My Church has recently been preaching a series of sermons on our culture. Effectively encouraging Christians to go forth and change the world for Jesus by their biblical realizations, or what God expects of them. Referring to this as a kingdom work. Really what it seems they are saying is; if you are a Christian you will behave and respond in a biblical way to the affairs of life in building a kingdom here on earth as the body of Christ. Of course this concept of good works and Christian compassion as presented is referenced by a scripture reading and certainly is not a bad suggestion nor necessarily un-Christian like, at least in our current works/good neighbor/ kingdom come perception of Christianity. But is this God's intent as a constrictive Christian virtue for the individual in His Redeemed Church? Also is our physical/earthly attitude and behavior what brings Him Glory as we travel redemption's road in life or must something else come first?
Is it God's plan to mount a mass of committed soldiers to accomplish on earth a kingdom, to display His will for this place? What is actually a physical earthly accomplishment as the measure of His life and influence. Making the Christian effort to change things here for the better a part of a mandate of His redemption; even perhaps as more or less paving the way for the return of our Lord. Is this why the Son came to earth suffered and was rejected? Was it effectively to empower the church to carry on His earthly ministry in His physical absence?
He the true Messiah, was turned away by a earthly people for religious/political purposes. Why? Because they [the Jewish people, including the disciples] were looking for someone to institute a change here on earth. First and foremost freeing them from Roman rule. Then the elevating of the Jew to the highest status of a earthly position "a theocratic earthly institution" which they, by God's authorization of course, co-control with the their earthly King. A kingdom "on earth as it is in heaven". This would be a kingdom by Law. We now call what they rejected the coming millennial kingdom. And many today are still working under its auspices or the law in preparation for His return.
But these were earthly men, not under grace, so this place was their destiny. It is not however ours. He [Christ] failed to bring into being what they expected in their timing. So they [Jewish leaders] had Him murdered by a earthly government with the direct official complicit involvement of those Jewish religious leaders and ultimately the approval of many of the Jewish people of that locality themselves. They all sought a kingdom on earth, as many Christians still do today.
Those facts, the results of the actions of those of old. and the Churches earthly sullied and conflicted history, along with the Word's positional expressly heavenly announcement of the Church in the Pauline gospels, should leave us with a question as to how God would actually have us conduct ourselves today. A identification very different in this the age of grace on earth than the perception of a earthly accomplishment. Or just what have we been redeemed unto? Are we to build or enhance a kingdom here? And just what is redemption in biblical terms and why was it even necessary?
Redemption means to free someone from bondage. It often involves the paying of a ransom, a price that makes redemption possible. The Israelites were redeemed from Egypt. We were redeemed from the power of sin and the curse of the Law [Gal. 3:13] through Jesus [ Rom 3:24; Col. 1:14]. We were bought with a price, namely the blood and the death of Christ Jesus. This was a judicial act it did not reform or remake us or even empower us as Adam men, giving us a new status [reformed] in and of ourselves for performance sake! The root of the word in the Greek is one of freeing a slave. In our case providing us a judicial freedom before God; from slavery to sin and it's results as consequence of mans fall. A sin condition which still prevails in all men as a consequence of the natural mans physical/self-centered instinct or indwelt sin ["sin is in the flesh"] propensity. Without judicial redemption from the natural there is no salvation for that man of sin. So then what are we redeemed unto? "For it pleased the Father that in Him [Christ Jesus] should ALL fullness dwell" Col. 1:19.
Now as judicially free, in God's perception, we have a new liberty provided by grace [remember here we still are indwelt with sin in our condition]. However we stand in the light of life before the Judge of heaven and earth now as new creatures by Grace. We are not changed we are NEW! We are seen in Christ Jesus, a wholly spiritual position. We are by His act indwelt by His Spirit [thoughts/mind] for a life [in His estimation] as entirely new redeemed creations; by His making. Not empowered to make changes here! A existence we cannot conceive of in any physical/emotion/feeling remedy, nor are any works involved. We are not placed in a position to or commanded to build a kingdom here by work/actions/traditions and doctrinal obedience. No the Word declares we are now entirely of heaven. Grace holds no place for a foundation built upon flesh efforts. "Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty [Him as our life] with which Christ has made us free" Gal. 5:1
He has made us entirely redeemed to a heavenly/spiritual status. Really in kingdom building works we are working toward what is a physical sign of our hope and although not a bad thing, we must never the less ask; are we in that self effort providing clear passage towards a true hope in which our spiritual produce is our true character? Always to glorify and honor Him; in our perception of who we really are spiritually, in Christ as ones true to His Word. And for that honoring to be only built upon our faith of that Word. Or the Words revelation of His Redemptive truth for us spiritually. What He has made us to be in the Son, His object or intention toward us. "Changed into the same image from glory to glory [faith's knowledge] even as by the Spirit of the lord" 2 Cor. 3:18.
He Christ Jesus is now our identification exclusively in the sight of God. We seen as God judges His Son, who is perfect; who became our sin judicially, and was qualified to bear that sin and nullify all sin for judicial purpose, by God's will for all of mankind; through the bearing of the shame of sin unto death and the trusting by faith that His God would return Him to eternal Glory. It is thus, in that image of perfect justice brought to and for us by another in Whom we now have identity before God. We are now represented by Him, "Hid in Christ", the Fathers righteous view of us. We are seen by God in no other way!
While redemption has taken us from a old sinful place [the flesh] in the Fathers eyes, it has also brought us to a all new place in His view. We must take the new position consciously however by a knowledgeable faith perception only. All things of the what is now the judicially/spiritually annulled earthly life are gone from God's sight. The new position and identification we hold as Christians is based upon the wondrous fact that men, in the person of Jesus Christ, is gone up to the Father into heaven. Making us as Paul described, heavenly creatures. "Give your minds to the things above" Col. 3:2.
As I have stressed in the past Paul's letters were not all written to teach us how to conduct ourselves corporately as a religious group, but to urge us to leave the worldly and Jewish traditions we so enjoy and the things of the earth which we are so prone to adopt as religious emblems. A action which serves only to hinder us from the spiritual liberty of the heavenly sanctuary we have been taken into spiritually in Christ. "Having....boldness to enter into the Holiest" Heb. 10:19.
It is only when the believer faces the despair of the non-value of his human action and dependence upon the well worn path of the flesh both in his religious pursuit and the world that we may enter His true rest. There are now no barriers to His heavenly abode, a dimension of Spirit, of the mind. Before us is a effortless life by the provision of the grace of another's actions, we only need believe. Redemption's road has taken us to a entirely new place far away from the kingdom on earth and the Law. The Church is a heavenly body. In other words redemption has not only delivered us but it has given us something new, but available and only to be know by faith in His Word; by Paul's specific doctrine [teaching]of our position and identification in Christ in the spiritual realm. "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith" Heb. 10:22.
"The Father has left us as much dependent [faith's realizations] on the Lord Jesus' work for our deliverance as for forgiveness. It is wholly because we died with Him on the cross unto sin and unto the whole legal principal, that sin's power is broken". Now we have a new life, a new attitude, a new mind, on redemptions road. "To him that works not but believes on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" Rom. 4:5.
