This Good News (17)

What is Proclaiming?

I have only a little to say here.  I have dealt with this question in more detail earlier in this document.

I try not to use the word ‘preach’ any more.  I see no sound reason for or productive outcome from preaching.  The kind of preaching we are used to is a creation of man’s church.  It is monologue, sermon, homily, delivered in a sanctimonious voice from a sanctimonious position.  It’s much more about telling people how they should live than communicating the good news of the kingdom of God.

I do not see preaching or preacher as a Spiritual gift anywhere in the entire New Testament.  Not even “public speaking” appears as a gift or talent among the first century people of God, with the possible exception of Apollos who was regarded as an orator.

In ecclesia, teachers teach, prophets prophesy, evangelists evangelise and pastors pastor.  It is also generally understood that apostles proclaim; they also argue, debate and defend.  And for all of them, the primary piece of equipment is the good news of the kingdom of God and as far as the good news of the kingdom of God is concerned, the New Testament and the apostles – and of course the apostle and high priest of our confession, Jesus – all indicate that heralding, proclaiming and announcing are the appropriate means of delivery.

To me, what the good news itself demands is a strategy that announces “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth – so help me God.”  Paul said, “I become all things to all men that by all means I might save some”, so I suspect he used whatever means accomplished his purpose.  He also said that he and his team were “approved by God to be entrusted with the good news.”  God trusted them.  Can He trust as well?

However, by preaching I mean a one-way oration that bears no criticism and countenances no comments or questions from listeners.  Even lectures are better than the non-communication of preaching a sermon or homily.

Church is largely about preaching; ecclesia is about living and sowing the good news of the kingdom of God.

A.  How was the good news proclaimed in the New Testament?

As I have indicated earlier in this series, the New Testament knows two maid words to describe the propagation of the good news: kerygma which means proclaim, herald, announce and the verb form of the Greek word ‘good news’ itself which means something like sowing or planting seed.

Jesus, Paul and most of the New Testament characters used both of these methods.  And in the first century since Jesus, those who trusted Christ and were born again by the Spirit went out and did plenty of the second as they lived their lives “in the world but not of it.”

But for us, it is not as simple as that.  In one way, I wish it were that simple, but our modern Western paradigm and thought processes which are basically Greek in their origins, often complicate things.  Let me explain.

Pick any subject you like and there will be three facets or approaches to it: what you believe about it, what you say about it and what you do about it.  For some people, there is no connection or overlap between the three.  For others there is an almost total connection and overlap.  Then there is a wide variety of possible positions in between as these simple illustrations show.

Typically, a modern Western approach tends towards A and away from D, whereas a typically Hebrew approach tends towards D and away from A.  We might refer to a D-type person as a person with integrity – he or she is integrative.  We might refer to an A-type person as dis-integrative.

For some people what they believe, what they say and what they do are all separate unconnected things and connections are only made ad hoc to suit the prevailing opinions and circumstances.  Other people might connect what they believe and what they say, but leave what they do in a separate compartment for convenience.  Others again might connect what they believe and what they do, but leave what they say separate so they can say one thing and do another.  Yet others might connect what they say and what they do, but leave what they believe separate because their belief system is poorly developed.

An integrative person is one who places importance on connecting all three to the greatest extent possible so there is consistency in their life and the people they relate to know what to expect and can trust them.

One thing you could say about Jesus is that he was integrative: what he believed, what he said and what he did aligned very closely, perhaps even totally.  It was said of him that, in his humanity, he was made in every way like us except without sin.  So he probably was the most integrative person on the planet then and now.

The good news of the kingdom of God requires announcers and sowers who are tending towards Jesus’ integrity where believing, saying and doing are ‘on the same page’ and are well blended.  Again, Jesus set the standard.  What he believed issued clearly in his publicly discourses, in the way he lived his life and in his treatment of the people around him – his disciples, his immediate family, the crowds, the seekers and the religious leaders.

The good news of the kingdom of God is such that it can be announced, it can be given away in physical, emotional and mental healing and it can be shared through love in fellowship and companionship.  It’s mostly about discerning what is the real need (which is not always what appears obviously on the surface) and using the resources of the good news to enhance life.

For us, if the truth of the good news has taken root in our spirits (as it will when we submit to the work of the Holy Spirit), it is like an evergreen tree that is always available for the benefit and healing of ourselves and the people in our lives.  It is also available to take as seed and sow it into the life of our neighbourhoods, towns and cities.  And I firmly believe that that was exactly what Jesus, Paul, Peter, Philip, Stephen and so many more members of the first generation of ecclesia did.

They did not bury this precious pearl in the ground and hope nobody stole it; they did not hide it under a box to prevent people from seeing the light; they did not turn it into a formula that any Tom, Dick or Harry could buy and sell; they did not turn it into a preaching series for Sunday mornings.

They used every means available to them to live, speak and give away the good amazing wonderful stupendous brilliant news of the kingdom of God – that by all means they might save some.  Attending church meetings, obeying rules, preaching some pathetic pretence of a gospel and going to ‘heaven’ when you die, to me, does not qualify as good news on any level – certainly not good enough news for me to give my life to.

Next we consider what response does the good news call for?

Cheers,
Kevin.

This Good News (16)

What is the good news of the kingdom of God?
[Points 12-16]
Twelfth, the good news of the kingdom of God is that Jesus wants for himself a people keen for what he is keen for: righteousness.

Paul wrote to Titus (2:11-14), his disciple in Crete:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory or our great God and Saviour, Christ Jesus; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds.

Isn’t this the heart-cry of so many? We want to live a life of denying ungodliness and worldly desires; we want to live sensibly, righteously and godly, looking forward to the hope – not of ‘heaven’ but of the fullness of the kingdom of God and of the appearing of the glory of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

How is it achieved? The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to us all. We stand in Him, we stand in His grace, we stand in His salvation, we stand in His redemption, we stand in His justification, we stand in His righteousness and we stand in the Spirit. In other words, we descend upon this mountain peak from above, we don’t try to climb it from below, half expecting we will never make it to the top.

Some years, on Australia Day, we get up early and travel about 90 minutes to our favourite headland on the east coast to watch the sunrise. It’s southern hemisphere January, so the sun rises around 4:30am. We set ourselves up for breakfast to come a little later, then we settle in to wait and watch for the glory of this new day to appear over the eastern horizon. No two days are ever the same, so every time we do it, the expectation is fresh. The weather, the clouds, the wind, all conspire to make every sunrise different. And then we celebrate what God has given us this day in this country and enter into the fullness of the new day and the new year.

Thirteenth, the good news of the kingdom of God is that, by the mercy of God, we are declared not guilty and therefore share in the hope of eternal life.

Again, Paul to Titus (3:4-7)

But when the kindness of God our Saviour and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of righteous deeds which we have done, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour – that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

This sounds a bit like a birth to me. When a baby is born, its vitals are checked and it is washed clean and encouraged to cry to get its lungs full of oxygen to kick-start its life outside the womb. In my country, years ago, most babies were given a small slap on the buttocks to make them cry to initiate the oxygen supply.

Our second and spiritual birth – the birth from above – is also the birth from water and the Spirit. Our initiation into the family of God is entirely an act of God and His mercy, whereby we receive the washing of regeneration (literally, born again) and the renewing of the Holy Spirit poured out upon us in copious amounts like cleansing, soothing oil. And His grace gives us the justification we so need. Together, the grace and mercy of God combine to solidify us as children of God and heirs to the kingdom of God.

When I was young, I learned the basics of grace and mercy like this: grace is getting the good things you don’t deserve; mercy is not getting the bad things you do deserve. While it is a bit simplistic, it serves to highlight the profound kindness of God towards us. Left to our own, we would die like a baby abandoned by its mother. But in Jesus, we find, as Paul said, “the kindness of God our Saviour and His love for mankind.” So God, in His mercy, steps into the role of mother and midwife, saving our life. Not content with that, His grace follows, pouring His own life – the life of eternity – into our lives, regenerating us, renewing us, redeeming us and justifying us, thereby turning us from abandoned orphan to son of the living God.

How good is that good news?!

Fourteenth, the good news of the kingdom of God is that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Paul again – this time to the Romans (10:8-13):

[The righteousness that is based on faith, not law, speaks thus…] What does it say?‘The word (rhema) is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ – that is, the word (rhema) of faith which we proclaim, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses resulting in salvation. For the scripture says, ‘Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same One is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call upon Him, so ‘Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.’

The apparent simplicity of these verses is staggering. On the surface, neither repentance nor faith seem to be mentioned. How is it possible that one can be saved simply by ‘calling on the name of the Lord’? Is it simply a matter of calling out something to the effect of “Lord, help me!”? Maybe it is. Look at this:

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. Luke 18:10-14

When Paul said in Romans 10:9 ‘confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord’, does that mean anyone who simply says ‘Jesus is Lord’ is saved? No it doesn’t. In the Western world of today, one’s word is no longer one’s bond: people lie; people give false testimony; people say what they know is the right thing to say to get what they want, without any thought of its being an honest statement.

Confess is a Latin word meaning to agree with and its use here rules out the possibility mentioned in the above paragraph. Beforeit comes out of the mouth, the thing in question has to be agreed with, assented to, really believed. In other words, what comes out of the mouth has to be a spoken expression of what is truly in the heart. As Paul said, “with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness.”

To confess that Jesus is Lord implies that he is in fact Lord in one’s life: boss, numero uno, the main man. If he is not, to say he is a lie. And Paul himself makes this point to the Corinthians: “…and no-one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:3).

To be saved necessitates the true confession ‘Jesus is Lord’. But for the words to have meaning, they must be reflecting the about-face in the heart of the person making the confession – an about-face that removes self, sin, the world, the flesh, the devil or whatever from the command centre of one’s life and gives Jesus all rights to rule. And that’s a definition of repentance.

The second part of the salvation plan here is“believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.” Faith would actually be the better word to use here, but faith is not a verb in the English language – unfortunately. Faith is a much stronger word than believe. Unlike the original language of the New Testament which uses the same word for faith and believe, modern English has to add an extra something to the word believe to make it the equivalent of faith. In today’s English, to believe is to ‘give mental assent to’, whereas faith means to ‘stake your life upon’.

And what does “call on the name of the Lord”mean? Something like this: 1) believe in the complete adequacy of the life and work of Jesus; 2) trust in him enough to agree in your heart that he is now the boss; 3) stand up and be counted among those who will publicly declare their full allegiance to Jesus.

The tax collector knew well that he was a sinner; and he knew only too well that he was at the mercy of God, but he prayed anyway, demonstrating both repentance and faith. Not surprisingly, Jesus said he went home justified before God.

Apostle James, quoting the prophet Isaiah, wrote,“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” That’s probably what’s in play here in the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

Fifteenth, the good news of the kingdom of God is that most famous of verses, John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His one-of-a-kind son, that whoever trusts in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

And that is followed by this: “For God did not send the son into the world to judge the world but that the world should be saved through him.”

Probably not necessary, but let me again say,‘eternal life’ is not – NOT – heaven-when-you-die but the life of eternity where God lives and moves and has His being, which we call the kingdom of God. It is life of another order, on another plane.

Jesus is God’s unique first-born and once-born son. And it is because of that fact that he was able to successfully enter our humanity and, in his death and resurrection, successfully lead us out of humanity’s bondage to death and into humanity’s true freedom: life as God intended; righteousness; ‘abundant’ life; life with a capital L.

Sixteenth, the good news of the kingdom of God is that, while mankind languishes in the pigswill and leftovers of hundreds of years of church and theology, God’s mercy and grace are no less available today than while Jesus walked the earth and Paul served him as a bond-slave.

I have shown elsewhere that the four pillars and the core business of the kingdom of God are a construct of salvation, redemption, righteousness and justification. At their centre is the cross of Christ. As in the illustration here, these four pillars connect the earth where we live and move and have our being to the heavens where God lives and moves and has His being – the eternal realm.

By standing in Christ – by our faith and confession– we are birthed into the eternal family and have a full share in His salvation, redemption, righteousness and justification beginning now and climaxing when time is no more and we no longer live with the restrictions of our time-space-matter existence.

The good news within that is that Jesus is to us the salvation, the redemption, the righteousness and the justification we humans stand in need of. Our salvation is that Jesus tasted death for everyone and his death is sufficient for us all. Our redemption is that Jesus was the price God paid to release us from the grip of the evil one. Our righteousness is that Jesus stands perfectly right before the Father and shares that righteousness with all who fully trust in him. Our justification is that Jesus has borne the punishment for our sin and we are legally pronounced‘not guilty’ – therefore, as Paul said, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”.

I want to conclude this section with a quote from one of ecclesia’s prophets of last century, T. Austin-Sparks. This excerpt comes from Refiner’s Fire Journal in “The Supremacy of Christ”, page 35-36.

You get a different kind of convert altogether when you carry the work of Christ to its full issue; when it is not only preached that your sins will be forgiven and you will go to heaven and not hell – perhaps a little more than that. But it is infinitely more than that, and if only we preached the fullness of Christ’s work, we would have converts that went ahead apace and reached maturity much sooner than the majority are doing. And we should find that most of our conventions are quite unnecessary, for they are mostly to get us to the place we ought to have come when we were converted.

It is necessary for the believer; may I just say that it is necessary for the worker, the preacher of the gospel, the one who has to do with souls. You will not be a popular preacher of course, if you preach this. You will find, more than ever, that hell will be out against you, and many of the Lord’s people will turn against you, but it is necessary.

If only we could bring to them in the power of the Holy Ghost, right at the beginning, the proclamation of Him “who delivered us out of the power(literally – authority) of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the son of His love”, and get that in, we should see different results. Take that to them.

Under sixteen points I have answered the question‘what is the good news of the kingdom of God?’ Let there be no doubt that this good news is a profound story and an outrageously generous offer; an offer way too scandalous for those who live by the creeds of the Old Testament. The Pharisee sect in Acts 15 found it too scandalous and insisted that religious ceremony and duty be added to the message and to the expectation placed on converts. And it is no different today, the Pharisee sect is still with us as strong as ever and always ready to place burdens on people contrary to Jesus and Paul – and contrary to the very scripture we say we revere.

It’s time now to turn to other questions. My next question is, What is Proclaiming?

Cheers,
Kevin.

This Good News (15)

What is the good news of the kingdom of God?

[Points 9-11]

Ninth, the good news of the kingdom of God is that anyone who will, may become like Jesus –that is, like man was meant to be: in relationship to the Father; in service to the world; and in choosing to obey and saying ‘no’ to the urges of the old nature.

Let me ask you, if it is Jesus’ death and resurrection which are the ground and means of salvation, why did Jesus live on earth for thirty years before his death and forty days after his resurrection? Why didn’t he just come as an adult, die, rise again and then leave? I figure these thirty years and forty days must mean something.

This forces me to ask another question: how human was Jesus? I could recite creeds or quote scripture, but for some time, the truth of his humanity never touched me. By the church’s doctrine, I had always to think of Jesus as my ‘example’ and try to model my life on his goodness and so on. But by that teaching, Jesus came to be an unattainable ideal quite removed from me. And I knew instinctively that was not how it was supposed to be.

I learned a lot from Psalm 8. In verses three and four, David the Psalmist says, “When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him; the son of man that you care for him?” What is man? No particular man in mind or perhaps he was thinking about himself. No real issue here.

But when we come to verses five to nine, church and theology have taught us that they refer to Jesus – that is why the psalm is sometimes called a ‘Messianic’ psalm. It goes on to say, “You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [angels] and crowned him with glory and honour. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the bests of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim in the paths of the sea. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

If we think back to Genesis, these words ring true as the original charter given to man as the custodian of God’s earthly creations.

The New Testament writer to the Hebrews (2:7-9) quotes this psalm and makes a direct application to Jesus. Often Psalm 8 is interpreted by Hebrews 2:9 and while it is right and proper to do so, sometimes it obscures an important truth. Incidentally, this is one of the reasons ecclesia needs teachers!

The truth is, Psalm 8 applies to Jesus primarily because he is a man! Man was special from the start: a little less than God – any closer and he would have breached the trinity; crowned with glory and honour; ruler of creation; in authority and dominion over the living creatures. In other words, a lesser king.

That’s what man was and that’s what David was meditating about – and that is what Jesus became. He laid aside all that set him apart as Divine and took on the form and the limitations of mankind. However, before that happened, mankind had been living on a much lower level – living as very much less than he was meant to be. Hebrews 2:8 confirms that reality when it agrees that, at present, we do not see “everything subject to him [man].”

What we do see, the writer goes on, is Jesus. And how do we see Jesus? He was, “…made a little lower than the angels, but now crowned with glory and honour…” because he suffered death. This is the glory and honour I spoke about earlier. As humans, we ‘suffered death’and ceased to be who and what God made us to be because of sin. Jesus entered into our humanity and went down with us to death – even death on a cross. He did this even though he himself “knew no sin, nor was any guile found in him.” But, “By the grace of God he tasted death for everyone” and by so doing, opened the way for man to be restored to humanity as God intended humanity to be.

And what is humanity as God intended? The answer is here in Hebrews 2:9 – “but we see Jesus…” Jesus is humanity as God intended. God in His wisdom knew we would discover the question, and the answer is the thirty years and the forty days of Jesus. That is, Jesus’ earthly life!

I will not subtract anything from the importance of Jesus death and resurrection; I will simply add to that the importance of his life and his ascension. We understand how we are to live as christians in the world by the life of Jesus. We understand how we can live as authentic christians in the world by the life as Jesus. That is why Paul wrote, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cortinthians 5:21)

In short, we live as Jesus lived – AS A MAN FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. That is as God intended and that is how we can live as an authentic christian in the world – as Jesus himself said, “in the world but not of it.” By second birth, we are born ‘from above’, ‘of the spirit’ and the Holy Spirit is given to make it all possible and to make it actually happen. Without the Holy Spirit, living as an authentic christian in the world is just not possible – it is a pipe-dream. With the Holy Spirit, “all things are possible”.

Of Jesus, it can be said, ‘there was a man on earth; there is a man in heaven.’ He followed us into our fallen humanity so that we might follow him into his resurrected and ascended humanity. In Jesus and Philip – and others – we have seen, we have heard and we can conceive what real humanity filled with God looks like now. And the good news is, that is ours in Christ.

But wait, there’s more! Spirit-filled life on earth now is only a foretaste of “real life”. Paul wrote,“…as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived’ what God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

In a nutshell, to be saved is to be “like Jesus” –that is why I say emphatically that salvation is Christ-likeness. We join the family by faith; we live as he did on earth – a man filled with the Holy Spirit; and, like Jesus, “…who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)

Jesus is our fore-runner. Where he went, we can and do and will go. Guaranteed! Surely that is good news indeed.

Tenth, the good news of the kingdom of God is the story of Jesus. Talk about stating the obvious! But perhaps for some, stating the obvious is necessary.

Romans 1:1-5

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the good news of God which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning His Son; who was born a descendant of David according to the flesh; who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead according to the spirit of holiness: Jesus Christ our Lord – through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, for His name’s sake.

Whatever else our heralding the good news of the kingdom of God does, it must declare the historical facts of the story of Jesus. We can no longer assume that our audiences know that much. The most many of our fellow-countrymen ever hear is the expletive, ‘Jesus Christ!’ – almost spat out like a used piece of gum.

The first thing we see about the good news here is that it is God’s. It starts and ends with Him and it belongs to Him. It is part of the ‘household tradition’ of the family of God. It is also the good news about God and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s about His grace, His forgiveness, His righteousness, His eternal salvation, His plan of redemption and His act of justification.

As sovereign, He could have chosen to do nothing about the human dilemma – the sin problem. As love, He chose to enter into our dilemma as completely as it was possible without sacrificing either His deity, His sovereignty, His justice or His holiness. He chose to rescue, heal and retrieve His special creation and restore it to its original glory through the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

And He knows the limitations and the frailties of human nature stuck in its time-space-matter zone; and He has factored all that in by “helping our infirmities” to the extent that even they were borne by Jesus when he went to the cross. The truth is, there is now no brake on our returning to life as God intended, and there is, as Paul says, “now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

The church’s gospel puts a brake on this truth; the good news of the kingdom of God in ecclesia declares there is no brake on the truth and there is no condemnation! If you get condemnation, that’s not God and it is not ecclesia; though you can be very sure it is religion and church.

Might I suggest here that you read and digest Romans 5:12-21 and Galatians 4:4-5.

Paul says the result of the first Adam’s one trespass [that’s the Adam of the Genesis creation story] was condemnation and hence death for all men. He then adds, the result of the second Adam’s one sacrifice [that’s Jesus’ death] is forgiveness and life for all men.

Paul explained this to the Galatians in this way:“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth Hi Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

Eleventh, the good news of the kingdom of God is what God has freely allocated to those who live their lives in union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:6-10

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature: a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, that which is hidden, which God predestined before the ages, for our glory; that which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. As it is written, ‘things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and have not entered the heart of man – all that God has prepared for those who live Him.’ God has revealed them to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

These words of Paul rattle some people to the core. Esoteric mumbo-jumbo to some; New-age philosophy to others. But this is in our bibles. And it was written by the one man to whom was given the revelation of the administration of the new covenant in Christ.

Whether we like it or not, Paul proclaimed ‘secret wisdom’. It was ‘secret’ in the sense that it was hidden – until the advent of Jesus – but now is made known, but only to the mature. In this context, mature refers to those who are in Christ. To them, wisdom is revealed by the Holy Spirit. But as it was then, so it is now: none of the masters of New-age, or any other master of our age, understand it because, if they did, they wouldn’t be creating totally human facsimiles of the spiritual realities involved.

One of the ways Paul explains this ‘secret wisdom’is Romans 5:17 – “For if by the transgression of the one [the first Adam], death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” You want to reign in life? The route is welcoming the abundance of God’s grace and especially of His free gift of righteousness. In like manner, Paul talks about being ‘more than conquerors’ and being ‘lead in triumphal procession’. And it is these things that convince me that the idea of heaven-when-you-die is a furphy – and a cynical misrepresentation of the kingdom of God.

Living in the kingdom of God begins in this life when we are born the second time, from above, from the Spirit, into the family and household of God. For a long time, Western christians have been duped – sucked into believing that there’s no way we’re going to be ‘more than conquerors’ or be ‘led in triumphal procession’this side of death. And those same christians have taken this false gospel all around the world.

The fortress mentality has emasculated many so-called christians and, therefore, much christian teaching, and it’s a lie from the pit; a deception foisted upon us for the specific purpose of stripping the good news of one of its most potent claims.

‘Reigning in life’ is like a distant mountain peak, magnificent to the senses but a painful depression to the soul: out of reach unless you can drop onto it from the heavens. Most of our attempts at ‘pulling our socks up’ or ‘getting our act together’are dismal failures which, strangely, only seem to drive us on to more and more effort. Every attempt at ‘reigning’ ends up with us worn out, depressed and cynical.

We cannot now and never will, reign in life by external compulsion, not even by whipping ourselves. The key is to believe the truth of Romans 5:17 and then act on what you believe. What action is appropriate?

First, stop living as if the truth is not the truth; second, take yourself out from under any condemnation; third, live and rejoice in all the good of what Jesus has already delivered. We have not seen, heard or conceived much of reigning in life like that, yet this is our inheritance now. And ultimately reigning in life here, with all its pain and suffering, will issue into the eternal realm when time is no more.

I remember the days of my engagement to Lesleigh. It was a wonderful time but also a painful time, waiting and waiting for the reality of life together o replace the mere promise of it. In a way it’s a bit like that. The Holy Spirit is given to us as our engagement ring and promise – the divine pledge of the fullness of eternal life. While we wait for the fullness, life is a mixture of good times and bad, of joy and pain, of encouragement and suffering. And the fullness is the righteousness of God in all its glory.

Next: points 12 to 16

Cheers,
Kevin.

This Good News (14)

What is the good news of the kingdom of God?

[Points 6-8]

Sixth, the good news of the kingdom of God is that our time on earth is ‘training for reigning’. Paul asks the Corinthians rhetorically, assuming they know the answer, “Don’t you know that we will judge the world?”… “Don’t you know that we will judge angels?” As the family of God, the household of God, the ecclesia, I don’t think we’ll be sitting around on clouds playing harps and singing! We are not given much to go on, but a “new heaven and a new earth”, “in which dwells righteousness”, will probably need administering. Think about the things we looked at earlier regarding ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’ and you will see that the kingdom of God is not a small, passive place – it is vast beyond our present understanding and God’s many sons are involved in the ‘family business’.

I believe that what we experience now as the earth-bound expression of ecclesia by way of gifts and talents, service and worship, calling and commission, discipline and instruction and so on, are how we learn the work of administering the eternal kingdom of God. I believe that is one of the reasons why, as the scriptures say, the ones who are faithful with little will be entrusted with much. And didn’t Paul write to the Romans (8:16-17) that, “…if indeed we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”?

In John 14 Jesus said, “In my Father’s household are many dwellings or abodes” (v.2) that have been prepared for the occupation and administration of His family. Flick down to verse 23: Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him.”

The word ‘keep’ means to hold precious and binding; the ‘word’ here is logos, which is, I believe a reference to what Jesus said later in his commissioning of the twelve: “diligently maintain the entirety of my charge to you” – all that he had taught them, both by example and by instruction. So, those who hold precious and binding all that Jesus has taught, are dearly loved by the Father and He, with the Son and the Spirit (‘we’), will come to them and make our abode with them. The Father makes His abode with us now and has made fixed arrangements that we make our abode with Him in His eternal kingdom. Remember Jesus’ words, “that where I am, there you may be also.”

Once complete trust in Christ is established and the Father ‘signs the adoption papers’, there is never a point at which the Father (and the Son and the Spirit) is effectively separated from his child –not in this life on earth and not in eternity. Again, remember Jesus’ words, “I will never abandon you or forsake you.”

Seventh, the good news of the kingdom of God is the message Paul and his team took wherever they travelled in their carrying out the commission God gave them to take the message to the nations. As they travelled about, this was the sort of thing Paul announced and debated and argued for:

·   You don’t have to keep the law – any law – so it’s no use trying

·    God is effectively saying to you:

1.   ‘I am prepared to go to my records and change the verdict for the entire human race (you included) from guilty to not guilty –irrespective of what you’ve done, whether good or bad – because Jesus has paid the price and secured your redemption.’

2.   ‘I am prepared to solve your sin problem: first, I will forgive and forget all your transgressions; second, I will clean you up on the inside – by giving you a new nature, so that you will not have to sin (1 John 1:9). You will be able to say no to further transgressions (Titus 2:12)’

3.   ‘I will accept you into my presence – face-to-face without fear (Romans 5:1) and able to approach me with freedom and confidence (Ephesians 3:12) because you will be “no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household” (Ephesians 2:19)’

4.   ‘I will give you my spirit – the spirit of holiness, the spirit of my family – who will irrigate your heart with my love, producing a harvest of hope so you’ll be able to come strongly through the suffering that will come your way (Romans 5:3-5)’

5.   ‘I am prepared to dress you now – NOW – in the garb of my eternal kingdom and household: the righteousness of Christ. Clothed like that, you could not be any more acceptable to me (Romans 4; 2 Corinthians 5)’

·     All of that and more besides is yours if you will do two things – and even these two things God Himself will help you with: First, use your brain and count the cost. You can continue with what you have now and end up on the sharp end of God’s judgement, not because He hates you, but because it’s what you obviously want; or, you can sacrifice what you have now, take nothing but Christ and trust Him for the rest of your life to treat you as His own son, because that is what you want. You decide!

Second, trust no-one and nothing but Jesus Christ for you salvation. The moment you choose Him, God gives you both the desire and the will to trust Jesus only for your righteousness. Just like Abraham of old: he knew God was able to raise his son from the dead; he believed God was willing to do so if it came to that; so he stepped out to do what God asked of him. That was faith! And on the basis of faith, God added to his account all the righteousness he needed to satisfy Him. God will do the same for you.

·   It’s as if God is saying:

1.   ‘You will never again have to try to please me, just so long as you go on living in faith: knowing that I can do it; believing that I wll; and stepping into my arms.’

2.  ‘To believe in Jesus like that means there has been a real change of heart. You were a rebel but you’ve come to see things my way and agree with me – about your sin, about Jesus and about your future. I call that repentance. When you go on down this road, go on living in repentance too. When you sin, I’ll forgive you for sure, but don’t you dare presume that’s the end of it. As I showed you before, you no longer have to sin, so when I stop you on a matter and you agree with me that it’s sin, you’ll know my power in you to be able to choose the next time not to do it.’

3.   ‘I said before I would give you my spirit. I want you to read carefully what my apostle Paul wrote to the Romans in chapter 8. If you are still with me and have done what I said, here’s what you have:

-  No condemnation whatsoever

-   No longer subject to the principle: “if you sin you die” (see 1 John 1:9 and 2:1)

-   You meet all the requirements of the law – because sin has been condemned

[NOTE: those who try to get there by keeping the law don’t get there. Those who try faith, get there and are viewed as law-keepers.]

-   Your mind set on what my spirit wants

-   Life and peace because you mind is now controlled by the spirit

-   Life for your body because of Jesus’ resurrection

[NOTE: those who seek life for their bodies without Jesus find death. Those who die to their bodies in Jesus find life.]

-   An obligation to put to death sins – by the spirit

-   Authority to be a son of God – I’m your ‘daddy’

-   The inner and constant witness that you are my son

-   You are also an heir of God and c0-heir with Jesus

-   You also have a share in suffering.

Eighth, the good news of the kingdom of God is that we can share in the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:13-15). Paul said, “He called you to this through our good news, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The sanctifying work of the spirit and faith in the truth is the means to that end.

As we saw in the seventh point, we are heirs of God and c0-heirs with Jesus. My children are my heirs. All that is ours, asset and liability, becomes theirs. All that we’ve worked to build for them is theirs. And the non-physical things such as character which we have sought to live for them are theirs. Likewise, all that God has is mine; all that God is is mine; all that God has worked to build is mine (see prepared abode earlier). All that He has sought to live out for me is mine.

What then is “the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ”that we might know what we are heirs to? I use Philippians 2:6-11 and Colossians 1:15-20 as a guide here.

·     Unlike Lucifer, Jesus didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped at. It was his by birthright. But he laid it aside for a time (‘made a little less than angels’) in order to capture our hearts and then return to his place of glory – with us! We ask with the Psalmist, “what is man that you are mindful of him?” And God replies, “Only a little less than myself. You cannot breach the trinity, but you participate in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). That is your destiny as sons of light, citizens of heaven, members of my household.”

·     Again unlike Lucifer, Jesus humbled himself and became fully obedient: to the point of taking on human form and even to the point of death on a cross. The Father’s response to that was that He exalted Jesus to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name – God’s own name. That is why at the name of Jesus, this Jesus, every knee will bow –because this Jesus bears the name of God Himself. And every tongue will confess him as LORD. It is the destiny of every twice-born son to share his glory and bow in worship at his feet, not hear his words, “depart from me, I never knew you.”

·     Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God; He is the head of the body, the ecclesia; He has supremacy and pre-eminence; the Father placed all His fullness in him and, through him, reconciles all things to Himself – whether they be things on earth or things in the heavens; He‘reconciled’ by making peace through the blood he shed on the cross.

This is a mere glimpse of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the good news of the kingdom of God is that all of us have a share in it because of God’s great love and Jesus’ great sacrifice.

Apostle Paul said two important things about this: “Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us: ‘we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.’” (2 Corinthians 5:20); and “In the past God overlooked ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent.” (Acts 17:30)

The good news is that God has a massive investment in us – already signed, sealed and delivered in Jesus. What He seeks in return is our love and devotion – not to religion and ‘church’, but to Him personally as our Father and to the Son of His love.

Next: points 9 to 11

Cheers,
Kevin.