THY KINGDOM COME

Many of our people are uneasy in talking about the kingdom of God. They are far more comfortable with the church, and, for the most part, they dismiss the kingdom as simply one more description of the church. It is common for our preachers and teachers to equate the church and the kingdom, drawing no distinction between them at all. Any idea, therefore, of a coming kingdom is unthinkable, and to pray “Thy kingdom come,” as Jesus did, is a rather serious error, for, after all, the kingdom has already come in the fact of the church. We might pray for the kingdom to grow or spread or be strengthened, but never to come, for it is improper to pray for something to come that has already come.

As a rule, therefore, we virtually ignore what is commonly known as the Lord’s prayer, though in most churches it is continually prayed, usually in unison, with a great deal of appreciation. Were it not for that third line of the petition, Thy kingdom come, we too would make more use of it. I was reading the prayer of an aged brother recently in which he made a gallant effort to utilize the Lord’s prayer and still be doctrinally sound. When he got to the third line, he altered it with: “We thank thee that thy kingdom has come.”

Our purpose in this short essay is to suggest that all such painstaking is unnecessary and burdensome, and to show that it is both appropriate and scriptural for us to pray as Jesus taught his disciples to pray: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.”

The scriptures make it clear that the kingdom is both present and future, and that the church is an expression of the kingdom. Heb. 12:28: “Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken” and Col. 1:13: “He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” surely refer in some way to God’s reign in His church. Several of Jesus’ parables indicate that with his ministry the kingdom of God was becoming a reality among men, working quietly in the hearts of men like seed sown in good soil. For Jesus and his disciples to insist that “The kingdom of God has come near to you” and “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you” makes it evident that the kingdom was and definitely is in the now.

And yet there are many more references that make it just as clear that the kingdom is future. Such as Lk. 13:29: “Men will come from east and west, and from north and south, and sit at table in the kingdom of God,” and 2 Thess. 1:5: “This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be made worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.” These can hardly be applied to the church. When angels in heaven cried out, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15) they surely had in mind more than what we call the church age. Gal. 5:21 and Eph. 5:5 both speak of inheriting the kingdom of God. It would be inappropriate to talk about the church that way.

It is like eternal life, which is a reality now, according to such passages as John 5:24, and a promise for the future, for Mark 10:30 says, “and in the world to come eternal life.” Or it is like salvation, which is obviously now for those who are in Christ, but it is also in the future, for 1 Pet. 1:5 refers to “a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Generally speaking, these three — the kingdom of God, eternal life, and salvation — refer to the same thing. They are all in the now and in the future, and they are all in some sense evident in the church, but in no wise identical with it. In this world we may “taste” the powers of the age to come (Heb. 6:5), but the banquet is yet to be.

The kingdom is something like the bouquet of roses I sometimes present to Ouida (it should be every day!). I have learned that the long-stemmed ones still in the bud are the most desirable, and the most expensive. Once they are placed in a vase and grace the table, they are indeed a bouquet of beautiful roses. But their full glory is yet to be, for each bud will burst forth in breathtaking splendour. A rose in the bud is of course a rose, but there is much more to a rose when it is in full blossom. So it is with God’s kingdom. Yes, God’s rule in the hearts of His children that make up the Church of God on earth is the kingdom of heaven among men, but it is a serious mistake to suppose that there is no greater manifestathm of the kingdom yet to be.

We cannot be sure of the precise nature of God’s tomorrow for us, but we can be confident that it will be “an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading kept in heaven for you” (1 Pet. 1:4). The same apostle says that “we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13). Again and again the scriptures speak of “the glory that is to be revealed,” such as in Rom. 8:18. That same chapter indicates that the earth itself has a destiny in God’s plan, for, along with all creation, it will be “set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.” Perhaps this is the “new earth” that Peter hopes for. This may be what Jesus was promising when he said: “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

We are “kingdom people” while living in this age, which means that we really belong to “the age to come” or to the kingdom to come. We are “a colony of heaven” while in this world (Philip. 3:20), and we await a Savior who will give us a glorious body like his own. So, we have been delivered from this “present evil age” (and that should be rendered age rather than world) and are therefore to live transformed lives, not conforming ourselves to this age (Rom. 12:2). Paul assures us that when we follow “the course of this age” we are disciples of “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2).

All time for us is therefore in terms of this age and the age to come. Jesus used this very language over and over. In Lk. 20:34 he speaks of “the sons of this age” and then of those “who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection of the dead.” To live after this age is to be carnal and worldly, “minding earthly things;” to live in this age as a disciple of Jesus is to be a tent-dweller and an alien, one whose citizenship is in the age to come. Paul divides it another way: “We look not to the things that are seen (this age) but to the things that are unseen (the age to come)” (2 Cor. 4:18). He goes on to speak of the building we have from God, eternal in the heavens, and says that the Lord has given us the Spirit as a guarantee that all these things will be true for us (2 Cor. 5:5).

We have a lot going for us in God’s tomorrow, the kingdom to come. We await a Savior from Heaven. He will give us glorified bodies. We will have a building from God in heaven. In some way we will share in the New Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven — and will it come to the renewed earth that Jesus promises us?

We have no way of knowing all that is in the offing while we are still in this age moving toward the age to come. There are strong indications in scripture that all the nations will hear the gospel before the end (Mt. 24:14), that there will be a general reign of peace because of the spread of the knowledge of the Lord (Isa. I1:1-9), that the Jews will be converted and bring great blessing to mankind (Rom. 11), that Jesus will reign with his saints for a thousand years (Rev. 20).

Just how God will put all this together we are not likely to know until “the perfect” comes, for “then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood” (1 Cor. 13:12). It should be enough for us to realize that God has already revealed to us that into which angels longed to look, and that the sufferings of this age can in no wise be compared to the glory that is to be further revealed to us. That God is still up to something is evident enough. That His kingdom is yet to be unfolded with still greater glory, both in this age and the age to come, is evident enough from scripture.

So, we not only may appropriately pray “Thy kingdom come,” but we should. If the same Jesus who said, “The kingdom of heaven is within you,” could go on and teach his disciples to pray for its coming, then we too can think and pray in such terms. —the Editor