is that when Jesus rises from the dead—I think we’ve talked about this before.
Cody Urban: We mentioned the harrowing of hell last week. Is that what you’re getting at?
Anthony Delgado: Yes.
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: Exactly. So, when Jesus rises, what we’re seeing is that when Sheol is cracked open, the good side—which is often referred to in Second Temple literature and even in the New Testament...
Cody Urban: Abraham’s bosom.
Anthony Delgado: Right, because that’s where Abraham is.
Cody Urban: Ha ha. Right.
Anthony Delgado: So obviously, that’s the righteous side. You go to be in the arms or bosom of Abraham. When Sheol is cracked open, those on the righteous side are raised to life with Jesus. They appear to many, and then presumably ascend when Jesus ascends.
Now, Paul says, “To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). This reflects a significant change—when someone in Christ dies, they no longer go to Sheol. Instead, they go to be with the Father at His right hand.
We also see that Sheol is no longer where everyone goes; it’s now just the bad place. That’s what we often call “hell” today. The concept of hell is frequently tied to Gehenna, which was the flaming trash heap outside Jerusalem.
Cody Urban: Right. Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: So, hell becomes the bad place—a parallel to heaven—because it’s still a waiting place, located under the earth.
Cody Urban: Right.
Anthony Delgado: ...where the rebellious humans go.
Cody Urban: And spirits, which I think we often forget about. In pop culture—like in Constantine—we get this picture of demons and the devil, as if hell is their domain, their “heaven,” so to speak. But really, the evil spirits are sent there too, right? As we see in Enoch and in what we’re talking about with the knees bowing under the earth, it’s not just humans. Rebellious spirits also acknowledge, “I cannot deny Jesus is Lord.”
Anthony Delgado: Yeah. Now, we’re way off topic here...
Cody Urban: Alright, well.
Anthony Delgado: ...but it’s fun anyway. Jude tells us that the Genesis 6 spirits—the sons of God who came down and had children with the daughters of men—are chained in Tartarus. Tartarus, being a Greek conception of the underworld, is referenced here in a different way. Jude gives us a glimpse of a sub-plane of hell, an imprisonment for these spirits.
Cody Urban: Right.
Anthony Delgado: But we shouldn’t think that all the rebellious spirits are chained. Psalm 82 speaks of the judgment against the sons of God who ruled unjustly on earth. Though they lost their seats in heaven and were dethroned during Christ’s incarnation, they aren’t chained in Tartarus yet. Their ultimate judgment doesn’t occur until Revelation 19, when they are cast into the lake of fire.
Cody Urban: Mm.
Anthony Delgado: So, many of these spirits we understand as “fallen” are still present on the earth. For example, when Jesus encounters Legion on the island of the Gerasenes, the demons beg him, “Don’t send us to the pit; send us into the pigs.” By “the pit,” they mean Tartarus. They’re asking to avoid judgment now and to await the final judgment instead. Jesus grants their request because they are among the Gentiles, not among God’s people.
Cody Urban: Yeah, this...
Anthony Delgado: ...is interesting to talk about. And, as you mentioned earlier, this is the Biblical Re-Enchantment Podcast. Even rewinding a bit to what you said earlier—about some people in a secular mindset thinking Christ is Jesus’ last name—we, who go to church regularly and ideally read our Bibles, know better.
Cody Urban: Sometimes things just become part of the wallpaper. We get inundated or desensitized to them. Taking a moment to re-enchant ourselves with Jesus—like you say in your book, The Gospel is Bigger Than You Think—is so important. We’ve watered down the gospel to “Jesus died for our sins so that I can go to heaven after I die.”
But Jesus conquered the grave. He cracked open Sheol, as you put it. Just imagining these rebellious spirits from Genesis bowing their knees before Jesus, recognizing that he is so much more than just a Davidic King—he is God, he is man. And as he says in the Great Commission, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18).
We can be so desensitized to this. Taking a moment to re-enchant ourselves, to ponder, meditate, and discuss how awesome Jesus is and how worthy he is of our worship—it’s invigorating.
Anthony Delgado: That ties back to the point we started with—the hypostatic union. Jesus is King of all things. The hypostatic union refers to Jesus’ divine and human natures. We don’t believe him to be half divine and half human like the giants of Genesis 6. We believe him to be fully divine and fully human, embodying both natures.
That doctrine correlates with the idea of Jesus being King of heaven and earth. It only makes sense. Jesus is recognized as the divine Lord Yahweh and also as the Davidic King. He has authority over everything—everything physical and metaphysical, visible and invisible.
Cody Urban: Right.
Anthony Delgado: And this is a great thought as we look forward to Christmas, right?
Cody Urban: Mm.
Anthony Delgado: The incarnation is about the Lord of all things—the uncreated God—entering into his own creation. The significance of that can’t be overstated. If you think about David, for instance, as we’ve discussed, he was a Messiah in a sense...
Cody Urban: Hmm.
Anthony Delgado: David was hardly perfect.
Cody Urban: Correct. Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: You’re probably thinking, “That’s a gross understatement,” right?
Cody Urban: A little bit.
Anthony Delgado: In Hebrews, we see Jesus being called the great high priest. It says, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: So, unlike other religions where God is portrayed as distant and unable to relate to creation...
Cody Urban: Right.
Anthony Delgado: ...we have a God who, in every way, can sympathize with human weakness because he actually became human. Just think about some of the ancient heresies. I recently heard an interesting point: the first heresies about Jesus’ essence were about denying his humanity.
Cody Urban: Ah.
Anthony Delgado: And then later, you get heresies like Arianism, which say, “No, no, no, Jesus is just human.”
Cody Urban: Just human. Yeah, just a good human.
Anthony Delgado: Right. Or you get ideas like Adoptionism—the idea that Jesus was a human who became divine, and that he became divine so we, as humans, can follow his pattern and become divine too. That kind of nonsense starts creeping in. But initially, the assumption wasn’t about questioning Jesus’ deity. Nobody was really questioning that Jesus was God. That debate comes later.
The real struggle for people to grasp early on wasn’t that Jesus was divine—it was how on earth was he human?
Cody Urban: Interesting. Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: I’d rather not dive too deeply into systematic theology here, but simply to say that because Jesus is fully human, he can sympathize with us in our weakness. And then, he adds something incredible—sinless obedience. The author of Hebrews says Jesus was tempted in every way we are, yet without sin.
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: He felt it. He truly experienced it.
Cody Urban: It reminds me of Romans 3:23: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Jesus is the one human exception to that. He’s not half-and-half, like you mentioned earlier. When you think about other religions, they try to do something similar. Like Hercules—his father is divine, but his mother is mortal, so he’s a half-and-half demigod. He can sympathize with humanity, but Jesus is so much more than that. He’s not like that at all.
Anthony Delgado: Yeah. Hercules is an interesting example because he starts off really bad.
Cody Urban: Mm-hmm.
Anthony Delgado: He’s always making mistakes. He’s almost like Samson, you know?
Cody Urban: Totally, yeah.
Anthony Delgado: He’s not a great character. But eventually, he does all these tasks to become fully divine and ascend to Mount Olympus. Hercules is an interesting figure in that way. Maybe that kind of thinking in the Greek world influenced some of the ancient heresies.
Cody Urban: Mm-hmm. Maybe.
Anthony Delgado: Some people claim Jesus didn’t sin because he wasn’t tempted. But that’s a problem for Hebrews 4:15. It’s also a problem for the accounts of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness by the devil.
Cody Urban: Right. Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: It’s a really interesting narrative because the devil offers Jesus earthly dominion. In other words, he’s offering him the Davidic kingship—but under his authority. You can see what I’m saying, right?
Cody Urban: Right, right.
Anthony Delgado: The devil is essentially saying, “You can be my right-hand man.” It’s a clever way of trying to dethrone Jesus. This is in Matthew 4:8–9. Do you have that pulled up?
Cody Urban: I do. This happens after the devil tempts Jesus to turn stones into bread and after he tempts him to throw himself off the temple, saying, “God will send angels to catch you.” Both temptations are about proving Jesus is the divine Son of God. Now, this third one says: “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. And he said to him, ‘I will give you all these things if you will fall down and worship me.’”
Anthony Delgado: That’s the temptation. And Jesus responds: “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” He’s saying, “I’m not going to serve you, and I’m not going to worship you.”
Now, I don’t think the devil was asking Jesus to worship him as God, necessarily, but there’s a sense in which allegiance is worship, and worship is allegiance.
Cody Urban: Yeah. Hmm.
Anthony Delgado: We’ve talked about issues of conscience and allegiance to earthly institutions before. This passage is significant because allegiance and worship are interconnected.
It’s also interesting to note that the text says the devil showed Jesus “all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.” I think your translation said “splendor,” but the Greek word used here is doxa, meaning “glory.”
Cody Urban: Like doxology.
Anthony Delgado: Exactly—like doxology. Glory is a kingship word. It refers to the honor and majesty of a king, the height of his crown, and the power associated with his reign.
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: And what the devil is showing Jesus isn’t their splendor or how wonderful the kingdoms are. He’s showing Jesus the authority he could have: “Look at what you could rule over.” It’s a great temptation, but Jesus rejects it. He’s essentially saying, “I’m good. I already have that authority.”
Cody Urban: Right. Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: It’s fascinating because Jesus isn’t about to take any other path. We’ve talked about how Jesus lived without sin—not because he wasn’t tempted, but because, in every way, he was tempted as we are.
Cody Urban: Yeah. I mean, when he’s offered to turn stones into bread after 40 days of fasting, there’s got to be real temptation there. And when he’s taken to the top of the temple—I think it’s more of a vision, by the way, since I don’t see how the devil could physically bring him to the temple—there must have been a temptation to prove himself.
Just prior to this, at his baptism, God spoke: “This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased.” The Holy Spirit descended like a dove. So, to jump off the temple and have angels save him would be a way of proving that he is who he says he is.
And then, with the third temptation, Jesus knows his mission is to bring all things together in himself—things in heaven and on earth, as it says in Ephesians. He’s the Davidic King, given all authority in heaven and on earth. There’s got to be a temptation to say, “This is my mission. Why not take the shortcut?” But he doesn’t. He just says, “Nope.”
Anthony Delgado: He chooses the path of humility.
Cody Urban: Oh, yeah.
Anthony Delgado: It’s so interesting. Just as a point of illustration—Jamie and I were talking about this this morning. Among writers, when you publish a book, the first reviews you see are usually good because you’re giving author copies to friends and colleagues. Those initial reviews are almost always four or five stars.
But eventually, someone who doesn’t know you or your work will come across the book, think it’s garbage, and leave a one-star review. They’ll slander you, trash the book—it’s just inevitable.
Cody Urban: About that one-star review I gave you the other day...
Anthony Delgado: Yeah, it’s okay.
Cody Urban: It wasn’t me, I promise.
Anthony Delgado: Neither of the books I have out right now have a one-star review.
Cody Urban: Okay, good.
Anthony Delgado: Anyway, it’s funny because I was talking with another author recently online. She was really distraught because she got this scathing one-star review. In the comments of her post, which was in a writer’s group I’m part of, everyone was consoling her and saying, “No, congrats. Welcome to the club. You’ve finally made it.”
Cody Urban: Right?
Anthony Delgado: It’s just part of it. You have to know that if you’re going to put yourself out there as an authority on anything, you’re going to face criticism.
What’s so cool about Jesus in this moment is that the devil is essentially criticizing him. He’s saying, “You don’t have the authority you think you have. Let me help you out—here’s a shortcut.” The devil tries to put Jesus under his thumb. And the thing is, Jesus could have dealt with the devil right there. He could have sent him to Tartarus in that very moment.
Cody Urban: Yeah?
Anthony Delgado: What couldn’t Jesus have done? There’s nothing he couldn’t have done right then and there. Yet, he deals with Satan so humbly.
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: He rebukes him, saying, “It is written: You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” Jesus uses scripture to rebuke the devil, but he’s not being boastful.
Cody Urban: He doesn’t even assert his own authority in that moment. Instead, he yields to the Father. He says, “You shall serve the Lord alone, and only him shall you worship.” It reminds me of Philippians 2:6: “Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.” Some translations say “grasped.” I prefer “exploited” because “grasped” feels like trying to grab something. But Jesus already had it. He just didn’t exploit it. He lived out this incredible humility.
Anthony Delgado: It’s beautiful. It’s amazing. It’s so counterintuitive to what we see with kings and people in positions of power—human beings in power.
Anthony Delgado: Yeah, either “grasped” or “exploited” in the Greek carries the idea of holding onto something for your own benefit.
Cody Urban: Hmm.
Anthony Delgado: It’s a very nuanced and complicated word, which makes it hard to translate into English. But the point is that Jesus wasn’t holding onto his divinity for personal benefit. It’s not that he didn’t understand his own deity—Paul isn’t saying that.
Cody Urban: Right. Some people, especially those who bully or belittle others, often do so out of insecurity. They don’t believe they’re truly valuable or worthy, so they assert themselves by trying to force others to acknowledge them. But someone who’s fully secure in who they are doesn’t need to do that.
Anthony Delgado: Exactly.
Cody Urban: That’s what I see in Jesus. He had just been baptized, and the Father said, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Jesus doesn’t question that for a second. He knows he is the Son of God, the Davidic King, Yahweh incarnate, and the Lord of heaven and earth. There’s not a single insecure bone in his body.
Anthony Delgado: Mm.
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: Yeah, I like that idea of insecurity. If anyone is insecure in this story, it’s the devil.
Cody Urban: Yeah, exactly.
Anthony Delgado: He’s the one trying to exert dominance and claim authority that he doesn’t actually have.
Cody Urban: Mm-hmm.
Anthony Delgado: It’s interesting—maybe just as a point of illustration—we’ve spoken about the Tower of Babel as a social rebellion. It was a time when humans were trying to make a name for themselves. I think there’s a kind of counter-narrative to that in this devil-in-the-wilderness story.
Cody Urban: I can see that. Mm-hmm.
Anthony Delgado: Think about what a human would do in that situation. Humans fight to get on top. But Jesus doesn’t do that. What happens at the end of the temptation? The devil leaves. Jesus didn’t fight. He didn’t exert arrogance. He didn’t selfishly try to prove himself. He just responded with scripture, stayed humble, and moved on.
Cody Urban: Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Anthony Delgado: It’s like he reads the one-star review and moves on. Nothing happens. The devil’s like, “Alright, I’m out. I’ll try something else later.”
And honestly, I’ve seen self-published authors pull down their books and republish them just to infuriate someone who left a one-star review, only for that person to come back with even more hateful language. Instead, just be the bigger person and move on. What people have found is that when others look at books online, they’re actually skeptical if a book has nothing but five-star reviews. If you saw a hundred five-star reviews, you might think, “Don’t buy that book.”
Cody Urban: Hmm.
Anthony Delgado: Something weird’s going on if a book only has perfect five-star reviews.
Cody Urban: Right.
Anthony Delgado: People are just programmed to think, “They probably went on Fiverr and paid for those reviews.”
Cody Urban: Right.
Anthony Delgado: Exactly. It makes you go, “No, that’s fake.” But if a book has a 4.8 or 4.9-star rating because someone left a one-star review, it actually adds credibility in the long run. You think, “Okay, not everything is for everyone, but it looks like most people like this.”
That’s probably a weak illustration for what’s happening here, but Jesus is incredibly humble in how he handles the situation. He walks away on top, and the devil ends up looking like the fool.
Cody Urban: Totally.
Anthony Delgado: What’s really cool is that Jesus has this authority. He holds it humbly as the divine and incarnate King of heaven and earth. And then, he shares that authority with us—his body.
Cody Urban: Mm-hmm.
Cody Urban: I’ve always thought it was amazing how, when Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go…” it’s just such a natural flow of thought. “I have this authority, so now you’re going to go.”
Anthony Delgado: Exactly. But think about it—who had that authority before Jesus? It was the sons of God mentioned in Psalm 82, the divine beings placed over the nations as described in Deuteronomy 32. God had entrusted them as divine judges over the nations—so-called gods.
But they didn’t rule justly, as Psalm 82 points out. So, when Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” he’s saying they’ve been dethroned. Revelation 12 describes how they fought against the archangel Michael and were cast out of heaven.
All of these pieces come together—they’ve been cast out of heaven, and now they have no real power over the nations. That’s what Jesus is saying.
Cody Urban: Right.
Anthony Delgado: And then he says, “Go therefore…”
Cody Urban: “…and make disciples of all nations.”
Anthony Delgado: Or, to translate it slightly differently, “Since you’ve gone to the nations…” That might be a bit closer to the Greek. What’s happening here is that Jesus is handing over that authority to the church—to share in it.
But don’t miss the end of the Great Commission—the very last words of the book of Matthew: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Cody Urban: Yes. Yes.
Anthony Delgado: We have this authority, but we don’t have it apart from Jesus. That’s an important warning.
Cody Urban: That is good.
Anthony Delgado: You could almost connect it to the parable Jesus tells, where the master of the house leaves his manager in charge of the household. While the master is gone, the manager throws a party and neglects his responsibilities.
Cody Urban: Mm-hmm.
Anthony Delgado: The warning is, “You don’t know at what hour the master will return.” But in this case, Jesus isn’t absent. He’s with us, and we go about his work knowing that he’s with us.
Cody Urban: That makes me think of Moses—how Moses was afraid to go and do the work God called him to do, to confront Pharaoh.
Anthony Delgado: Mm-hmm.
Cody Urban: Moses is giving excuses, and one of God’s responses is simply, “I am with you.”
Anthony Delgado: Hmm.
Cody Urban: That’s it. What else do you need? If the I Am is with you...
Anthony Delgado: It’s funny how that’s both a comfort and a challenge at the same time.
Cody Urban: Sure, there’s definitely a balance.
Anthony Delgado: Like, “Don’t forget that I am with you,” but also, “Don’t forget that I am with you.”
Cody Urban: That’s good.
Anthony Delgado: It’s meant to work both ways. In Ephesians 2:6, Paul says...
Cody Urban: “He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus.”
Anthony Delgado: Mm-hmm.
Cody Urban: I’m assuming the Greek here is all past tense—“raised us up,” “seated us.” It’s like, “Wait, when did that happen? I don’t remember being seated in the heavens.” But that’s what Paul is saying, what he believes. What a profound sense of being with Jesus, sharing in his authority and responsibility.
It’s like, with great power comes great responsibility.
Anthony Delgado: Yeah, exactly. Thank you. There’s a reason that phrase resonates so much.
Cody Urban: Spider-Man. It’s Spider-Man, yes.
Anthony Delgado: That phrase gets used so prolifically because it’s true. It might sound silly, and I laughed when you said it, but there’s real truth in it.
Cody Urban: There’s a great truth in it, for sure.
Anthony Delgado: So, what does it mean to be seated with him in heavenly places? The most natural place to start is with Jesus ascending to the right hand of the Father and being seated there. That’s a statement of authority. I do think that’s the primary point Paul is making—sharing in Christ’s authority through the church.
But there could be a couple of other things happening here. In Revelation, we see the 24 elders seated around the throne. Some interpret this as Paul referring to the patriarchs of Israel and the apostles.
Cody Urban: Twelve and twelve. Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: Right, 12 and 12. Though technically, it’s not always 12 and 12 depending on how you count.
Cody Urban: True. Like, is it Joseph, or is it Ephraim and Manasseh? And with the apostles, Judas is gone—are we talking about Matthias? Or do we include Paul?
Anthony Delgado: Exactly. And Paul’s inclusion complicates things further. But honestly, it doesn’t matter because the number 12 is symbolic.
Cody Urban: Right. Right.
Anthony Delgado: So, you have the 12 and 12—symbolic of the elders—seated as the immediate divine council in the throne room of God. They’re in the inner circle, seated at Jesus’ side, in a sense. But beyond that, you also have the heavenly hosts and the saints of earth surrounding the throne.
While the 24 elders seem to have a higher authority within the hierarchy of the divine council, the human saints are also part of this divine council. Then there’s another way to understand this passage, and I believe all these perspectives are valid in their own way.
One way to interpret it is through the imagery of the marriage supper of the Lamb. When we are faithful to Christ, we recognize that we’ve been adopted as sons of God—not estranged sons, but beloved. As such, we inherit a seat at that eternal table when the church is eternally wed to Christ. This imagery is meant to provide a sense of security.
I’m not talking about eternal security in the strict doctrinal sense you might find in a Bible dictionary. But I do believe we’re meant to have confidence that when we’re following Christ, we can see ourselves as already seated with him in heavenly places.
Cody Urban: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: That said, I think the idea of sharing in Christ’s authority is probably the most central to our discussion. Colossians 2:15 says Jesus disarmed the spiritual authorities. Paul even says he “put them to open shame by triumphing over them.”
Cody Urban: Wow.
Anthony Delgado: Exactly. He put them to open shame. So, as we encounter spiritual realities in this world, we should remember that while some of the rebellious spirits—like those in Tartarus—are bound, others are still present on earth.
Cody Urban: Mm-hmm.
Anthony Delgado: That’s why Peter warns us in 1 Peter 5:8: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
Cody Urban: Right.
Anthony Delgado: The question is, if you find yourself tempted by the devil in the wilderness—or if we as the church find ourselves tempted by the devil—how are we going to handle that?
Cody Urban: Hmm.
Anthony Delgado: Are we going to be tempted to take the devil’s authority? The answer should be no, because we already have authority.
Cody Urban: Yeah. Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: So, we can follow Jesus’ example, expressing humility in these situations and understanding that we already have victory over the powers of darkness.
Cody Urban: Right. Mm-hmm.
Anthony Delgado: That understanding influences how we approach practical things like world missions and many other aspects of church life.
Cody Urban: I remember you once talking about how preaching, or even the worship gathering itself, has an element of spiritual warfare—through the songs we sing, the scriptures we read, and so on.
Anthony Delgado: Oh, absolutely.
Cody Urban: I think we really appreciate that perspective. For someone who’s never thought of it that way, it can be a game changer. It shifts the view from being a passive participant—just a seat warmer—to realizing you’re part of something profound. In worship, we declare to the evil spirits, powers, and principalities that Jesus is Lord. We do that through scripture readings, songs, and hymns.
But it’s not limited to the worship gathering. We’re part of Jesus’ mission to liberate captives from the powers of darkness—not just in worship, but also in evangelism, discipleship, and serving others. That can mean reaching family members or going on mission trips across the world.
Anthony Delgado: Exactly. The gospel is more than just the message that Jesus died for your sins. That’s true and wonderful, but the gospel is bigger. We’re also proclaiming a present kingdom where people can find refuge from the devil, from darkness, and from the brokenness of this world here and now. We’re liberating them in the authority of Jesus, the victor.
Cody Urban: Wow. That’s powerful.
Anthony Delgado: Yeah, and it’s true. It’s so interesting how many contemporary churches approach the purpose of their worship services. In a sense, we’re all doing similar things—we’re teaching, singing songs, offering prayers. Most churches, at least occasionally, celebrate the Lord’s Supper.
But many evangelical churches are highly influenced by the Zwinglian and Reformed school of thought from the Reformation. This perspective tends to frame worship as primarily about us—helping us remember so we don’t sin during the week, or teaching us so we learn something new.
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: A more historic view, which we try to reflect at Palmdale Church through liturgy, is that we aren’t just coming to church to learn or remember. We’re gathering as the church to participate in the eternal liturgy happening in the throne room of God. It’s the “already, not yet.”
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: We are already seated with Christ. So, when we partake in the Lord’s Supper, we’re seated at the table of the marriage supper of the Lamb. When we encounter spiritual realities, we don’t just say, “When Jesus returns, this will all be over.” Instead, we recognize that we are already in the throne room of God, already sharing in Christ’s authority over them.
Cody Urban: That’s good.
Anthony Delgado: It’s all of that. In Revelation 4 and 5, we see the throne room of God with the 24 elders and the hosts of heaven surrounding them. We are already seated there, already participating in that eternal divine liturgy. That’s why we gather to worship on Sunday. When we sing “Holy, holy, holy,” we are joining in what we do eternally.
It’s important to remember that we have victory over spiritual powers, but there’s also a caution not to go beyond what the Bible and Christian tradition teach. I’ve seen unhealthy practices in some Christian traditions when engaging with spiritual powers.
Cody Urban: Sure.
Anthony Delgado: On the other hand, I applaud those traditions for recognizing the reality of spiritual powers. So many conservative evangelicals want to pretend demons or fallen beings don’t exist.
Cody Urban: Right. Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: Ignoring the existence of spiritual powers isn’t a good way to deal with them. That’s exactly what they want because then they can go on tempting and leading in whatever direction they want without confrontation. In a sense, by denying their existence, you’re submitting to them. So, we need to acknowledge that they exist.
At the same time, we need to make sure we understand their place and our place. People often ask, “Can a Christian be demon-possessed?” The answer is only theoretically. What do you make of a follower of Christ, full of the Holy Spirit, pursuing the will of God through the Word and Spirit of God, claiming to be regenerate, and yet under the influence of evil spirits?
Can Christians be tempted by spirits? Absolutely. But being demonized in a significant way doesn’t make much sense. So, I’d say only theoretically. We should be leery, but not afraid.
We live in this “already, not yet” tension. We are already seated with Christ, but in another sense, we’re not fully there yet. We’re awaiting Christ’s final victory. The church advances Christ’s kingship until his enemies are made his footstool.
That phrase appears throughout Scripture. Romans 16:20 says, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”
Cody Urban: Hmm.
Anthony Delgado: And who’s “your” in that context?
Cody Urban: The church.
Anthony Delgado: Exactly. And in Hebrews 10:13, it says, “Waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.” That’s an Old Testament reference, pointing back to the Psalms. So, we’re waiting for Jesus’ enemies to be made his footstool. But when you read Romans, who makes his enemies a footstool?
Cody Urban: The church.
Anthony Delgado: Right. That’s how Paul sees it. It might feel like a heavy burden, but Jesus has already usurped their authority, handed it to us, and promised to be with us until the end of the age. When you understand it that way, it doesn’t feel nearly as overwhelming.
Cody Urban: Yeah, right.
Anthony Delgado: So there’s a sense in which the gospel is about the reality that Jesus is King, that he shares his authority with us, and that he is always present with us. That gospel is also about going forth and combating the enemies of God.
Now, the last thing I want to say about that is the announcement: How do we bring the enemies of Christ’s kingdom under his feet? That’s where we go back to the Great Commission.
Cody Urban: Yeah. Making disciples.
Anthony Delgado: Right. We disciple the nations. The core of the gospel is the proclamation that Jesus is King. An essential element of salvation is understanding his kingship.
Interestingly, in Romans 10:9—and I know we’ve talked about this a number of times, but it’s worth bringing up again because it’s so important, especially for evangelical Christians—we’re often asking, “What makes someone saved? What’s the line? How much do I have to believe?” Paul answers that question: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Cody Urban: Mm-hmm.
Anthony Delgado: So, Jesus’ kingship—his identity as Yahweh, King of the universe—is at the core of the gospel. And the second element is belief in the resurrection. Paul makes this theme clear throughout his writings. For example, in Romans 6 and 1 Corinthians 15, he teaches that Jesus’ resurrection ensures our own resurrection at the second coming, when we will rise glorified. This is a participation in his resurrection.
If you don’t believe in Jesus’ resurrection, you don’t believe in your own resurrection. And whatever you believe about eternal life isn’t what God means by eternal life. These two elements—Jesus as King and the hope of resurrection—are fundamental to the gospel.
Everything else—doctrine, church teachings—expands on these foundational truths.
Cody Urban: Yeah.
Anthony Delgado: So, we go into all nations and disciple them. How do we do that? By baptizing people, which is a declaration of allegiance to Jesus as King.
Anthony Delgado: And then, “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” That’s an understanding of his kingship. It’s repentance—it’s enacted allegiance. So, that’s what we do. We disciple the nations by baptizing for allegiance and training in allegiance through teaching.
Any last thoughts?
Cody Urban: I think you nailed it. That hit the nail on the head. It’s beautiful.
Anthony Delgado: Sounds good. Well, thanks for being on today, Cody. And thank you to everyone else for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a review—it really helps us reach more people. That’s just how the algorithms work.
Don’t forget to visit AnthonyDelgado.net to sign up for the mailing list. You’ll get updates on new episodes, resources, videos, articles, and more through a monthly newsletter delivered straight to your inbox.
If you’re looking to dive deeper, check out past episodes, books, videos, and other content. Next time, we’ll be exploring how the evangelistic implications of the kingdom gospel shape our mission. We’ll dive into the application of this discussion, fleshing out what it means for believers to proclaim Jesus as King—not only as the path to salvation but as a call to participate in building his kingdom here and now.
We hope you’ll join us for that episode. Until next time, God bless, and we’ll see you soon.
