The Lord instructs His disciples on their antithesis from the world in saying - “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19). It is because the Christian does not belong to this world, that its citizens hate him. According to our Lord, this hatred is to be an expected aspect of the Christian life and not one that we will see abated in this present age. In fact Christ emphasises this pilgrim separation in His prayer for His people (John 17:14-16). The Christian is not of the world even as their king is not of the world (John 17:16). Looking at this through a kingdom lens helps us understand why Christ emphasises that both He and His people are not of this world. It aligns with the theme that the Scriptures have drawn out so far, that the world belongs to Satan and is under a curse, awaiting destruction.
Tag: Redemptive Kingdom
Understanding the Great Commission
We read about the Great Commission in Matt 28:18-20, where Christ says - “18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” The Dominionist reading of the Text goes like this - Since Christ has been given all authority, Satan has been divested all his authority. Therefore, it is the duty of the church to invade his kingdom and establish itself over the earth. Christ’s statement that His kingdom is not of the earth refers to its origins in heaven and not to its purpose in this age. Since the Great Commission calls for the Church to teach all nations to observe all of God’s commandments, one of the ends of the proclamation of the Gospel is the transformation of societies and establishment of righteous laws. On the surface this sounds like a coherent understanding of the passage. Yet, this departs from the themes and motifs that have already been revealed in the Old Testament and are further revealed in the New Testament.
Redemptive Kingdom Structure in the New Covenant: Part 3 – King and Holy War
In the Old Covenant, the Israelites waged holy war against the Caananites within the boundaries of the promised land. Likewise the Christian is also engaged in holy war. In the New Covenant, there are two categories in which this war is waged and these categories are not mutually exclusive. Since the Christian himself is the domain of God’s Kingdom, we wage an internal holy war to cleanse ourselves. Then we also wage an external holy war against the forces of darkness. Since the Kingdom of God is not a physical kingdom, this war is not a physical one but spiritual in nature.
Redemptive Kingdom Structure in the New Covenant: Part 2 – Nation
The second aspect of a kingdom is its people. Whom does the king rule over? We saw that when the sons of Adam rebelled at Babel, they were handed over as possessions to false gods. However, God set apart Abraham and His descendents to be His special possession and also promised that all the nations, i.e. the sons of Adam would be blessed through his Seed. We have already seen that the Seed spoken of is Christ and how those in Christ are inheritors of the Abrahamic promise. Our hearts are cleansed to make place for God to work in us. How does God accept clean vessels as His special people?
Redemptive Kingdom Structure in the New Covenant: Part 1 – Land
Our studies in the Old Covenant has shown us that God’s kingdom manifests itself with a King, a land over which He rules and a nation or people who serve Him as priests and kings. In the Old Covenant this was revealed in types and shadows. The land of Canaan was the holy land, the territory set apart by God for His Divine rule. The Hebrews were God’s chosen people, His own nation, who were set apart when the rest of the sons of Adam were disinherited at Babel. Finally, David and his sons were appointed as kings, to rule over this holy nation as the image and representation of their God, just as the kings of the nations around them, imaged their own gods.
Redemptive Kingdom Structure in the Old Covenant: Part 1
We have already seen that God’s Kingdom manifests with Him as King, a land over which He rules and a nation who are His subjects. This provides background to understanding how God’s Kingdom was structured in the Old Covenant. It is important to understand why the Kingdom was structured in the way it was and its implications to us Christians in the New Covenant. Some of the concepts have already been introduced, particularly that of typology. The Old Testament was never made to be a standalone. It is a part of a complete narrative, a grand symphony of redemption. We become prone to falling for Jewish dreams when we fail to read the Old Testament in the light of the New.
Babel and the Abrahamic Promises
The Great Flood had cleansed the world of all creatures except for Noah, his household and two of every kind of creature. The aftermath of the deluge was God’s covenant with Noah and his descendants to preserve the world and natural order until its final destruction. Humanity however, had not learnt its lesson. Rather than accept the curse, their fate, cease from their sins and await God’s redemption, they would now seek to engage in a project to build their own Eden, a temple by which they could make a name for themselves. This carnal impulse to establish utopian religious and civilizational projects in this age is typified by the Tower of Babel. In it we see both the continuation of the disinheritance of Adam’s race and the beginnings of God’s plan of redemption for Adam’s race.
Deo Vicit Mundum 