THE KINGDOM A REWARD
By D. M. PANTON, B. A.
There
is one overwhelming proof that no believer will enter the
A GIFT
First
of all, the Second Psalm at once lays bare
that the Kingdom is a gift to Christ, not an inheritance. When the
nations are surging in revolt, and the peoples are seeking to stamp out the
Lord and His Christ, Jehovah says: "Ask of me" - the Kingdom is therefore a commanded aim
and ambition of the Son of God - "and I will GIVE
thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession" (Psalm 2: 8).
Nothing could be more explicit. So far from the rule over earth,
immediately following the Apostasy, being a perquisite of the Son of God as
such, it is solely a gift from God, and a gift dependant (to begin with) on prayer.
"Ask of me,
and I will give." Christ is the nobleman who has gone
"into a far country, to receive for himself a
kingdom, and to return, having received the kingdom" (Luke 19: 12): so even to Apostles Jesus says:
"Seek ye
first the Kingdom of God" - seek it so as to possess it -
"and his righteousness" - the
godlikeness that ensures it. "Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations."
OBEDIENCE
But
Scripture now unfolds that this gift is
the fruit of a great deal more than a mere desire and prayer. "Not unto angels," says the Apostle, "did he subject the world to come" - the inhabited
earth - "whereof we speak" (Hebrews 2: 5); "but
of the Son he saith, Thy throne" - the Throne of the inhabited
earth to come - "O God, is for ever and ever: thou
hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity; THEREFORE God, thy
God" - it is as a Man He is addressed, and so God is His God -
"hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above
thy fellows" (Hebrews 1: 8).
Christ loved righteousness and hated iniquity, and lived that love and hate: therefore
- on that ground alone - God has anointed Him with supreme joy. So our
Lord says to us : "Not
everyone that saith to me, Lord, Lord" - the natural definition of
a Christian* - "shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of
my Father" (Matt. 7: 21) - who lives
Christ's love and hate.
[*
"Because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe
in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved"
(Romans 10: 9).]
MARTYRDOM
But
the Lord's coronation is a consequence of more than life-long obedience.
A fresh statement makes His achievement of the Kingdom on the ground of
martyrdom as plain as words can make it. "We behold him
who hath been made a little lower than the angels" - that is made
human - "even Jesus, because of the suffering
of death, crowned" (Hebrews 2: 9).
Had our Lord thrown up everything in
[* "Angel
of Smyrna," Greek, "Messenger of the church in
PROPORTIONATE REWARD
The
truth is sunk deeper into our minds by another passage which measures the
reward as an exact reversal of the loss; and both, in our Lord's case, are of
course absolutely unique. "Who, being in the
form of God, emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, becoming obedient
even unto death, yea, the death of the cross: WHEREFORE also God highly
exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name"
(Philippians 2: 6). His exaltation
fits exactly His humiliation. He
descended from the Godhead from life to death; He descended from normal death
to a criminal's death; therefore He is "highly exalted"
- His exaltation is 'super-superlative' - the
word is emphatic and unique: in His resurrection, exalted; in His ascension, 'highly exalted'; in His return to God, exalted "above all the heavens"; and in His session on the
Throne, "exalted above all exaltation".
So the principle is made equally applicable to us. "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you"
(Matthew 7: 2): "every one that hath left
houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive
a HUNDREDFOLD" (Matthew 19: 29):
"Because
thou wast found faithful in a
very little, have thou authority over TEN CITIES" (Luke 19: 17).
ASSOCIATES
A
further proof presents itself. Various passages associate the Saviour
with human companions who achieve glory on identical grounds; that is, not as
sons of God, but as men who, like Himself, renounced everything for the Age
to Come. So Jehovah said
through Isaiah (53:
12) : "I will
divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong"; a
statement remarkably confirmed by our Lord's own words, - "the kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and men of violence take
it by force" (Matthew 11: 12).
These associates of our Lord are again named in Hebrews
(1: 9): "Thou
hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness: therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows" What constitutes this 'fellowship'
is made clear by another Scripture. "For we
are become" - after conversion - "fellows* of Christ, IF we hold fast the beginning of our
confidence firm unto the end" (Hebrews
3: 14). Our own language is similar. The highest men of
science become Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians: so of
believers it is written, - "Heirs [indeed] of God",
as born again and sharing His eternal life; [but]
"JOINT-HEIRS with Christ, IF so be that we suffer with
him, that we may also be glorified with him" (Romans 8: 17). For "IF we suffer with him, we
shall also reign with him" (2 Timothy
2: 12). Thus the [Millennial] Kingdom throughout is made conditional on
Christ-like character and conduct.
[* The word can be translated -
sharers, partners, companions.]
OVERCOMERS
Our
Lord Himself sets the final seal on this truth. "He
that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my
throne" - manifestly the Millennial Throne - "EVEN AS" - that is, on identical grounds, for
identical reasons - "I also" -
I correspondingly with my brethren - "overcame,
and sat down with my Father on his throne" (Revelation 3: 21). Here entrance into the coming Reign of
both Christ Himself and all who will share His Throne is based four-square, not on
grace or gift, but on so running the race as to win the prize.
The Lord Himself here makes our experience identical with His own. Just
as the Eternal Glory of Christ, the glory which He had with the Father before
the world was, rests solely on the fact that He is the Son of God, while His
Millennial Glory, the glory He receives on returning to this earth, rests
solely on His achievements and sufferings as the Son of Man: exactly so, our
Eternal Glory - when all whose names are in the Lamb's Book of Life "shall reign for ever and ever" (Revelation 22: 5), totally irrespective of
works done either before or after faith - rests solely on the fact that we
are the sons of God; while our Millennial Glory - if we achieve it, as Christ did - rests solely on our obedience
and suffering as SERVANTS of the Most High, when we "shall be priests of God and of Christ, and reign with him a thousand years"
(Revelation 20: 6).
THE MOTIVE
Finally,
the motive that moved our Lord is to be ours also, and both are wonderfully
compacted into one verse. "Let us also lay
aside every weight, and let us run with patience the race that is set before
us, looking unto Jesus" - our model runner - "who FOR THE JOY THAT WAS SET BEFORE HIM endured the
cross, despising shame" (Hebrews 12: 1).
Here dawns on us the immense importance to us all of this truth being clearly stated. To assume that
to be a gift which as a matter of fact is
a reward is almost certainly to
lose it; because the conditions on
which the prize is given are ignored,
and therefore, with almost equal certainty, some condition or conditions will
be unfulfilled, and so cancel the reward. If our Saviour could go through all His unparalleled agony because of
the joy set before Him, how much more can we muster our present, however
disconcerting, for a future of such boundless joy. "Wherefore, brethren,
give the more diligence to make
your calling and election sure: for if ye DO these things" - that is, add the seven graces to saving
faith (verse 5) - "Ye shall never stumble: for thus shall be richly supplied
unto you the entrance" because an entrance a thousand years earlier - "into the
eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1: 10).
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BE STRONG
Be strong: for the days are darkening,
Night cometh on;
Impenetrable gloom fast gathering,
Light almost gone.
Be strong: though the darkness o'erwhelm
thee,
Through it press on;
On to the end of the wearisome journey,
Where Jesus has gone.
Be strong: the earth's filled with violence,
With hatred and Sin;
Pray that in all things ye may be found worthy
The Kingdom to win.
Be strong: keep thine eyes fixed on Jesus,
He'll bear thee along;
The battle is raging - the Lord God is with us,
Our Hope and our Song!
- Hettie K. Payne.