Continued from Part 2

Our confessional documents state that “those who have been saved by the grace of God through union with Christ by faith and through regeneration by the Holy Spirit enter the kingdom of God and delight in the blessings of a new covenant.” A biblical concept of the kingdom of God which shapes the Christian’s theological framework also forms the development of his identity. The saving plan of God’s sovereign rule is manifested in the life of a Christian in three different ways: through the works of grace[i], the benefits of grace[ii], and the effects of grace[iii]. 

 

Works of Grace

First, God’s kingly rule in redemption mediated and accomplished by Jesus Christ is a saving work established by his grace whereby an estranged sinner can be regenerated, reconciled, and allowed to enter the kingdom of God. A rugged individualistic humanity has always resisted grace because it is not comfortable with any force or being having rule over its life. It is a power struggle of serious proportions. The Bible portrays the human plight as walking, following, and living under the power of sin and the passions of the flesh (Eph 2:1-3) and therefore is in need of redemption from sin by the saving work of a merciful God. Bauckham states that “we should think of the compulsions of sin, from whose grip we cannot get free by ourselves, as not just the inner compulsions to sin in fallen human nature, but also the forces outside individual persons, such as consumerism, which appeal to the base desires of human nature and exploit people by latching onto the human tendencies to greed, lust, envy and excess. The grip in which many contemporary people are held is an alliance between the worst of the forces that control our society and the worst aspects of their own inner selves.”[iv] Paul states that the human heart is fallen but he does not say that we harden our hearts because our understanding is darkened but rather our understanding is darkened because of the hardness and the corruption of our hearts (Eph 4:18). God’s kingly reign was manifested here on earth for a purpose and that was to redeem a broken and fallen humanity. So sin is placing any center or ultimate value in our hearts (Ex 20:1-2; Rom 1:25) which fundamentally governs our desire’s pursuit for happiness, significance, and an identity. Sin is our desire to substitute ourselves in the place of God, where only God deserves to be, whereas, God’s authority of grace in Jesus, is his substituting himself in our place.[v] He redeemed us by making full atonement and absorbing the punishment our sins deserved and securing justification and acceptance freely by his grace. 

 

Because of the inner compulsions of sin, the Bible places a great amount of emphasis on the radical priority of the inner life rather than on the outer life. Therefore the cycle of idolatry (Gal 4:8) expands its influential work through the different elevated and developed stages of adultery and autonomy (Jas 4:13-16). Whether the personal center is one’s career, relationships, money, academic achievement, or sex, if an individual lives for anything else besides Jesus than that functional god will abuse, crush, and tyrannize his heart. If anyone lives for Jesus who is the anointed saving ruler, then he will receive the loving approval of this king and will indeed be set free (Gal 5:1). Living for one’s own selfish pride will cause a person to live under the weight of a curse since no one can ever live up to his own expectations or measure up to his own high standards, never mind the perfect holy law of God. One’s identity is not a matter of who I am but whose I am. So both religious and irreligious people are avoiding God as Savior and Lord--but in different ways. Both are seeking to keep control of their own lives by looking to something besides God as their salvation.[vi]

 

Many younger Christians have been suspiciously doubtful about the church’s monolithic talk about this one gospel. They believe that the doctrine of regeneration, justification, and the atonement can be ignored. On the other hand, older modern Christians have resolved to believe that this one gospel does not have different forms and expressions, therefore making their understanding too one-dimensional.[vii] The Bible provides us with a beautiful picture of a gospel that is multi-faceted. Some have tried to pit the “eternal life gospel” of John with the “kingdom gospel” of the Synoptic gospels, but again each gospel writer is expressing a form that is helpful not only for his theological focus but also for his particular audience. Because some individuals are uncomfortable with the presentation of Christianity as a series of sale pitches, they have emphasized the idea of having a series of conversations while diminishing the idea of a personal, individual work of conversion.[viii] Nicodemus’ encounter with Jesus seems ironically subversive to this form of thinking since the pharisee pursued Jesus to have a simple theological discussion or conversation, yet Jesus responded by telling him about the necessity of conversion and the urgent reality of having a new inner life.  A more careful examination of Mark 9:43-48 answers the apparent discrepancy.   In v. 43, Mark states “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter LIFE maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.” Then, in v. 47, Mark states “And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the KINGDOM OF GOD with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell.” Mark thus refers to the kingdom of God as “life”. John uses “life” and “eternal life” to refer to the kingdom of God.  To John, eternal life is the same reality as the kingdom of God. They are used interchangeably to refer not only to the authoritative power of a savior who grants salvific life but also to the sovereign reign of a king who rules people’s hearts. In John 3, Jesus combines the idea of regeneration with the kingdom of God in order to introduce to a Pharisee the truths about this new life. 

 

The Benefits of Grace

One of the benefits of being united with Christ and receiving eternal life and the forgiveness of sins is becoming a new citizen of God’s kingdom (Eph. 2:19; Phil 3:20).[ix] This new way living in the world should have an aroma of a higher league, a heavenly commonwealth. This citizenship makes all the difference in the world to an individual who now has a stability and joy enjoyed in the private life and a confidence and humility in the public life. This Pauline image describes the various rights and duties of a citizen who is a stranger and alien in a foreign land. There is an entirely new way a Christian conducts himself in relationship to others and the world because he is a member of a radically different alternative community of God’s kingdom who is now in union with the person in charge of history. 

 

Even when a Roman citizen would go outside of his city, his rights were still in tact wherever he would travel. Just as Paul who had the right to appeal to the emperor, a citizen of God’s kingdom can appeal to final authority if necessary since he has now inherited the benefit of gaining direct access to the holiness of God. The Christian should be encouraged to know however that Jesus is a different kind of emperor who always responds with interest to any case or concern of one of his citizens. Since the gospel confirms the Christian of his legal standing and permanent status, he can gain confidence in knowing the truth that no degrees exist in citizenship. In other words, either you are a citizen or you are not; either you are a child or you are not. This truth will repudiate any false notions and insecurities about one’s performance determining his status as a citizen, that is one becomes a lesser second-class citizen when he is less obedient and a greater first-class citizen when he is more obedient. What is the fundamental criterion that makes an individual a citizen of a country? It is not his race, ethnicity, language, fashion, cultural or socio-economic background, but it is whether or not the individual has been naturalized into the country as a citizen. What is the criterion for someone being a Christian?  It is the fact that he has received citizenship not because of his social, cultural, racial or moral location but because of his kingdom location. He was once an alien (Eph 2:19) but now a citizen with full rights and privileges in a new community.

 

Effects of Grace

Along with these rights and privileges, a citizen has a responsibility in representing well the king of this new humanity. “As fellow super-naturalized citizens with the saints” (Eph 2:19b), God’s people are a radically different counter-cultural cosmopolitan community. They share a common spiritual language and an allegiance that supersedes all other loyalties. They share not only a common duty and responsibility but also more importantly a common goal and delight of glorifying, honoring and obeying the one true king.[x]   However, rather than adoring our God we often engage in self-congratulatory praise as we migrate to the center of our universe. But the effect of saving grace has awakened us to see Jesus as magnificently majestic. The picture of his kingliness in his triumphal entry (Jn 12:12-19) is an ironic combination of majesty and meekness, holiness and humility. This is the paradox of Jesus’ kingliness. It’s an upside down, subversive picture of how the servant king came in humility. What we all really long for is a perfect king who will come to give us a kingliness we desperately want. We want an ideal king who is bold and sweet, brave and meek, all at the same time.  In the gospel of John, whenever John uses the verb “to be glorified,” or “lifted up”, he’s actually referring to the cross. So what John is trying to say is if you want to know the fullness of God’s glory, then it can be found not in the resurrection but in the cross. Jesus Christ came into the world in a paradoxical way and was glorified. He said the way that I am going to show you how great of a king I am is that I left the riches of my heavenly place, came to this world, became nothing, and made you, who is impoverished, rich.

 

People had false expectations of their messianic king, and they anticipated the coronation of their king coming through a crown and not through a cross. Whenever we think about an upside down, paradoxical kingliness of Jesus who is majestic and meek, holy and humble, we desire the same royalty that creates our hearts to be both lamblike and lionhearted, courageous and compassionate at the same time. Keller summarizes this divine excellency well when he says that “It’s only paradoxical to the world. But it’s real royalty to us. In Jesus Christ we see the combination of infinite power and complete vulnerability, unbounded justice yet unending mercy, transcendent highness and exquisite accessibility and nearness. We feel in the present something completely wild and unpredictable. It’s mighty, it’s powerful, and yet perfectly under control. The attraction is deep. It is really, really deep. It’s a lordliness, it is a royalty, it’s a kingliness that we all long to have. The majesty is more majestic for the tenderness, the tenderness more tender for the majesty. If you come face to face with this gentle king who comes riding on a colt, you will become a gentle king. You will become more bold and yet more humble at the same time. But only if you understand how it is to be saved, that it will happen not through strength but it will happen through weakness. That it is not through your moral exertion but it is going to be submitting to the grace of God.”[xi]

 

Revisit us soon for the next article, Part 4: Community Shaped by the Kingdom.

© 2010 The Center for Gospel Culture 

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