The Daily Word of Righteousness

Fifty-two Kingdom Concepts, #44

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7,8—NIV)

Satan is telling the believers "You shall not surely die." He told that to Adam and Eve. But they did die and all their descendants after them have been born in slavery to sin.

How about you? Are you going to take the chance that the current Christian teaching is correct even though it goes against the specific teaching of Jesus Christ and His Apostles?

When I first was saved I was told to stick with the written Word of God. This I intend to do, as Christ helps me. What is your response?

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. (Romans 6:22—NIV)

The Kingdom of God

Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. (Psalms 2:8)

The first understanding the Lord gave me was in Bible school in 1948. It had to do with Christ in us, as distinct from Christ being merely with us.

At some point I became aware of the Kingdom of God. This sounds strange, but for many years after I became a Christian I had little or no consciousness of the Kingdom of God. I was vaguely aware the Jehovah's Witnesses emphasized the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth.

I cannot remember when it dawned on me that being saved was somehow related to the coming of God's Kingdom to the earth. I knew John the Baptist spoke of the coming of the Kingdom, as did the Lord Jesus. Lately I have been noticing that the Apostle Paul actually preached the Kingdom of God rather than our being saved to go to Heaven when we die.

Slowly but surely I have been making the mental leap from the idea of salvation having to do with going to Heaven when we die, to the idea of salvation having to do with the coming of Christ in His Kingdom to govern the nations of the earth.

Now I see the teaching of the Kingdom of God in both the Old Testament and the New. In fact, apart from an understanding of the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth, many passages of the Bible do not make sense or do not appear to apply to us. Numerous verses in both Testaments just have to be ignored because they are not related to anything we understand.

The Book of Psalms, for example, states clearly that God is coming to govern the nations of the earth.

When Paul spoke of the dangers of sinful conduct he warned of losing our inheritance in the Kingdom. Paul said nothing about sin keeping us from going to Heaven when we die.

To be continued.