The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Vision of the Kingdom, #2

Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. (Romans 5:9)

Being "saved," as we customarily employ the term, means we have a legal standing of righteousness before the Father in Heaven. He hears us when we pray because of the atoning authority of the blood of Christ, and sends us Divine grace to help in our hour of need—our need to overcome sin and walk in righteousness. This state of imputed (assigned) righteousness gives us the legal right to enter the righteousness, peace, and joy of the Kingdom of God.

But the Kingdom of God does not consist in the main of a legal standing of righteousness before the Father in Heaven. The Kingdom of God is God in Christ in the saints governing the nations of saved peoples of the earth. The Kingdom of God is the eternal union of the spiritual Life of God and the forms of earth. The Kingdom of God is not in word but in power.

If after having been sealed for salvation in the Day of Christ we then continue to walk "in the flesh," not giving adequate attention to entering the spiritual life of the Kingdom of God, we will die spiritually (Romans 8:13).

Our perception of the Kingdom. Numerous individuals of our day have professed Christ and have been baptized in water. But a great part of this multitude is living a fleshly life in the world, hoping that at their death they will enter the Kingdom of God. They have made the Kingdom of God synonymous with Heaven, with the realm of bodiless spirits; and they believe that the purpose of the Divine redemption is to enable us to go to live forever in the realm of bodiless spirits.

But the Kingdom of God is not synonymous with the realm of spirits. The Kingdom of God is the union of the Life of God with the material world. The believers who sow to their flesh, living as an animals, spending the majority of their time and energy eating, drinking, working, playing, and reproducing, will reap corruption in the Day of the Lord.

If they actually do enter the Kingdom of God in the Day of Christ it will be a salvation as through fire. This is because there is little or no Kingdom life in them. If they are to enter the Kingdom they must be purified by suffering—perhaps while yet alive in the flesh.

Heaven is the holy part of the spirit realm. Paradise is in the spiritual Jerusalem in Heaven. But the Kingdom of Heaven is in the heart of the saint whether the saint is in Heaven or on the earth.

The Kingdom of God is located in Heaven at the present time because Christ and His saints are located at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. When Christ appears, then we also shall appear—in the earth. This is the coming of the Kingdom of God, the doing of God's will in the earth as it is in Heaven.

We must keep on preaching the Good News of the gift of salvation through Jesus' blood. We also must keep on preaching the Good News of the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth; and then continue to press into that Kingdom each day of our life.

To be continued.