A few years ago, my daughter was in tears when I picked her up from school.
“What happened, darling? Are you hurt?” I asked her.
She shook her head, tears running down her cheeks. Biting her lips, she told me why, almost whispering, “They said I am not a princess.” Apparently, during her recess time in school, some of the girls in her school teased her about the meaning of her name, which is princess, and told her she was not a princess because she did not look royal and there was no kingdom in the city we live in. She was nine years old.
Children are so trusting. They are like sponges that absorb almost anything they are given, and this first information or knowledge stays with them forever. Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it, such is a wisdom from Solomon in the book of Proverbs. The thing is, this truth applies to both good (right) knowledge and bad (wrong) knowledge. That is why the media is so rampant with all kinds of content trying to get the minds of our children. What they feed on, or rather, we as parents and guardians allow them to feed on, shape their thinking and beliefs.
Growing up, I experienced both eras when televisions were a rare sight as well as when the Internet was birthed. I was blessed that my childhood was mostly filled with playing with my cousins in nature, running, and exploring things, and not stuck in front of a screen most of the time. And although I was the only girl, and we climbed up things unfit for girls in my time, tree, cabinet, and all, I believed with all my heart that I was a princess. Whether it was from a princess movie I watched or something my parent told me, I cannot remember, but that never left me.
However, I could not prove it.
Not until decades later, when my knowledge of who I am in Christ increased. I learned that my faith in Jesus had changed everything. It was not just a matter of not ended up in hell and I would go to heaven one day. But I understood why the cross is the power of God unto salvation. It is about what happened at the cross and what happened when someone receives the salvation in Jesus Christ, His faith and His sacrifice.
The Power of the Cross
Before the cross, I was a sinner, condemned to death. There was sin in my blood because Adam fell, sin and death entered the world (Romans 5) and we who are of Adam were all made sinners and the wage of sin is death. We can only be saved if there is a righteous man in exchange for us, taking our place. One sinner, replaced by one righteous man. Seven billion sinners, seven billion righteous men. The problem is, there is not one who is righteous, all of us have sin in our blood.
So God, because of His great love for us not wanting us to perish, took this into His own hands. There was no other way out, there was not one righteous but Him. He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who was and is one with Him, to be born as a man, so that He can be our substitute, for it is not possible that the blood of lambs, bulls, and goats to take away sins, this was just a covering until the real Lamb of God came. Jesus came to be our ransom, to pay for the sins of the whole world with His own blood. He can because He is God, one drop of His blood is more than enough.
But Jesus died for us. He did not have to die: He had no sin in Him, and He did no sin. The cross was for you and I. That is actually our cross He bore. He took our place. He became you and I and suffered the punishment we deserve, even death. How you may ask? Through faith.
God created faith, which is outside time so that we do not have to go through the real cross physically, but through faith, by believing in our hearts. When we partake in the work of Jesus at the cross by faith (we died when Jesus died, we were punished when Jesus was flogged, and we were resurrected when Jesus was resurrected), God takes it as a reality.
This is the mystery and the power of the cross. The book of Romans chapter six to eight explains what happened at the cross so excellently. It is my favourite passage in the Bible, let me quote you some:
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he lives, he lives unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6:1-11
The Real Royalty
When I saw this truth, that I had died through the cross of Jesus Christ, it completely changed my walk with God as a Christian. I had been a believer for more than two decades but never heard the gospel preached and explained this way. I am dead the moment I received Christ into my life. That is the truth because His word says so. Anyone who received Christ as His Lord and Saviour is baptized into death, he is partaking, acknowledging by faith, that the cross was his, but Christ bore it physically for him.
I am now a new creation, resurrected as one with Christ, what He is I am. We know that God is the King of all, with Christ as His Heir. Now that we are saved in Christ, the Bible says we are made children of God Most High, heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:14-17). So if God is the King of all and we are His children, that makes us princes and princesses. The Bible even calls us kings. I explained it in detail in the Queen article.
We might not be dressed in purple and wearing crowns now, or drenched in luxury as the royalties in this world are, but the truth is we are the real royalty, the real royal family, and we are part of this family. In God’s eyes, we are kings, queens, princes, and princesses. Our mark of royalty is mercy and kindness, as Jesus shares in Luke 6:35.
I shared the same with my daughter, and I encouraged her to read and study the Bible herself to prove this word, since she came to Jesus when she was five years old, deciding with her own freewill that Jesus was the God she would give her life to.
She is coming to twelve years young now, and there is no longer doubt in her that she is indeed a princess. She reads and understands the Bible, rightly dividing the truth. This is the best gift I can give her, knowledge of the truth so that her faith in Christ lasts through eternity.
Setting her up in this foundation is critical. Once she is planted in the truth of who she is, her act and speech will align with her identity. Instead of being conformed to this world, she will be transformed to be more and more like Jesus.
My prayer and blessing to you is that you would share this truth too with your young girls, princesses in Christ, in your life. Contrary to what most believe, this truth is not too hard for them to understand, no, they are the best recipients Jesus said, because as children their faith is the strongest, and they believe easily. As we plant our daughters in the truth of the cross, we shall reap godly queens who will flourish in Godly purpose one day and bringing the kingdom of Heaven into the earth, being fruitful in every good work to the glory of God our Father and of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
