The Netflix series “The Crown” is in season 2 now.  I have got as far as the end of episode 6 of season 1.  I like it since in general it seems to be historically true though with the usual dramatic license taken here and there to emphasize or dramatize an aspect of the truth.

One of the things that is striking about it so far is the self-denial that the Queen has to go through.  She really cannot do what she wants to do.  What is peculiar about that is that she is Queen and so, in theory, can do pretty much anything she wants to do.  In practice she is bound by tradition and duty to a higher standard.   The Queen answers to God ultimately according to that tradition which in itself is based on the bible.  So the constraints on her are those imposed by God (Romans 13).

Jesus expressed the ultimate submission, from which monarchs and disciples derive there submission to God,  in John 5:30:

“I can of Myself do nothing.  As I hear I judge and My judgement is righteous because I do not seek My own will but the will of the One who sent Me.”

To have communion with God and to do His will is to be in self denial.  Jesus says elsewhere that unless we deny ourselves and take up the Cross daily we cannot be His disciples.

Do you want to be a disciple?

If so, will you submit to Him in love and happily give up the freedom to do what you want?

If you have been born again, this is, in fact, the only way forward.