The Kingdom of His Dear Son

2015-09-20

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Do you know that if you died today, where would you spend eternity? If God asked you why He should let you into His kingdom, what would you say?

First, when I speak of God, I refer to the God who created the entire universe out of nothing, with no previous example. As Creator, He is the rightful owner of all things. He created angels, or spirit beings, as well as humankind, all of whom were to serve Him.

This God created the world as a perfect place. However, Satan, God’s chief angel and servant, rebelled against God. The first people rebelled against God also, following Satan and becoming God’s enemies. The human race has been in rebellion against God ever since, up to and including today, and the horrifying things we see in the world are evidence of this. This rebellion is called sin, and we are born into a state of rebellion against God. Death is the result of sin, and we face death because we are sinners.

Because of this, it is a vital thing to understand our plight before God. We often get a sense that the concept of sin is equivalent to mere moral pollution. This view undermines the reality of sin before God. For a common test to see where you think you stand before God, consider the following illustration of a scale of zero through ten. Hitler (an example of someone most people consider the epitome of evil) is a “zero,” and on the right is God, a “ten,” the perfect standard of righteousness and goodness. When asked, people usually position themselves to the right of the center, thinking (or hoping) they have enough intrinsic worth to be acceptable to God. So where do you place yourself?

The problem is that we have the diagram all wrong. Here are some realities about our plight before God:

We are guilty and shameful before God.

• We are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1) and are “alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works” (Colossians 1:21) of God.
• Romans 3:10 says, “There is none righteous, no, not one.”
• Isaiah 64:6 says, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”

We also deserve nothing but condemnation. Not only do we sin, but we were born into the sinful human race, in a world that is destined to eternal flame. Death is punishment for sin, and after death, judgment in hell.

• Romans 5:18 says, “By the offence of one [Adam, the first man] judgment came upon all men to condemnation.”
• Hebrews 9:27 tell us, “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

We are helpless to do anything about our situation. When His followers asked Jesus who could be saved, He replied: “With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” The character of God demands perfection (Deuteronomy 18:13), and no one can change one’s own plight before Him. Consider this revised sketch of humankind’s plight before a righteous and holy God.

These two “kingdoms” above are mutually exclusive. We are hopelessly alienated and separated from God, and there is nothing we can do about it. At the end of life, the fires of hell wait for us.

While God’s justice demands that the penalty of our sin to be paid with death, the love of God demands a pardon. Because we could not save ourselves, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, who bore our punishment for our sins and died on the cross. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh...” (1 Peter 3:18).

Not only that, being God, Jesus rose from the dead after being buried for three days. “According to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3).

The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the power for our salvation. The wrath from God we deserve was entirely paid for by Him. The world received forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. But this gift from God can only be appropriated by trusting in this completed, objective, historical event of the cross. We are declared righteous by Jesus’ death, and not by anything we have done. Here are some fantastic truths worth meditating on: There is nothing we can do to add to or subtract from God’s acceptance of us in Jesus Christ. He delivered us from His wrath unilaterally.

With these promises, we are no longer alienated and separated from God. On the contrary, we have peace with God, having eternal life, and our life is hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). God “hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son [Jesus]” (Colossians 1:13). We now can redraw our diagram:

For an in-depth analysis of the above, please read this short e-book I wrote concerning the matter.