What is the Kingdom?
Romans 14. 13-18;
We learned last week about the Church – the Bride of Christ that will one day be without spot or blemish. But it is the spots and blemishes of the early church that caused Paul to write most of his letters. Romans was written to unite Jewish and Gentile Christians, so they could engage in God’s mission and send Paul on his way to Spain with the Gospel. Some of them felt secure in keeping the OT law, and felt that they would be selling out to the devil If they ate steak that once was a sacrifice in a pagan temple. Others loved being free from law. They could eat whatever food they wanted. And that conflict is the background to Paul saying “the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”.
Remember that, although Paul was called to reach the non-Jewish world, he continued to be Jewish. He continued to believe that Jesus fulfils all the OT prophecies of Messiah. Remember that Christ means Messiah – the King. There are four main anchor points in Paul’s Gospel: Jesus died for our sins; Jesus rose again; Jesus is king, Jesus is Lord. So when Paul talks about the Kingdom present in our lives today, he is referencing Jesus – the Christ. He is referencing what Jesus says about the Kingdom. For example, the call that Jesus makes in Mark 1. 15 “The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
The kingdom of God is bigger than keeping some food laws. And it’s bigger than being free to indulge my appetite.
…. It’s about saying “Jesus is Lord!” It’s about saying “Our God reigns!” It’s not a place (at the moment!). It’s not possible that the USA or the UK or Ethiopia could be “the kingdom of God”.
Paul often calls Jesus “Christ”. But he doesn’t often speak about the Kingdom. And when he does, he mostly refers to the coming, final Kingdom. In fact, he only mentions the Kingdom as a present experience, twice: here and in 1 Cor 4. 20. And both times, he is dealing with the Church and with wrong ideas and behaviour – criticism, self-indulgence, arrogance, showmanship, disrespect. Both times, he has to ask, “What does the Kingdom – the rule of God – look like here?” So the Kingdom is not another word for the Church, either. The Kingdom must shape the church. It is the rule of God, the presence of the ruler, in our lives and in our world.
What does that look like? Paul sums it up as: righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Taken together, these three words take us back to what it is to be a Christian: what it means, as Jesus says in John 3, to be “born again”. The Kingdom deal is that we are not good enough for God. Paul quotes Psalm 14.1 when he says “No one is righteous — not even one.“ (Rom 3. 10). In Romans 5. 1 he says “since we have been justified [made righteous] through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” When God makes us right with him, there is peace between us and God. That is how we make a start in the Kingdom of God – we admit we aren’t good enough for God, and we ask God to put us right, to forgive us… And as a result, inside us we have “peace and joy as we trust in him” (Rom 15. 13)
And it would be tempting to say that is it all sewn up. That’s what the Kingdom is – we are made right with God, we have peace with God, and we have peace and joy inside us… But remember, Paul wrote as a Jewish Christian. We need to let his Jewishness speak to us, and as we do we find there’s more to these three words.
“Righteousness”
...begins in our new relationship with God. But in 2 Cor 5. 21 Paul says “God made him who had no sin [that’s Jesus] to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” That is not just about being declared righteous; it’s about demonstrating righteousness. Because of Jesus, we are forgiven, pardoned. But that’s not all: we are also transformed. The righteousness of God is his way of doing right towards the people he has made; it is his way of keeping covenant – his big promise – with his people. As Christians we embody that righteousness. We keep covenant with God, with one another in the Church, and in our world.
Flowing from that work of God in our lives, there flows right action: treating other people right. That is righteousness. Ex 22. 22-29 describe just some of the righteousness that God requires of his people in the way they treat one another. It affects issues of finance and resources. I heard this morning that 10 million tonnes of food are thrown away annually in the UK; yet in every sizeable town in the country there’s a Foodbank. What does righteousness mean in that situation?
And, says Paul, if you are enjoying your “freedom” so much that you cause distress and embarrassment to another, you are not treating other people right, and you are not keeping covenant.
Righteousness is about how we behave towards the poorest in our society; and it is about how we treat one another in the Body.
“Peace”
As a result of what Jesus has done, we have “peace with God” and are reconciled to one another. But “Peace” is more than a ceasefire. It is wholeness, soundness, well-being, affecting every part of life. Concern for another person’s or place’s welfare, and living in harmony, are both about “Peace” in the OT. Peace stands in contrast to the chaos of a broken and fallen world. The OT promise was that the Messiah would bring Peace. (Isa 2. 2-4) When Jesus healed the sick and drove out the demons, he was bringing the peace of God into people’s lives, and often linked healing with “The Kingdom of God.” (See Lk 4. 43; 9. 1f; 10. 9).
So as Kingdom people, we can be peacemakers. And we can pray for God’s peace, his wholeness and healing – in the lives of other people. When we pray for the sick, it’s good to see that healing as shalom – peace: and to see the sick person as a whole person, not just a symptom. Caring about reconciliation, caring for our environment, caring for our bodies and minds, caring about order and beauty, art, and education, as well as healing ministry, are all ways we can seek the kingdom Peace of God.
“Joy in the Holy Spirit”
Joy is strongly connected with the coming of the Kingdom in the Gospels. And with the coming of the Spirit in the book of Acts. So joy is the response we make when the Spirit brings God’s rule, his Kingdom, into our lives. You could say that the Spirit-filled life is in itself an expression of the Kingdom of God. In 1 Cor 4. 20 Paul says, “The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” The Kingdom is about the Spirit; and the Spirit is about the Kingdom.
So what is the Kingdom?
It is the rule of God in our world and in our lives.
It should be the controlling principle in the life of the Church.
It is always marked by
righteousness – keeping covenant with God.
peace – shalom, wholeness that heals division and wounds and sickness;
the powerful, joyous presence of the holy Spirit.
We enter that kingdom by repentance – turning to back to God – and by faith. And the day is coming when “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah” (Rev 11. 15)
© Gilmour Lilly October 2017
