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Righteousness, Peace and Joy!

October 16, 2019 / / 0 Comments

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First the Kingdom, Part 27, Righteousness, Peace and Joy

In the 14th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans, he proceeded to deal with the fact that believers were judging one another in areas that were not critical to their relationships with God. And yet, the fact that they were judging one another in this way was affecting their lives in the Lord, Whose primary objective is for believers to love one another. When we do not allow for minor differences in how we worship Him, we are not manifesting His love as we should.

This is the context of a favorite verse of mine in Romans 14:17:

….for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
(NASU)

Two thousand years ago Jesus made it known that the time had come for God to establish a realm on this earth where righteousness, peace and joy would be the norm. In several parables He told how this kingdom would not always be easily seen or observed, but it would be real just the same, and it would eventually prevail in the world. It began in a community of people who followed Him to the place where they would be empowered by the Holy Spirit to live even as Christ Himself lived against all odds.

In the not-too-distant future, God will see to it that this entire planet is filled with “the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea!” In this time there will be no more war among nations. There will be no dictatorships, no slavery, no starvation.

While we know that God has always been soverign over His creation, this plan to reconcile us all back to harmony with Him is revealed in the Gospel of the Kingdom. Christ gathered His followers together to bear witness to and manifest what the kingdom will one day be like universally. As a servant who was commissioned by Christ Himself, Paul was passionate to see the plan of God move forward. He took great care to explain this purpose to believers and to help them live together in Kingdom life.

Oh how today we could use the passion of Paul to point us all back to the great and glorious plan of God for His people! Christ is building His church, and He will bring all things into subjection under Him, but right now He wants us to be the proof that He is indeed Lord of all!

In chapter 12, Paul pleaded with Christians to be Christ-like. He called them to offer their bodies as living sacrifices for pure worship, to allow their minds to be renewed so they could be continually transformed. They would be proof of the good, acceptable and perfect will of God.

In modern times people tend to think more in terms of “personal salvation.” It is often about what God can do for me. We know that we can have personal peace with God by knowing that our sins are forgiven. It is normal in the natural stages of childhood that we think of our own personal needs, but with maturity we learn how our needs are intertwined with the needs of others. The kingdom of God is certainly about personal righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

There is a problem, however, when communities of believers forget to move forward in their considerations of others. We might think we are being very unselfish when we devote extra time to our fellow church members, and we should to that. At the same time any fellowship can become too focussed on the good of its members only. The Gospel of the Kingdom presses us to see the bigger picture. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself!

We need to move from what is right for us only, to what is right for those outside of our circle of friends. Before and during the American civil war, there were Christians who desired righteousness, peace and joy for runaway slaves. They participated in the Underground Railroad, and helped them find physical freedom at great personal risk. They were busy proving the good, acceptable and perfect will of God as they followed the Holy Spirit’s lead!

Why is it when we are challenged to give up some of our personal comforts that some of us recoil and cry out “legalism!” Why is it that some assume that the good works of others are always attempts to earn their salvation? Would not a closer look at Jesus and His early disciples help them to see that true freedom in the grace of God motivates and empowers us to liberate others? And expressing this freedom results in the true joy of the Lord?

Citizens and churches are too often divided into camps who oppose one another without even knowing for sure why. They judge each other for their different places in society or different ways in which they worship without even knowing the individuals personally. The Old cricize “milleniums” and the young mock the older values in general. Some criticisms may even be valid, but the generalisations are not.

The word “righteousness” has often become a theological word today, when it simply means fairness and rightness. Jesus put it this way, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Do you want to be judged by the color of your skin or by the job you hold? Do you want others to assume you hate them just because they are different than you?

This is what we call “getting down to the nitty gritty,” and “where the rubber meets the road.” I sometimes wonder if the great resitance I see to the Gospel of the Kingdom is based on fear that God might ask more of us than we am willing to give. If that fear is in you today, I believe God is calling you out of that place of fear and into a place of greater freedom than you have ever known before.

Maybe you cannot correct every injustice in the world, but you belong to a King Who can use you to right many wrongs in your life and the lives of others. This is what it means to have righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit!

The Promise Of The Kingdom

February 22, 2019 / / 0 Comments

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First the Kingdom Part 6, The Promise of the Kingdom

One of the great blessings of my life was to be born into a family of believers, and into a church family that values the Scriptures in both the Old and New Testament. They understood how the New Testament was concealed in the Old, and how the Old Testament was revealed in the New. To put it in another way, Christ was concealed in the Old and revealed in the New!

Even if one decides to start their reading of the Bible at the beginning of the New Testament, this will become evident. In the Gospel according the Matthew there are so many references to events in the narrative that fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament. I submit that the New Testament cannot be fully understood and appreciated — that Christ Himself cannot be fully understood and appreciated without the foundation that was laid in the these ancient scriptures, which Jesus referred to as the Word of God, and that Jews today recognize as their Bible.

When John the Baptist and Jesus came preaching, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand,” the people of their day already had a sense of anticipation and enthusiasm built in them for the Kingdom. The prophets of ancient times had planted the seeds for that anticipation. Looking back we have the advantage of understanding their perspective better, but more importantly we have God’s perspective of the message that John and Jesus brought!

We have looked at the “Original Blessing” that the Creator spoke over the Creation and the humans He created. Then we saw how David, the King of Israel wondered how humanity could be worthy of this high calling to rule the creation and be reflections of God’s divinity. This is the context within which the entire Bible was written. In the Old Testament there is the promise and the mystery concerning how it will be fulfilled, and the New Testament is where the fulfillment begins to come into view.

First let us look at some of the outstanding promises found back there.

From the fall of Adam and Eve, things became progressively worse. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and was warned of the great flood that was to come upon the whole earth. (Genesis 6:8, 13).

After the Lord saved Noah and his family along with all the animals in the ark, He renewed the Original Blessing to be fruitful and to multiply.

Genesis 8:20-21:

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. The LORD  smelled the soothing aroma; and the LORD said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.”
NASU

Genesis 9:1-2:

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ” Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.  “The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given.”
NASU

So while sin had entered in and death because of sin, God was still intent upon blessing us! As we continue, the plan to fulfill that blessing is revealed a little more each time. Until then He reassures us that a cataclysmic judgment to destroy every living thing will never happen again!

In Genesis chapter 12 we see the call of God to Abram, who would later be called Abraham.

Now the LORD said to Abram,

“Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father’s house,
To the land which I will show you;
And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing;
And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. “  (Genesis 12:1-3)
NASB

Abram believed God and followed Him. Little did he know how these promises would come to pass. This was an early indication that the full original blessing might still be available. Abram would both be blessed and a blessing! He was to be fruitful and multiply in the way God had originally planned. Of course we know that things were not perfect for him and his descendants. This is still the time of promise.

Isaac would be born to Abraham and Sarah in their old age, and Abraham’s faith would be tested through him. Abraham proved willing to obey God by offering his promised son, and would make a powerful prophecy himself. He declared that the LORD would provide Himself a sacrifice instead of Isaac, and 2,000 years later God would provide His only Son Jesus to sacrifice for our sins to restore the Original Blessing to humanity!

Abraham’s descendants were to be as innumerable as the sands of the seashore and the stars of heaven! This foreshadowed the 2 groups that would inherit his faith. Those descendants that were born from the natural process and followed in his footsteps, and those who would come later through Christ and their trust in Him! (Galatians 3:16, 26-29; Ephesians 2:11-22)

This great nation of both Jews and gentiles is God’s instrument for blessing all the families of the earth. It is a nation that incorporates every member in the world-wide Body of Jesus Christ! Do you see yourself as a recipient of a blessing, but also as a blessing to the nations of the world? If not, maybe you need to dig into the Old Testament a bit more!

We hope you will stay tuned until the next installment, as we continue to explore the wonderful promises presented from Genesis through Malachi! It is easy if you simply “like” Living Truth on Facebook, or subscribe to our blog at livingtruth.com

The Good News of the Kingdom of God!

December 3, 2018 / / 0 Comments

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First the Kingdom, Part 3: The Good News of the Kingdom of God

What do people think of when the word “Gospel” is used? Some like to emphasize the truthfulness of a story they are telling by claiming that their story is “the Gospel truth!” Often the word even describes a certain style of music. Most of us are familiar with the great American tradition of Southern Gospel music with its lively and emotional feeling.

The word Gospel is from a very old English word “godspel,” or good spell. While I believe there is a sense that God’s work has a supernatural effect upon people, the original meaning in this case was the “spelling out” of the good story, or good news of Jesus Christ. This in fact agrees with the original Greek word in the New Testament, which is “euangélion.” The first part “eu” means “good,” while the last part “angélion,” means “message” or “announcement.”

That is why in English we call those who preach the Gospel “evangelists.” They are in fact the bearers of the good news of Jesus Christ!

The earliest “evangelists” where the messengers who ran great distances to report when wonderful events took place. Before the postal service, newspapers, telegraph, radio, telephones, and the internet these messengers were responsible to keep people informed in ancient times.

This is the background of this passage in the book of the prophet Isaiah 52:7:

How beautiful upon the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who proclaims peace,
Who brings glad tidings of good things,
Who proclaims salvation,
Who says to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”
(NKJV)

This picture of an ancient foot messenger in actuality was fulfilled in Israel years later in John the Baptist, Jesus, and His apostles, who came with the greatest news of all!

Now every year around this time we are reminded of the heavenly news reporter who appeared to certain shepherds even before those days:

Luke 2:10-14:
Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:

“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”  
(NKJV)

There are of course many kinds of announcements of happy occasions that bring joy to people. Most would consider a job promotion to be good news, or perhaps the birth of a child. Yet the appearance of Christ to the world is an event that stands alone in the minds of believers. This is The Good News, and the reason why the meaning of the phrase, “The Gospel” above all refers to the Good News concerning Him!

Isaiah prophesied centuries before that a message of peace, joy and salvation was coming. At His birth, Jesus was proclaimed by supernatural messengers that the day of salvation had come. Decades later John His forerunner and Jesus Himself began announcing the Good News that the reign of the Kingdom of Heaven had indeed come to the earth!

Some believed the Good News, repented and obeyed the God Who had come to save them. Others did not. They did not understand that this salvation goes deeper than the financial or political situation they were in. He was called Jesus, because He came to save His people from the condition of their hearts. He came to save them from their sin.

For many centuries now, people have been believing and receiving forgiveness and deliverance from their sin. This is indeed the Good News, The Gospel of Jesus Christ. However, for some reason or other, the words Jesus used in His announcement are seldom used today. The Good News according to Jesus was that the Kingdom of God was near to them, and that they could enter therein.  Why is this important?

It is understood that the Gospel according the apostle Paul is the story of how “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4 KJV)

The fact that the real problem was in the human heart, and that Christ came to not only to offer forgiveness but a way for us to have a new heart has been often overlooked for centuries. Like many in Christ’s time the concern in many yet today is to simply try harder to be good. therefor, Evangelical Christians in every generation have rightly emphasized what Jesus and Paul stressed, that the Gospel is the only answer. The bad news is that we cannot live righteously on our own, but the wonderful Good News is that God in Christ has delivered us from ourselves. Because He died and rose again, we can die to our old lives and truly live again in Him!

In this way we enter into the Kingdom of God. Paul states that believers have been transferred from the domain of darkness and into the Kingdom of God’s dear Son! (Colossians 1:13) There is of course a life through Christ that extends far beyond our material existence, but this Life is available to us now, and this Kingdom is here and now, by the authority and the Word of Jesus Christ, the one and only creator of all things! (Colossians 1:16-17).

Again, why is this important? Why do we need to be reminded of the Gospel in the dimension that Jesus proclaimed it? I believe we need a new emphasis on the Gospel of the Kingdom because we are so prone to focus on our own personal needs, forgetting the great desire of God for His Creation. The Gospel of the Kingdom includes me, but it is also beyond me! It is like the leaven in the flour that is hidden for a time but ultimately permeates the whole loaf of bread. It is like the tiny mustard seen that cannot help but grow into something greater and larger and beneficial. (Luke 13:18-21)

It is also possible that the present work of God in His world can be neglected if our only concern is for eternity in heaven.

It is shown in the Kings dream to Daniel who learned that the Kingdom of God was like a rock that grew into a mountain that filled the whole earth! This is bigger than you and I, and it can lift us up from a self-centered life to a vision that we can be a part of the progressing Kingdom! You and I are becoming partners with Jesus Christ who is changing this world from the inside out!

We also need to see that the Kingdom of God was as important to Paul and the other apostles as it was to Jesus. The rest of the 15th chapter of First Corinthians shows the intention of the the Gospel of Grace:

1 Corinthians 15:21-28:
“For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power.

For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, ” All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.”
(NASU)

The Kingdom of God came to the earth 2,000 years ago in the person of Jesus Christ. He humbled Himself and became obedient to the death of the Cross. Then He was raised from death and highly exalted with a Name above all names! At the Name of Jesus Christ every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father! (Philippians 2:6-11)

Is He Lord of your life? If not, say yes to Him, believe the Good News and enter into His Kingdom of righteousness, Peace and Joy today!

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