The Mystery of the Gospel, Part 2: The "Two Kingdoms"

This is from the book The Mystery of the Gospel:

The "Two Kingdoms"

"For centuries the nation of Israel longed for the dawning of the golden age foretold by their prophets--an age when the government of God would be established over the whole earth.

"Isaiah wrote in glowing terms of the day when nature would be tamed so that the wolf would lie down peacefully with the lamb and a little child would play safely around the cobra's nest. Streams of water would break forth upon the thirsty wilderness, and the desert would blossom as the rose.

"Micah foresaw this age of peace and prosperity in terms of Israel's exaltation above the nations and the flowing of the Gentile peoples to Jerusalem to learn the ways of the God of Abraham. Nations would beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Never again would they train for war.

"It is not surprising then that when John the Baptist boldly announced that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, there was great excitement throughout the Jewish nation. Thousands recognized him as the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy about a 'voice in the wilderness' preparing the way for the Messiah.

"When Jesus strode into Galilee to commence His ministry, He confirmed John's proclamation. 'The time is fulfilled,' He explained, 'and the kingdom of God is at hand.' He called upon men to believe the good news of the imminent kingdom.

"The prophets had spoken of a godly government on earth and the restoration of the Jewish nation. Consequently the Jews were looking for an earthly, literal fulfillment in the form of a conquering deliverer who would overthrow Rome and install Israel at the helm of world affairs.

"But if the fulfillment of the prophets' words was to take the form of an earthly empire, why did Jesus continually describe the kingdom by saying, 'It is like . . .'? Throughout His ministry He employed ingenious analogies to illustrate the kingdom in a manner that would be understood only by the initiated. To the disciples it was given to known 'the mysteries of the kingdom,' but to the masses these were hidden. (See Matthew chapter 13.) Hadn't Israel always understood what the kingdom would be like? Didn't the prophets speak of it in explicit, clear terms? Why then did Jesus make the kingdom a mystery?

"Despite the expectations of the Jewish people, the first century A.D. passed off without their deliverance. In fact, instead of being exalted as the leading nation of the earth, in 70 A.D. Rome destroyed the temple and plundered Jerusalem. And over nineteen hundred years have rolled by without the fulfillment of their hopes.

"Was John the Baptist in error? Not according to Jesus. He explained what the disciples were 'seeing' what the prophets wrote of and what the Jewish nation was expecting but missed because they didn't have 'eyes to see'! (Matt. 13:17)

"Did Jesus picture the kingdom as being offered, rejected, and finally postponed for perhaps 2,000 years? Was it a kingdom of a future age?

"In the parable of the wheat and the tares, Jesus described the kingdom as present in the world today. At the harvest, at the end of the age, 'The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend.' The field--His kingdom--is the world. The offenders (the tares) are gathered out of the kingdom. The kingdom isn't established when the angels are sent forth at the coming of the Son of man; it is already here! The children of the kingdom are the good seed, growing right alongside the children of the wicked one, the bad seed. It is a kingdom which is present now.

"Jesus also likened the kingdom to a net of fish. At the end of the age the bad fish are cast out from among the good. The net is here today, spanning the time from the first coming of Jesus up until His second advent. Then the kingdom will be manifested in fullness, and the sons of the king will shine forth in the glory of the kingdom.

"The parable of the grain of mustard seed illustrates the tiny beginnings of the kingdom. The government of God began with just one man, Jesus of Nazareth. But it has grown steadily until now the birds of the air (the nations of the world) are coming and finding refuge in its branches.

"Again, the kingdom is like leaven which spreads silently, almost imperceptibly, until the whole of the dough is leavened. It has been expanding ever since Jesus established it, increasingly bringing its powerful influence to bear upon the affairs of men. Its citizens are like salt, 'the salt of the earth' as Jesus called them, adding savor to an unsavory world.

"All of these parables speak of the kingdom of God as a present reality. But it is not an earthly government established upon worldly principles. It is a different kind of government. That is why Jesus spoke of the 'mystery' of the kingdom.

"When Jesus appeared before Pilate on trial for His life, accused of being Caesar's rival, He explained to Pilate, 'My kingdom is not of this realm.' Elsewhere, He had told His persecutors that the kingdom of God would not come with 'observation.' It wouldn't be the kind of government that you could point to and say, 'Here it is!' or 'There it is!', as with the empires of this material dimension. It would not be part of the social order.

"What kind of kingdom was Jesus talking about? He was speaking about a heavenly kingdom.

"The Psalmist said that the Lord is a great God, and a 'great King above all gods.' He is pictured as reigning over all creation, the King of creation. 'The Lord reigns,' he affirmed over and over. 'O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, fear before Him, all the earth. Say among the heathen that the Lord reigns.' Indeed, 'His kingdom rules over all' (Psa. 103:19).

"The kingdom of God is first and foremost the reign of God. It is not principally a territory, or earthly government. It may be expressed at various times in such ways, as it was in the days of the Old Testament theocracy of Israel. Essentially God's kingdom is His reign in the lives of men. It is an invisible kingdom.

"The watchword of the earthly disciples was, 'Jesus is Lord!' It looked like Caesar was on the throne, but in reality Jesus was on the throne as King of kings and Lord of lords.

"The ancients conceived of heaven as a distant place above the stars. The first heaven was above the earth's atmosphere. The second was still higher, where the stars are. The third heaven, where God's throne is located, was thought to be beyond the second heaven.

"But it is clear that the kingdom of heaven of which Jesus spoke was an eternal rather than a temporal kingdom.

We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. II Corinthians 4:18

"God's throne, the third heaven, is not 'way off' beyond the stars, but is all around us, though invisible. That is why Paul could quote a Greek poet who said of God, 'In Him we live, and move, and have our being.' The earth is likened to His footstool. He 'fills heaven and earth.' Heaven, then, is a different dimension, which, although invisible, is all around us.

"The author of Hebrews said of believers that we 'are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven . . . .' We are already there, in the heavenly city, he said.

"Paul also explained that believers have entered into the heavenly places. Though we were dead in our sins, God 'made us alive together with Christ . . . and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus' (Eph. 2:5,6).

"Scripture places our being in heaven firmly in the now. We are citizens of God's kingdom, alive in the heavenly dimension where Christ reigns as King. We do not have to go somewhere to be in heaven; the kingdom of heaven is a spiritual realm all around us, which though it cannot be seen with human eyes is totally real.

"This is what Jesus meant when He told Nicodemus, who was expecting a literal government to appear on earth, that the kingdom of God cannot be 'seen' by human beings. It is invisible, like the wind. You enter it by becoming a spiritual person. 'That which is born of flesh is flesh,' Jesus explained to him, 'and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.' Believers have experienced a birth into the spiritual dimension, the realm of God's reign, the kingdom of heaven.

"Jesus is said to be the 'first-born among many brethren.' This birth took place when He was raised from the dead into the heavens. He is described as 'the first-born from the dead' (Col. 1:18). He is the pioneer of the kingdom, the captain of our salvation who has blazed the trail into the heavenly places ahead of us.

"Paul assures us that when Jesus rose, we were raised in Him to be seated in the heavens. Through our resurrection and ascension in Him, we are also born from above. Though there is yet to be the bodily manifestation of our resurrected life, in the spirit realm the reality has already come into being. We are today in the kingdom of heaven, under the direct reign of the King.

"The prophets had to write within the limitations of their day. They knew that a golden age must one day dawn when God's rule would be a reality in men's lives. But they searched in vain for an understanding of the exact manner or time of the events about which they prophesied.

"Besides, how could God portray the kingdom of heaven for men who had known only His external rule in the earthly theocratic kingdom of Israel? How could they understand spiritual things when the Spirit had not come to give inner enlightenment? Would it have seemed like a golden age if God had told them that all that was meaningful and precious to the Jew under the old covenant--Jerusalem, the temple, the priesthood, the sacrificial system, their laws--would be set aside because they were just a shadow of reality?

"So He showed them the golden age in the idealized terminology which they understood--that of the old covenant, and the kingdom. He described it as a worldwide feast of tabernacles, with all nations coming up to Jerusalem to learn the laws of their Maker. It would be like everyone keeping a sabbath, worshipping the true God in His temple, and living under the umbrella of Israel. These were beautiful symbols.

"Many of us have been focusing on a physical manifestation of the kingdom, as did Jesus' first disciples. How many believers there are who fail to realize their inheritance in the kingdom today because they have been taught to live only for the return of Christ. This world then becomes a temporary but terrible place to live in, and the believer almost wishes his present life away, ever hoping that Jesus might come 'tonight.'

"While we have the expectation of the Lord's return, and though indeed this event will be the climax of history, once our spiritual sight is reoriented by an inner revelation of the present kingdom and our life in the heavenly places, there is much to live for here and now. An understanding of the mystery of the gospel--the reign of God in our lives today--changes our whole perspective on life. We begin to live victoriously and fully now.

"In Christ Jesus the old things have passed away, and 'behold, all things are become new.' This is the unshakable kingdom which will outlast every physical thing (Heb. 12:28). It is ours to be enjoyed today."