KINGDOM AND THE CHURCH

Kingdom and Church

            I recognize that the Church is, according to the New Testament teaching, a separate entity having as its final purpose a vocation in the ages to come in the heavenly places (Eph. 3:10; 1:20; 2:7). While that is perfectly true and should never be forgotten, indeed it must not be forgotten, it is also true that for the present hour all the principles of the Kingdom are committed to the Church, to be realized in the Church, and through the Church manifested to the world.

            The possible confusion between the Kingdom and the Church was immediately laid to rest after the confession of Peter. Jesus revealed two secrets to His disciples, that of the Church and that of the Cross. Prior to the experience at Caesarea Philippi He had never referred to His Church, neither had He spoken specifically of the Cross.

            The Church, according to that first revelation, was to be immediately 3 things......

1. His building, embodying the principles of His kingdom;

2. His army, at war with all opposing forces; and

3. His witness, holding the keys of the Kingdom as the interpreter of His ethic for the world.

            The Cross, according to this earliest explicit statement, was by the appointment of the Father, Jesus' way through suffering and death to resurrection, and, consequently, to the place of full and final authority.

            Consequently, everything that Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount concerning the Kingdom does apply to the Church. As a matter of fact that Sermon (Manifesto) of the King does not apply at all to the outside world. For the present its only application is to the Church. It is sufficient for the present purpose to say that to attempt to bring about the conditions described in the great Sermon of the King among the vast unregenerate masses of the people is inevitably to be doomed to disappointment. The things which Jesus said to His disciples I maintain, are only applicable to those who are in His Kingdom and subject to His rule. That Sermon was the enunciation of the ethic of the Kingdom which no man can accept or obey while still in rebellion against the King Himself (Col 1:13; 1 Thes 2:12; Acts 28:30-31). Nathaniel West puts the matter in this way: "As to the kingdom Israel had it, under the Old Testament, in its outward form; the Gentiles have it under the New Testament, in its inward form; in the age to come, Jews and Gentiles together, shall have it, both forms in one, one Kingdom of Messiah, spiritual, visible and glorious, with Israel still the central people, the prelude of the New Jerusalem and the nations walking in its light forever." That is a broad and hurried statement; but if it be accepted it will be seen that in the Church which for this age, according to the purpose of Jesus, embodies the principles of the Kingdom and manifests them in the world, (see note below) this prayer has its rightful place. The best answer to objections to its use will be found in an understanding of the Lord's Prayer itself. In proportion as we really comprehend its intention, its spaciousness, its magnificence, we shall be compelled to use it. There can be no escape from the use of it for such as are submitted to the reign and Lordship of Jesus Christ, and are in sympathy with Him in His desires for the world.

            It is crucial for us to remember that we are in direct succession to the disciples, that their requests are our requests, and His answers to them are His answers to us. Making all allowance for a distinguishing between things that differ, between matters which pertain to a specific message of the early days of Jesus and matters connected with the commission under which we serve; it still remains true that His essential teaching was intended for us as well as for those who first heard it. When He stood surrounded by that first group of disciples He prayed, and in the course of His prayer He said: "Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on Me through their word."  As there He prayed for us with them, so also in all His teaching He spoke to us as to them.

Note:  the ideal of the Kingdom of God, apart from the Church, has no interpretation. If we are not showing the world, what is the meaning of the Kingdom of God within the borders of the sacramental host that make up the Church of God, the world does not know what the Kingdom of God is at all. It ends up being something without meaning, and misunderstood, dismissed by men who desire to be dictators, simply because men and women do not see the glory of the ideal. The church is responsible for the Bible, for the truth, all centered in Christ. She is the pillar and the ground of the truth, to lift the Person, Who reveals His Father, to flash the Light, to institute questions, and answer it concerning the ideal of the Kingdom of God.