Why is an Earthly Kingdom Even Necessary?
"I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, [of] the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew..."
Romans 11:1-2a KJV
Many Christians struggle with knowing that they are eternally secure. A superficial reading of scripture and neglect of key doctrines as well as the promotion of false doctrines often cloud our understanding of the sufficiency of Christ's death, burial and resurrection.
Adding further doubt to this, many argue that because of Israel's rejection of Jesus Christ as Messiah, God has replaced Israel with the church. So all of the promised kingdom blessings that were given to Israel are now assigned to the church.
This begs the question, "If God has changed His mind about fulfilling His promise to Abraham, how can anyone be sure of salvation?"
Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth
There is the story of a farmer who travelled to a distant city to attend an auction. This was in the days before telephones, when communications were made by telegraph using a series of coded tapping that spelled out words.
These taps were sent by a telegraph operator along an electrical wire to a distant town where another telegraph operator would decipher the coded taps into a message. Because of cost, a minimum of words were used. For those for whom English was a second language, like this farmer, this could be pretty difficult.
This particular farmer had a need for a bull that he successfully purchased at auction in a city some distance from his farm. He was very happy with his purchase but he did not have transport large enough to get the beast back home. So he went to the telegraph office where he could send a message to his farmhand asking him to come with a transport large enough for the bull.
The farmer approached the telegraph operator and asked in his heavy Norwegian accent, "How muwch fer to send der missage?" After the rates were told to him, he made some quick calculations and realized that he only had money to spare to pay for one word...
So he spent several minutes trying to think of a word from his limited english vocabulary. Finally, he says, "Ah! Aye haf it!" He wrote down the word and gave it to the operator, paid for it and watched the operator dutifully send off the one word message back to his home.
The farmer waited for a day and then another and another. No one replied and no one came with a transport. He became very annoyed as he looked at his dwindling funds. He realized that he could not afford to pay for lodging and food any longer. So he dejectedly sold the bull and returned home.
The closer he came to home, the angrier he became. So, when his farmhand came out to meet him, the farmer confronted him with steely eyes and spat out; "Vy did chew not bring der vagun?, Did chew not git der missage dat I sent?"
The farmhand nervously replied:"Well...sure we did, but it sounded like you were doing fine, you just sent one word...'comfortable'."
"Nooo!", The farmer replied, "I did not mean dat I vas cumfurtible!!, I meant,
“Come fer da bull”
So, you see that in order to rightly understand a message, we need to understand the intent of the messages sender.
Likewise, to rightly understand the Bible, we need to understand the intent of God in giving it to the world. As was shown in the previous post, Hebrews chapter 1 reminds us that God is in the process of revealing His King to the world. So the dominant theme or intent of God's Word is to systematically reveal the King of His choosing, Jesus Christ, to every person in the world.
In our present age, the dominant instrument that God created to convey that revelation to the world is the church. The word 'church' does not refer to a building or to a religion. It literally means, 'called out ones'. That is, people are being called by God through the good news of Jesus Christ's life, death, burial and resurrection to come out of the world system and into a relationship with God.
So for any of us to rightly understand God's message, we need someone to come along side of us and first of all show us how to have a relationship with God. That person is the Holy Spirit of God. He is actively convincing the world (you and I) of sin, of righteousness and of judgment to come.
That conviction of sin is intended to lead the searching soul to Christ who is the only hope of relief. It is only the blood of Christ applied to our account that can completely remove the guilt of sin. Those who are convinced of that message (the church) are called to share it with others in the gospel or good news of Jesus Christ.
If you, dear student, are to rightly grasp God's intent, you must understand that God has a great desire to have a relationship with you as He does for every human soul. Yet sin is what prevents each of us from having that relationship. Are your sins forgiven so that you can have that relationship?
Sin is often defined as anything that we think, say or do that violates God's law. That is essentially right. Yet, this definition often leads us to focus on specific actions that are sinful. This is why there are so many religions. Each religion has a set of laws that define sin and that its adherents work diligently to obey.
Yet sin goes much deeper than our actions. Sin is an attitude before it ever becomes an act. The Bible tells us:
"The thought of foolishness [is] sin: and the scorner [is] an abomination to men." - Proverbs 24:9 KJV
A mindset that diminishes the goodness of God and magnifies the goodness of man is sinful. This attitude forgets that we are but creatures of a good God and that He is our Creator and the source of all goodness. We are not the source of goodness.
God is good and He is good all of the time
The United States Marine Corps is known as an elite brand of soldier. Every marine has several maxims or codes that they operate under. One is ‘Semper fi’ meaning always faithful to the corps; Another is ‘no man left behind’, meaning they do not leave their wounded or dead for the enemy to defile.
A Maxim of Christian faith is that God is good and that he is good all of the time….what do we mean when we say that? Some mean by this that God provides good things as if He is a cosmic Santa Claus.
The truth is that He provides for good things. For instance, parents that only provide good things for their children but do not provide for good things are neglecting some essential responsibilities of discipline and being rewarded for providing value to others.
"The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left [to himself] bringeth his mother to shame." - Proverbs 29:15 KJV
God provides all things richly to enjoy. (1 Tim 6:17) He also provides that all things work together for good. This means that even when painful things happen, He has provided the means for good to come from it. (Romans 8:28)
Since God is good, then God is just.
This means that standards must be applied evenly without favoritism. If the order that He established in the beginning of creation was violated, regardless of the affection that He might have for the offender, A penalty must be carried out. There is no two tiered justice with God.
Lucifer was created good as God's anointed cherub. Yet Lucifer apparently did not believe that God could be both loving and just. Lucifer became lawless by thinking that the loving God would not bring death to His creation.
By this logic, we understand that the reason that the world is in the shape that it is in is because Adam and Eve did not discern the difference between God providing good things and God providing for good things. They doubted God’s goodness and their violation was treason of the highest order. The penalty for treason is death. Every time that we sin, we have treasonously brought doubt about God’s goodness.
So, sin is a treasonous attitude that denies the goodness of God or denies His righteousness. In other words, anytime that we have thoughts that accuse God of not caring or not acting like we want Him to, we doubt the goodness of God. When bad things happen to us or our loved ones, we often accuse God of not caring by allowing that evil to occur. This reveals our treasonous heart.
It is therefore necessary that in the sphere where His order was violated, restitution must be accomplished. Only when justice is satisfied can the death penalty be removed.
The outworking of God’s justice is for God to establish a Kingdom on earth in the same sphere in which it was violated. He must have a King over that kingdom that is a sinless man.
The Spirit of God is working to convince you and I that evil is the fruit of treasonous betrayal of God. Evil is the fruit of each of our hearts that denies that God alone is righteous and that we are unrighteous.
The goodness of God, His righteousness, is revealed in the person of Christ who offered Himself as payment for sin. The penalty of treason is death. Jesus Christ did not deny the goodness of God even while suffering great evil against Him. He became sin for us to show us His goodness. He paid the penalty for my treason and for yours.
As a result, God commands all men everywhere to have a change of attitude and receive Christ as the only one able to save us from our sin. By an act of simple faith in Him, you and I are set free to know God and the fullness of His goodness.
Before going any farther in this study, if you have never done so, just ask God to save you from the penalty of your sinful heart. We are not all children of God until we have received Christ as our Savior.
"For as many as received Him, to them gave He the authority to be called the children of God."
Faith alone in Christ alone is all that is required to become a child of God.
If you have asked Him to be your Savior, be assured of His promise to never leave you nor forsake you. The moment that we believe in Jesus as our Savior we have turned to God from our sin and are born again. He immediately sends His Spirit to indwell us and immerse us into the body of Christ.
From that immersion, we are given a desire to know God in deeper ways and learn His Word more fully. This study is intended to be a help in that process.
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