The Kingdom of God (3)

Kingdom Reigning

Apostle Paul seems to agree with his fellow-apostle John, since in 2 Timothy 2:11-12, he writes: “For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him; If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.”  Paul does seem to have this as a bit of a theme.  In Romans 8:17 for instance, he says, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.  Whatever else we say, “co-heir” is quite specific.  We are not the heir’s lackey, but co-heir or ‘joint heir’ – confirming that we will actually be reigning.  Through Christ, we are children of the Eternal Royal Family and will co-reign with Jesus.

This gives me considerable encouragement.  I know I am not the King of Kings, but, in Jesus, I am a king.  According to Hebrews 11:6, God rewards those who diligently seek Him.  If I take the Old Testament seriously, then I can be encouraged by Proverbs 25:2 – “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.”  As a ‘king in waiting’, I am determined to search out the matter of what my reigning will involve.

However, as good as Paul’s writing to Timothy is, it tells us only a little more than does John in his Revelation.

But he does give us a bit more to go on.  Mind you, they are only hints.  If I may use an analogy, it’s like Paul has these ‘windows’ in his place – windows on a subject that he might very well have known much more about than he reveals to us in what we have of his writings.  But the windows are very tiny.

In a kind of passing comment, he says to the Corinthians, “Don’t you know that we will judge the world; don’t you know that we will judge angels?”  1 Corinthians 6:2&3.

The first little bit extra we can see is that those who died with Him and shared the wedding breakfast with Him will be involved in judging the world.  What world?

If Revelation 21 is to be believed, John’s vision also included “a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea.”  This has promise – there is a new heaven and a new earth.  To make things even more interesting and promising, there is also a “new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven.”

John’s revelation goes on to reveal that God’s age-old promise is now coming true – “... a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men and He will live with them.  They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away.’”

And then the crowning glory: “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘See – I am making everything new.’”

Think about it!  Everything new.  New heaven, new earth, new Jerusalem, no more death, no more tears, no more pain.  And God now living with men as He originally intended when He created man so long ago!  This is bigger, better and infinitely longer lasting than the life of man as we have known it for thousands of years.  And if it takes kings and their retinues to ‘administer the realm’ on this earth, I suggest it will likewise take ‘administrators of the realm’ following this awesome, unimaginable new order of King Jesus.

Paul’s second window is perhaps even more enlightening.  “We will judge angels.”  To open this up a bit, I would like to create a bit of a montage of Prince Charles and the British royal family (below).  Study it and see if you can make sense of it by yourself first.

This second little window of Paul’s relates to the yellow dotted line.  Throughout Charles’ life – indeed, even before he was born – the royal family had household servants.  These servants, in the early years, had a role in the early development of the future king, even to the extent that sometimes he has things done to him and for him by the servants.  From time to time the servants would have told the young prince what to do.  Now that is not the future state of Charles as king, is it?  As king, he will tell the servants what to do.  So, somewhere in the passing years, while the servants remain servants, Charles goes from a child under tutelage to a ruler in his own right.  The former state and the latter state are two entirely different things, but it is the same person.

For one thing, I suggest this is how it was for Jesus.  Just like Charles, Jesus ‘learned obedience by what he suffered’ as part of his journey from babe in Bethlehem, through confounding the priests, to reigning on His throne.

So it is also for us relative to our birth and life in the eternal royal family of God.  If the scriptures are to be believed, we were – as every human is – “born in sin”.  As Paul says, before our new birth we were slaves to sin, death, fear and the elemental spirits of the world.

In the analogy I am using, ‘household servants’ equals angels.  When we are just born into God’s family, I believe that our Father sees to it that there are angels all about, ministering to us and protecting us for our role as future joint-heir with Jesus.  However, in the eternal kingdom, we will rule over the angels.  Somewhere along the journey, as we are transformed by the Spirit more and more, from ‘one degree of glory to another’, into the full likeness of Jesus, we find the angels less directly involved and increasingly ‘observers’ or ‘overseers’ of our life.

In my frame of reference, I think the fallen angel – our arch enemy – knew this is what happens and despised the idea of these puny, dirty little humans ultimately judging him, so he rebelled and took a third of the household servants with him.  This matter is for another time.  For now, think about an eternal state “in which dwells righteousness”, with Jesus and His Bride on the throne, administering a new heaven, a new earth, a new Jerusalem and a period of unmitigated and untold sowing and reaping of the glory of God.  And added to this mix is “the lake of fire” – whatever that is – into which the fallen angels and those who choose to side with them are sent.

We don’t know much about this period (if one can call it that) but we do know, if we ‘diligently seek’ and ‘search out’ this matter, that, compared to it, our time on earth is like a mist and a blink.  And the reason for our trials, our training, our testing, our gifts and callings and the over-arching blessing of the wisdom and power of the Spirit is so that we can prove faithful in the little things here and so be trusted with great things in the administration of the eternal kingly household of God, savouring the glorious company of our Groom, adoring our Father for His infinite wisdom, love, power and holiness, judging men and judging angels – without end.

I am convinced that the type and style of work in eternity, and the untold vast expansiveness of that new universe is such that all our life and the best of our faithful ministry within the Body of Christ on earth will be seen as little more than our apprenticeship for eternity.  After all, isn’t that the root idea of discipleship as practiced by Jesus?

However, please don’t let me divert you from the need for a full and serious participation of all the saints in the Missio Dei.  “Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely that God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.  It is as though God were entreating through us, ‘we beg you, on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.’”   2 Corinthians 5:19-20

As ‘kings in waiting’, we are ambassadors of the eternal royal family of God.  What we do and how we live is to display the nature, the mission and the goal of the King, of the family and of the kingdom.