The Kingdom Consciousness of a True Disciple (part two)
By Jay Wegter
What is the message of the coming Kingdom of God: the sovereign King of creation will manifest Himself as King of the nations. The Apostle Paul captures the gravity of this event, “. . . that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords; who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen” (1 Tim 6:14-16). The saint’s great hope is that he is joined to Christ, his covenant Head. For in Christ, we have peace, safety, adoption, and refuge. It was the humiliation and condescension of Christ in His cross- work that purchased our security in the new covenant (1 Cor 11:25; 2 Cor 8:9). This great climatic future event of God manifesting Himself as King will be realized through the ministry of Messiah (see Isaiah chapters 11 and 49). “The Sovereign Lord comes with power and His arm rules for Him” (Is 40:10) (R. B. Gaffin Jr., “The Kingdom of God,” New Dictionary of Theology, IVP, 1988, p. 367). The gospel call to faith and repentance is not timeless, the message was preached with urgency, “the time has come.” For the gospel call is joined to the reality of what is still impending: the Kingdom of God. History is hurtling toward its predetermined end—history is linear, not cyclical as paganism suggests. Therefore, the repenting sinner looks to the new and final order at the end of history—these Kingdom promises which fill the O.T. have arrived with Jesus. This helps us understand why Christ and the Apostles announced the Kingdom in their gospel preaching. For the proclamation of the Kingdom was made against the backdrop of the O.T. Kingdom promises to Israel. Christ’s imminent glorious return will mark the coming of the Kingdom in its physical form. The Kingdom will be ushered in with judgment. Christ as Judge will execute ‘perfect discrimination’ between the sheep and the goats (Mt 25:31-34, 41). The references to “weeping and gnashing of teeth” are found in the Kingdom parables of Matthew 13:39-42, 49-50). What an awesome and sobering thought that our meek and lowly Savior returns as Judge (Jn 5:22-29; Acts 17:31). The Kingdom belongs to Christ, it is given to Christ (Heb 1:8; 2 Tim 4:18; 2 Pet 1:11; Lu 22:29). It is the Kingdom of Christ and of God (Eph 5:5; Rev 11:15; 1 Cor 15:24). Believers (those for whom Christ is ‘Lamb’ and ‘Lord’) will inherit the eternal Kingdom (in which Christ is also ‘Lion’—Rev. 5:5)—they will reign with Him—they will be triumphant in the ‘Lion program’. In the N.T. the Kingdom of God is the divine authority and rule given by the Father to the Son (Lu 22:29). Christ will exercise this rule until He has subdued all that is hostile to God. Then, He will ultimately return the Kingdom—His messianic authority—to the Father (1 Cor 15:24-28). For the present, the end of the age will see a great apostasy, or falling away from the faith just prior to Christ’s glorious return (2 Thess 2:3). The world is now filled with scoffers who are willfully ignorant of this hostile takeover in which Christ shall crush all opposition to God in the coming Day of the Lord (Rev 11:15; 2 Pet 3:3-13). Believers are aware of the ‘already’—‘not yet’ dynamic of the Kingdom. For, the death and resurrection of Jesus was the decisive point in the coming of the Kingdom (Mt 16:21; Mk 9:31; Luke 18:31-34; 24:7). According to Colossians 2:13-15, Christ’s redemptive work disarmed the rulers and authorities, making the rescue of the elect possible. In other words, Christ’s sacrifice in the place of His people not only brought redemption to the elect; it also stripped Satan of his weapons (2:15). The Kingdom is now manifest in heaven’s spiritual rule over the hearts of believers (Luke 17:21); and one day will be established in a literal earthly kingdom (Rev 20:4-6). In one sense the kingdom is a present reality, but in its fullest sense it awaits a yet-future fulfillment (MacArthur Study Bible, p. 1396). I hope we are seeing why the thoughts of a true disciple of Christ are dominated by thoughts of the Kingdom of God. ‘Kingdom consciousness’ is not theoretical and ideal; it is intensely practical for the holiness demanded in everyday life (1 Jn 3:1-3). The subject of the Kingdom of God contains elements which can be confusing to those who have not studied its phases, or stages of installment. Perhaps the easiest way to understand these phases or installments of the Kingdom is to recognize how they are tied to the work of Christ. First, the Kingdom is present in Christ’s earthly work and ministry— for His ‘in-breaking’ into human history was “that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn 3:8), and “give His life a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45) (the church Christ is building manifests the Kingdom; but is not equivalent to the Kingdom). Second, the Kingdom has been inaugurated spiritually in that Christ completed the work His Father gave Him to do, and has been exalted to the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:34; 5:31; Phil 2:9). In referring to His exalted state Christ could say, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Mt 28:18). Third, at His glorious return, the Kingdom of God invades human history in power and glory and judgment, signaling the beginning of the Messianic age (Mt 8:11-12; 2 Thess 2:6-10) (Gaffin, p. 368). God is building His Kingdom one soul at a time in this present age. The subject of the gloriousness of the coming Kingdom fills the believer with worshipful gratitude. For, the ‘Lamb-Lord’ messianic program involves the exertion of supernatural power every single time a sinner is saved (Eph 1:19-23; James 1:18; 1 Pet 1:3).