Kingdom of God--Part III
May the Lord guide my thoughts and words and may he guide the understanding of those who read.
In Part III, I would like to simply distinguish between the Kingdom of God, kingdom of men and the God ordained kingdom of biblical Israel and indentify the main elements of each.
The kingdoms or governments of men are organized around laws, statutes and ordinances that are imposed open a population of men. Whether the kingdoms are democratic or dictatorial, laws and statutes are written and imposed upon the population. Sometimes the population agrees and sometimes they disagree with the laws imposed upon them. When the kingdom of men write laws and statutes, they impose stiff penalities for disobeience. The essence of the kingdoms of men is laws exteriorly imposed upon a population with stiff penalities for disobedience.
Next, I will like to look at the elements of the God-ordained kingdom of ancient biblical Israel. This kingdom was unique and setup by God as a bridge between the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of men. In the ancient Hebrew kingdom, God established laws, statutes and ordinances that were voluntarily imposed upon the people. God asked the people if they would obey these laws and be His people and the Hebrew people responded YES. The laws of ancient Israel were still external laws imposed on the people, but they were law, statutes and ordinances that came from God and not from men. Also, somewhat like democracies, the laws were agreed upon by the poeple.
What was God's purpose in setting up this new type of kingdom where the laws were given by God and voluntarily imposed upon the nation of the ancient Israelites? God was setting up a kingdom among men to serve as a school master to teach them about the future coming of the Kingdom of God through the Messiah. In this kingdom, God gave them priests, prophets and judges and kings. The Law of God served as a schoolmaster to teach the children of ancient Israel and all of mankind that no external could ever be obeyed by fallen man.
The entire history of ancient Israel is man's attempt at obeying the law and failing and then the punishment. It was a university for God to teach mankind of the impossibility of obeidence from the heart withut having a new heart implant. God was setting the foundation for the need of the New Covenant. "If the first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second."Heb 10.
In the Kingdom of God, God first recreates the human heart through faith in Jesus Christ the crucified and only begotten Son of God.
In the New Covenant, God first writes His laws on the human hearts and puts them in the human mind through faith in Jesus. He then fills us with His Holy Spirit. Jesus becomes the King (the civil administrator), the Priest (eternally sacraficed for our sins) and prophet to feed us His will continuously through our recreatd human spirit and the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is the Kingdom of God in man
Now God governs and reigns through the human heart. The laws, statutes and ordinances are not imposed from the exterior but are desired and obeyed from the interior. The nature of God is in man and man is in God through Christ. They are one.--the reign of the Kingdom of God. The sceptre of this Kingdom is the sceptre of righteouness because th nature of God lives in man.
This mysterious Kingdom unseen by the human eye crushes all human kingdoms by love of enemies, mercy, humility, etc. etc. The unsaved and human kingdom are baffled by this mustard seed kingdom. It will grow and grow until the whole earth is consumed by its power of love.
THIS IS THE MYTERY OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD WITHIN YOU
May Christ open the hearts of the hungry and humble that they may enter into the Kingdom of God by God writing his law upon their hearts through faith in his holy Son Jesus. Through faith in Christ the Kingdom of God will enter you.
Emile, called as a servant of Christ to proclaim the Gospel once and forever delievered unto the Apostles and disciples. |
