“The kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ. And He shall reign forever and ever!”
I can’t really recite those immortal words without hearing the powerful choral strains of Handel’s Hallelujah chorus echoing in my brain. I suspect that the heavenly choir itself will be singing that masterpiece right up to and forever after the final consummation, resulting in “a new Heaven and a new Earth,” ushering in the blessed, eternal state.
The kingdom of God, of Heaven, of Christ Jesus our Lord, is far more than an incidental theme of holy scripture. Kingdom created, polluted, re-taken, restored, recreated--this is certainly the background theme that ties all of the varied subtexts of the Bible together. And in the New Testament Gospels and other apostolic accounts, the Lord’s kingdom takes center stage again and again as the King Himself steps onto the stage of earth’s history.
The Son of God had, like David of old, been anointed by His Father as the rightful King of kings and Lord of lords. Various Old Testament “Christophanies” such as the Commander of the Lord’s armies who faced off with Joshua, suggested that God the Son had visited the earth personally before His future incarnation. But Jesus’ conception and birth as a human child meant far more than just another “sightseeing” visit, only to return to His past glory.
In becoming a man, God’s anointed King was stepping across a veritable Rubicon of space and time that would unite godhead with humanity in an indissoluble link--the Person of Jesus Christ. Saint Matthew’s genealogy traced the kingly line of David to its ultimate Potentate, the One who was to receive “all authority in heaven and earth.” The risen Christ had finished His life of active and passive obedience to the Father, which had secured our redemption from sin and death. And on the basis of His hard-fought victory, He gave the martial orders to His followers: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations... You shall be my witnesses.”
Back in the Garden of Eden, the original Man and Woman fell to the wiles of the devil, surrendering to him the power and authority over the earth that their Creator had meant to be ours. Ever since then, down through our tragic and sickening history, mankind has made a mess of this world, all in the name of pride, arrogance, sinful autonomy and evil desire. Greed, lust, laziness, violence, wrath, and all the other escapees from Pandora’s box, have plagued the hearts, minds and accomplishments of humanity. It seemed like God’s kingdom-dream had been a cruel joke, a pipe dream never to be realized.
But, as the long, intricate pages of the Bible reveal to us, for centuries the sovereign unseen hand of God was moving, predicting, presaging, preparing the stage for the promised “Seed of the woman” who was to crush the wily serpent’s ugly head!
The story of the Old Testament is a story about kings and kingdoms. Most of the kings portrayed were inadequate at best, and positively bestial at worst. Earthly kings comprised a “rogues gallery” of imperfect--in fact, rebellious--rascals and tyrants. They squandered and misused the power that Providence put into their hands. And the Lord God had no alternative but to punish them and the wayward people who followed their loathsome example. And to add insult to injury, He lashed their backs and their foolish pride with the whips of nations even more wicked than His own chosen people had become!
With infinite, sublime patience, Jehovah God was teaching them, and us, and the world, that Adam and Eve’s disobedience--their “declaration of independence” from their Creator, was not worth the price they and we would have to pay. Satan had decided that, for himself, it was “better to rule in hell, than to serve in heaven.” And Adam’s race had chosen to join that rebellion, turning our backs on the loving kingship of our kind heavenly Father. But God was not willing to “wash His hands” of our predicament and let us face eternal hell with the devilish dragon!
From all eternity, His anointed King was preparing to enter history as ONE of us. Armed with the “full armor of God” and filled with the Spirit. Resisting Satan’s temptations, casting out his minions from their human hosts, remaining strong in His times of pain and weakness, willing to pay the horrendous price of forsaken-ness and death on the cross.
“You shall be my witnesses,” the King told his followers. King Jesus calls us His witnesses still. Yes, I’m a citizen of the United States, and proud of it. But I’m enormously MORE glad to be a subject of a far BETTER nation--a KINGDOM that will never be shaken. It is a kingdom that is calling out to those in rebellion, those who are the King’s sworn enemies. It is a kingdom that offers peace, joy, love, mercy, forgiveness... and eternal life.
To enter this better kingdom costs a person nothing in the way of qualifications or payment. Jesus the King has supplied both the holiness we need, and the payment we could never afford.
On the other hand, entering God’s kingdom costs a person EVERYTHING. You must renounce and turn your back on your previous life of rebellion and self-sufficiency. You must willingly begin again, with Christ as your King.
Believe me, you’ll find in Jesus not only a gracious Ruler and Protector, but your dearest Friend. Leave your past behind you, child of this world, and kneel before your true King.
MNA
11/14/2020
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