The Church of Christ Yesterday and Today. . .

IS THE KINGDOM THE CHURCH?

The position taken in this editorial is that the kingdom of God involves the church rather than being identical with it. The church is a corollary of the kingdom, which is to say that the church followed in due course from the preaching of the coming kingdom, which resulted in the call of the church. The kingdom surely involves more than the church, but it does involve the church. If God’s communion with man be likened to the refreshing rains, the church would be the former rain and the kingdom the latter rain. It is God leading His people from one level of glory to the next. A rose in the bud is surely a rose, but the fulness of its glory comes when it is unfolded in all its majesty. That God is up to something is evident in the church, but the scriptures, if not reason itself, make it clear that there is much more to come.

To speak of the kingdom is to get at the real substance of religion. The Pharisees, confronted with all the excitement about the kingdom, asked Jesus when it was to come, which might have been one of their more sincere questions. Jesus may have been speaking quite directly, and not cryptically, when he answered them: “The coming of the kingdom of God does not admit of observation and there will be no one to say, ‘Look here! Look there!’ For, you must know, the kingdom of God is among you” (Lk. 17:20). A better translation might be: the kingdom of God is inside you. But for Jesus to tell them that the kingdom is “among you” is a more direct answer to their question, indicating that it is something already present and active.

The main point is that the kingdom is not some external demonstration of military or political glory such as the Jews were expecting. Jesus hardly looked the part of king or Messiah they wanted, and so he was rejected. They longed for a kingdom that would come in magnificent procession, a glittering king in command, triumphing over. all their enemies. Jesus told them that it would come with no such demonstration. It is something internal. It is spiritual. It is something inside you. Jesus is really saying that the kingdom has no locale, which is a lesson for all those who would relate the kingdom closely to the church, which is more often than not viewed in terms of its external features rather than its internal character. The Pharisees were asking about locale (How will we see it and where will we see it as we watch from the grandstand?), while Jesus in his reply talks about character.

Maybe this is why the New Covenant scriptures say so much about what the kingdom is not, which is what Jesus is doing with the Pharisees. It is not visible, he is saying, and it is not demonstrable, it is not external. It is rather inside human hearts. How jarring that must have been to people looking for a super King David or Judas Maccabeus! Even Mt. 12:26 has that negative element that says as much about what the kingdom is not as what it is: “If it is through the Spirit of God that I cast out devils, then know that the kingdom of God has overtaken you.” Exorcism was common in those days, but is was not common for one to practice it by the power of the Spirit of God. It was evident that Jesus acted by God’s power, not Beelzebul’s. In so acting he was relieving human misery and overcoming those woes brought on by Satan. This is what the kingdom of God is all about.

Barclay says on this passage: “It is very significant to note that the sign of the coming of the Kingdom was not full churches and great revivalistic meetings, but the defeat of pain.” The kingdom has to do with what is happening in men’s hearts and minds. It “overtakes” us or is “already arrived” when this kind of work is going on.

1 Cor.4:20 assures us that “the kingdom is not just words, it is power,” and the context suggests that the apostle is placing doing for God over against self-esteem. He is concerned about what people do, not what they say out of self-importance, for the kingdom is not mere talk but it is the power that changes lives. And so Ro. 14:17 says: “the kingdom of God does not mean eating and drinking this or that, it means righteousness and joy and peace brought by the Holy Spirit.” Here again the scriptures cut far below the external to describe the kingdom as having subjective character. Rather than being this or that religious ritual or regulation, the kingdom has to do with a right relationship with God and man, and it is evident in one’s life when the Holy Spirit reaches deeply within and opens up a wellspring of joy. Power, peace, joy, cleansing, righteousness are the stuff of the kingdom, and it may be that the modern church has as much trouble seeing that as did the Pharisees.

Another very revealing passage is Mk. 12:34 where Jesus tells a man “You are not far from the kingdom of God,” a statement that could hardly be made in reference to the church. It was when the man appeared to understand the role of God’s love in the human heart that Jesus said that to him.

If we allow the term “reign” to stand for kingdom, which is a better translation of the Greek word (Campbell’s Living Oracles uses “reign” altogether, never “kingdom”), these passages take on more meaning. If God reigns in one’s heart, then there will be peace, joy and power. And where else could God’s reign on earth be except “inside you”? This would have Jesus saying something like “You are beginning to allow God to rule your heart” instead of “You are not far from the kingdom.”

So, when Jesus has us pray “thy reign come,” he is referring to that character of life that is surrendered to the will of God. The next line of the prayer supports this: “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The will of heaven is subject to the Father, When this is the character of our own hearts and lives, this is the reign of God on earth.

There are upwards of 70 parables recorded in the gospel accounts, which leaves one to wonder how many Jesus must have told. These are calculated to teach us the nature of the kingdom, and it is significant that the source material for these stories are from the simple life of Palestine in the time of Jesus, even if the parables are not always that simple. In seeing the kingdom in these parables it is important that we remember that they are parables and not allegories. The difference is that in an allegory the meaning is to be decoded point by point, for every part of it has its counterpart in meaning. A parable, however, has one main point, with all the details serving to make that one thrust more realistic. The parable of the prodigal son, for example, is intended to show the grace of God and His forgiveness to the penitent. It spoils the story to make it an allegory by finding some special meaning in every point. Tertullian, one of the fathers of the early church, started interpreters in this direction. In this parable the elder son was the Jew and the younger one the Christian. The inheritance that the younger son laid claim to is the knowledge of God that each man is heir to. The owner of the hog pen is the devil. The ring is baptism, the feast the Lord’s Supper, and the fatted calf the sacrifice of Christ.

But if we look for that one great thrust in each parable, we will do as our Lord intended by learning a great deal about the character of the kingdom of God. They show us that the kingdom is subject to fantastic and unexplainable growth (the mustard seed and the leaven); it is diverse, made up of all kinds of people (the net with all the fishes); it grows and yields despite failure and difficulty (the sower); and it has the marks of a Great Supper to which all are invited.

The parables also reveal God’s grace and goodness to sinful man, which makes possible His rule in human hearts (laborers in the vineyard), and in the three great parables of Lk. 15, the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son, Jesus is showing that God loves His erring creatures far more than man desires to recover his lost property. Then there are those parables that describe those who make up the kingdom as counting the cost of discipleship (tower builder, the king who made war), and once the cost is paid the rewards are great(costly pearl, hidden treasure). And those in the kingdom are to be compassionate (unmerciful steward) and determined (importunate widow, the friend at midnight). Then there are those that show that the coming kingdom is a time of crisis, judgment and emergency, such as the rich fool, the barren fig tree, and the foolish maidens.

These parables compel us to respond to Jesus in terms of his mission and person, and in turn the implication that this has in reference to our relations with others, and this is what the kingdom is all about. God’s “secret” is tucked away in the parables, hidden from the wise and revealed to babes. When we read of the binding of the strong man, the overcoming of evil, the physician that heals the sick, the cleansing of the lepers, the removal of the burden of guilt, the opening of the Father’s house, and the joy that fills heavy hearts, we know something is up. The rule of God is here!

The church is involved in all this. If we can say that the kingdom has been inaugurated and that the church is an expression of this, we have to add that the kingdom awaits final consummation. Nations have not yet beat their swords into plows, nor has the knowledge of the Lord covered the earth as the waters cover the seas. The New Jerusalem as foreseen by Isaiah with all its peace and goodwill upon the earth, has not yet graced human history. The rose is yet to bloom into the fulness of its glory. If we think of the church as D-Day in God’s program, then the fulness of the kingdom will be V-Day.—the Editor