Does Our Individualism Prevent Submitting to the Kingship of Christ?

In the United States "individualism" has historically been one of the foundations of society. " John Locke (1632–1704) is among the most influential political philosophes of the modern period. In the Two Treatises of Government, he defended the claim that men are by nature free and equal against claims that God had made all people naturally subject to a monarch. He argued that people have rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and property, that have a foundation independent of the laws of any particular society. Locke used the claim that men are naturally free and equal as part of the justification for understanding legitimate political government as the result of a social contract where people in the state of nature conditionally transfer some of their rights to the government in order to better ensure the stable, comfortable enjoyment of their lives, liberty, and property." (1) Consequently, Americans have in general resisted the control of their lives by any central governing authority. Submission has only been granted through a democratic process and “consent of the governed”.

 In contrast, Christ describes His domain as the Kingdom of Heaven or Kingdom of God. Mark has 20 references to “kingdom” or Kingdom of God; Matthew has 54 references to “kingdom” and 38 to “kingdom of Heaven”; Luke Acts has 46 references of “kingdom” with 38 with the “kingdom of God”; in John there are 15 direct references to Jesus as “King”. (2) Clearly, the gospels depicts relates our citizenship as one being subject to a “king”.

Our heritage rails against such a state. Our very Declaration of Independence stated we have had “a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny” (3). Our world is not the world of monarchies or dictators. In the core of our being we resist submitting to those who are associated with absolute power. We are schooled in the belief that we are and should be “free.” Kings are associated with suppression of liberty and despotism. We do not take kindly to be being “subjects” of anyone. We certainly do not acknowledge anyone in our society as “Lord”. And, we do not “bow down” to anyone. 

Does this affect our attitude towards “Jesus as Lord?” How do we relate to being “subjects” in a Kingdom? Yet we are told that: 

Philippians 2:9–11 (NIV)
"9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

It would seem our individualism may get in the way of acknowledging Jesus as Lord. Instead we wish to “do our own thing” in religion as we are prone to do as secular beings.