THE KINGDOM OF GOD
[p. 446] THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Romans 14: 17, 18; Colossians 1: 12 - 14
JT These verses in Romans appear in the midst of instructions relative to a weak brother, how he is to be received and regarded amongst the saints, so that the verses serve to bring the subject of the kingdom of God before us in its practical bearing. It is a very wide subject, and each occurrence of the term in the scripture has to be read in its own context in order to be understood. This chapter brings it in in a very practical way, and the Lord may help us to see how it bears on our relations with one another, and our care for one another. It is a question of the reception of a weak brother, the subject runs into the next chapter, and it fits in to our everyday circumstances. In verse 17 we read, “the kingdom of God is ... righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit”, and it is really the outcome from the practical side of the death of Christ; the death of Christ in grace and power and then in love; it is His kingdom. That is the idea of the kingdom added to the knowledge of God, as presented in the epistle. That is what I had in mind in suggesting this scripture, and I hope that the Lord will help us. But it is important to get the initial thought, that it is the kingdom, added to the knowledge of God as revealed in the epistle. The idea of a kingdom was not new. It had been among men in the days of Nimrod; indeed, the idea of it is set out in Adam, for he had dominion. It was a well-known idea among the Romans; their empire had some features of a kingdom, for it had about seven different forms of government, each having the idea of a kingdom and rule. So that it was a well-known thought, but it is to be understood now as relating to God, and God’s Kingdom.
[p. 447] Ques Does the thought of the kingdom of God occur at all in the Old Testament?
JT I think Exodus brings it out, set up in the wilderness. I suppose the acknowledgment of God in the song (Exodus 15: 1 - 18) gave Him His place: it was God celebrated. You find a statute and an ordinance in that same chapter, and the promise of God was that He would not put on them the diseases of the Egyptians if they would keep His commandments and His statutes. He was a God who would deliver them: He had borne them on eagles’ wings and brought them to Himself. Then Moses was the king, that is mediatorially, for it is a mediatorial kingdom. He was king in Jeshurun later on.
Then in David’s ministry we have the same principle. At Ziklag as he is about to become king, he makes his statute and ordinance. He ordained that the part of those who remained behind with the baggage should be the same as that of those who go into conflict. It is not only for those who fight, but for the whole unit; so that we are living and breathing the thing, we are living in it and under its protection it is “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit”. It is a continuous, permanent thing.
JJ Is the point in the statute and ordinance made at Marah, that we learn the meaning of the death of Christ for ourselves?
JT The water was made sweet when the wood was cast in; the wood was shown to Moses, it was typically Christ in His love entering into death for us. You feel how applicable a statute and an ordinance are as you realise the power of God in deliverance, and the love of Christ in going into death to take the sting and the bitterness out of it.
Ques Is the kingdom of God founded upon redemption both in Exodus and [p. 448] Romans?
JT Exactly. It is God known in redemption — such a God as that! I think it helps us to keep in mind the idea of the kingdom, added to the knowledge of God in redemption, as expounded in the epistle.
Rem So that in Exodus 6 and Exodus 15 it is seen to be founded on the work of redemption, which would suggest the place which God would have righteously and wholly with His people.
JT Quite; within the sway of the spiritual influence that bathes the whole realm.
Ques What is the difference between a statute and an ordinance?
JT The difference cannot be very much, but I think the statute is a permanent thing, a fixed, abiding principle which is unalterable. The ordinance is a lesser thought, the principle is more varied according to conditions. We have judgments, statutes and ordinances spoken of in relation to the kingdom.
I think a statute is a fixed thing, spiritually. David’s statute was a fixed, permanent thing, it was never modified, nor would one have it modified: in fact, any formal law or statute of God, those who love Him would not have otherwise. I think an ordinance may be more applicable locally in assemblies, but the idea of a statute is universal.
Romans fits in with Exodus. You get the material for the assembly beforehand, in Exodus; and then it is set up, so that I suppose Romans and Corinthians run together. We have in Romans 12 the principle that we are one body in Christ.
JJ What would you say about Abraham in connection with the thought of the kingdom? Both Abraham and David are brought into Romans. Is it connected with them in some way?
JT In the sense of righteousness, I think. Abraham was under commandment, but there was no king in Israel in Genesis though there was one in [p. 449] Edom. I think the idea of the kingdom is founded on redemption, that is the knowledge of God: God known in redemption, and righteousness, and peace. You could not speak of these things exactly in Genesis; the idea in the kingdom is the people put together under one rule, a redeemed people under divine rule.
JJ Why is Abraham brought into Romans?
JT Is it not on the principle that he is the father of all believers? Maybe you have some thought.
JJ I was thinking of the covenant that God established with him, that his seed should be as the stars of heaven and as the sand of the sea-shore for multitude. I wondered if that brought in the sphere that you are speaking of in purpose?
JT That would be in purpose, of course, but there was no king in Israel up to a given point. Esau had his kingdom, but Jacob had to wait; he says, “I have waited for thy salvation”, Genesis 49: 18. That is the principle that preceded the kingdom, he was waiting.
Ques Are you suggesting the public bearing of the kingdom as well as the other side?
JT I thought I would come to Colossians afterwards as the kingdom of the Son of His love, but the idea of the kingdom here is redemption. It cannot be founded on the principle of man in the flesh; that is the principle on which all the kingdoms of the world have been founded. Esau represents that feature; he is the man after the flesh, he cannot wait for such a kingdom as that, so he immediately proceeded with his dukes, as it says, and kings. It is stated that there was no king in Israel, but kings were in Edom before they were in Israel, for the reason that they did not have anything to wait for. As the Lord says, “Your time is always ready”, John 7: 6. Man in the flesh never has to wait: faith has to wait God’s time, and if we wait God’s time we get the best; we shall [p. 450] be better off in the long run because Esau’s kingdom did not last, whereas the Lord Jesus was really for the house of Jacob for ever. Jacob was right in waiting.
Judah is the royal tribe. In the disastrous chapter after Joseph is sold into Egypt. Judah disgraces himself, but the royal line goes on, nevertheless. In Genesis 38 the royal line comes in in connection with the most humiliating circumstances, showing what God is, in bringing in royalty. Hence in the royal line in Matthew’s record you have such persons as Rahab and Ruth. That is not on the principle of flesh; were it on the principle of flesh you would not have these women mentioned; it is on the principle of faith, so that it is all of God.
Ques Do we see the first principle of the kingdom in Abraham, that is, righteousness?
JT Exactly; that is the kingdom as we have it here, in its practical form. This chapter is not the dominion side, but would test us in our relations with one another, so that Numbers presents the whole of what we have in Romans 14, because it gives us God placed in the midst of the tribes, and they centre round Him at His word. Every tribe has its own place assigned it; and God is dwelling in the midst in the tabernacle of witness: each Israelite is placed. In Exodus it is more God known in redemption, known in deliverance out of Egypt, known in carrying them on eagles’ wings and bringing them to Himself. God is now living or dwelling in their midst, and each tribe has its own setting; each man in each tribe, each man in each father’s house; everyone has his own assigned place, and all under the governing influence of God dwelling in their very midst. So it is not simply the kingdom of the heavens (that is Christ in heaven) but the kingdom of God; which is to know God here, actually dwelling amongst us. It becomes intensely practical as to how we regard [p. 451] one another, how we receive one another, especially a weak brother.
Rem So in chapter 15 God is presented as the God of endurance, the God of mercy and the God of hope; it is the way in which God is presented to the soul.
JT Very good.
Ques Is that why the exhortation in Thessalonians is that we should walk worthy of the kingdom and glory of God who has called us?
JT Quite.
Ques Is that what helps us practically in relation to the truth of Exodus? We come into the knowledge of God as having redeemed us, and then into the thought of the rights of God in redemption; so that in Numbers we are prepared for the rights of God and are subject to one another.
JT Not God afar off, but God dwelling in our midst. God and the Holy Spirit dwelling, it says in chapter 8, which really corresponds with Numbers, because Numbers, I think, contemplates the truth of Romans actually taking form in Corinthians; where those who are the beneficiaries of the gospel become the material for the tabernacle where God is known. That is what is contemplated in Corinthians; not a God afar off, but God in us, and near us; He is known to be in us and His gracious sway and influence is pervading all. That applies to us at all times, whether we are gathered together or otherwise.
I think a weak brother brings an opportunity for the expression of what God is. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God” (Romans 12: 1) — that is how the exhortations begin in Romans, with the compassions of God. A weak brother should be the object of compassion; he becomes really an asset amongst us and not a liability.
Rem We are not to wait until his difficulties are all solved before we seek [p. 452] him.
JT That is so, and you cannot expect him to answer all the questions you put to him; you have to consider from whence he comes, and under what teaching he has been. Everything has to be taken into account, so that he becomes like a patient in the house, an object for attention and affection and the display of the divine nature and compassions.
Ques The idea is that we nurse such? Moses had to nurse the children of Israel.
JT If a man wishes to impose upon us legal observances such as the observance of days, that would be error and must not be tolerated for a moment, but if it be due to ignorance arising from his previous history, we have to be very careful so that we may not destroy him.
Ques Is it not that the legal brother and the wilful brother do not get help, and the weak brother does get help?
JT That is the line of this chapter. Galatians teaches us how to regard those who are wilful in their insistence on legal observances. They cannot be tolerated for a moment; but the weak brother has to be nursed.
Rem There is a very wholesome exhortation to both, the strong are not to belittle the weak, and the weak are not to judge the strong.
JT That is true. In chapter 15 you have the energetic side, the strong. “We that are strong” — energetic. I think if you look at chapter 15 you will be impressed with the energy of it. It is a question of the strength that there is.
The kind of brother that is contemplated here is not a wilful man, shutting himself off deliberately from the means that God has obtained for his blessing and God’s glory. It was said, “Gather the people together, and I will give them water”, Numbers 21: 16. If a brother refuses to be gathered he shuts himself out from the water. It is an opportunity for [p. 453] God to give refreshment. Therefore we are enjoined not to forsake “the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is”, Hebrews 10: 25. It would be the line of obstinacy and would soon lead to the forsaking altogether of all the meetings, and drifting back into apostasy.
Ques I suppose if verse 17 were true it would result in verse 18, and we should help the weak brother?
JT Yes.
Ques Do you think that the weak brother would test us as to whether we were strong enough to help him?
JT That is what appears in chapter 15. We are enjoined to bear the infirmities of the weak — the infirmities, not the will, which are two distinct things. The Lord can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but He will never brook our wills; so that a wilful brother is not regarded as a weak brother but as a sinful brother. A weak brother has to be borne with, and the stronger one is, the more one should bear with a weak one.
There is all the power of the kingdom to help the weak one, in contrast to the kingdoms of men which in general do not specially provide for the weak. In this country a good deal is done for the poor and unemployed, but the question is whether that really means what is understood as kingdom rule in this world; is it not rather the socialist idea of taking from the rich to give to the poor? That is not the principle of the kingdom of God at all; it in no sense impoverishes one person to enrich another. There need be no poor if we rightly understand it. There is so much wealth that we can give to the poor. Deuteronomy enjoins us to look after a poor brother.
Ques So that the presence of a weak brother should enrich the meeting?
JT [p. 454] I think that is how it works; it means exercise.
Ques I wanted to ask what place meekness had in connection with the people of God. Moses was the meekest man in all the earth and he was acting for the king.
JT That is true. The same was said of the Lord; He was “meek and lowly in heart” in the kingdom gospel, Matthew. I suppose it is important to see the particular setting of Moses in Numbers; Numbers contemplates the kingdom in operation, not simply that God is ruling, but it is in actual operation amongst the saints and they are all set around the tabernacle. It was important that the king or mediator in the kingdom should be understood, so that God came down Himself to the door of the tabernacle; His glory appeared so that Moses should be vindicated. The Holy Spirit tells us that he was the meekest man in all the earth (Numbers 12: 3). Moses does not assert it but the Holy Spirit tells us God honours him. He said He would speak to a prophet in a dream, but Moses would behold the form of Jehovah, and He would speak to him as a friend mouth to mouth. Moses represented the character of God; he was a type of Christ in that, and became a king in Jeshurun in the midst of an upright people. It really is a matter of uprightness initially, to be in the kingdom of God.
JJ In Psalm 89 it speaks of persons who are round about God, who is dwelling in the midst of the people. It is a very serious thing in one way.
JT Because God is there. It is a very blessed thing for the upright people in Jeshurun but a very serious thing for us, too. “Our God is a consuming fire”, Hebrews 12: 29.
Ques Does it help us in the beginning of our soul history to recognise that God has given place to [p. 455] Christ in the kingdom, and to acknowledge the rights of God in coming out in that character here?
JT It is what God is in Christ. It is a mediatorial kingdom; so that “grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”, Romans 5: 21. It is all through grace. The Spirit has taken up a mediatorial position, and He is here in a divine and permanent way. It was not true of Christ because He went away; but the Holy Spirit is here definitely and permanently, and He fills the sphere. So from the point of view of Numbers, it is God here in Spirit. God actually here; and the saints set by divine ordering in their respective positions, and therefore it is a kingdom, that is, God near us and in our very midst, and God known in our ways publicly and towards one another.
Ques Would you say that is subjection to the king?
JT Quite, and to such a king! The love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, and that love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us. That is the idea, and that is to be seen in all our relations.
JJ I wish you would say a little more about the thought of the Spirit being here mediatorially.
JT Well, I think that is quite evident. He is here as being sent down from heaven, another Comforter. As Christ came down, so He is sent down. He is here so as to make effective, in a subjective way, all that has come out in Christ; and that is what is alluded to in the kingdom in this chapter. It is what it is in practical power; it is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. It is in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is the power of it all.
JJ I would like to be clear about the mediatorial position of the Spirit. I think if you would unfold it a little more it would be a help. We can understand [p. 456] it in connection with the Lord personally, but it is a little more difficult in the Spirit.
JT I do not think it can be very much more difficult to understand if we understand the meaning of the word ‘mediatorial’. A mediator is one through whom others can act, it is a person coming between two parties, and that is how the Holy Spirit is presented in the New Testament. That is, He has come to act for the Father and the Son: He does not speak of Himself, He is here as sent, and it is what He hears that He speaks; He expresses what is in heaven in the fullest possible way here upon earth. He is not limited by time, or space, or territory; He is wherever the saints are, He is universal.
Ques I suppose that comes out more in John?
JT It is formally stated there. He is “another Comforter”, sent by the Father and the Son, sent by them expressly to act for them here.
Rem In Romans 8 He is an intercessor.
JT He makes intercession for the saints with groanings that cannot be uttered. So that we have God here by the Spirit, but the mediatorial position is clearly set out in that it is the love of God in Christ Jesus, and that same love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit, so that the three Persons are brought together. As foreshadowed in Numbers, there is the tabernacle of witness, the abode of God, and all the tribes set around it, and the Levites having to do with God and carrying all that blessed influence throughout the tribes.
Ques What has the kingdom in view? One thought really that the Lord came in in that way to establish rule in the hearts of men in order to lead them to what He had in His own heart.
JT I suppose the kingdom makes way for the church. The realisation of the kingdom in Romans so fortifies us that we are free for the church. I thought we might see in Colossians how we are [p. 457] translated into the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love, but Romans gives us Jeshurun, that is to say, an upright people. The book of Numbers begins with God speaking in the wilderness out of the tabernacle: He takes it that we are in adverse circumstances and says, ‘I know it’. He spoke in the wilderness out of the tabernacle, but the emphasis is on “in the wilderness”. It is as if God had said to us: ‘I know exactly where you are and what you are going through, and I am going to speak to you in that relation’ — the very circumstances in which we are. Thus He makes Moses and Aaron heads of the tribes, and the people are to show their genealogy and pedigree; every christian has to show by practical ways that he is really a christian. God says as it were: ‘I know exactly where you are and what you are going through, but I want you to be genuine, a sincere and upright people’. So that they are taken account of from twenty years old and upwards, really all that have the Spirit of God and make a confession of Christ, believing on Him in their hearts; these are the ones to whom God is speaking; and then He numbers them all and everything is known; six hundred thousand odd, and He knows every one in their family and tribal relations. Then He assigns each man his place and says, ‘I will be right in the midst of you’. What a position we have, what company we have!
JJ I was going to ask if that is why the Lord has such a large place in chapter 14; He is mentioned so many times. He is the One that operates in that sphere, is He not?
JT Quite. It is very precious for young people to see that God takes account of them, but He says ‘I want you to be real; I do not want it to be profession or pretence’, and that is the idea of the pedigree — they were to prove their pedigrees. The apostle says, “If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha”, 1 Corinthians 16: 22.
Anyone that throws a stumbling block in the way of his brother would not be an upright walker. I get the Holy Spirit by believing in the heart; God gives me the Spirit because of what is in my heart.
Ques Would the consciousness of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts produce the joy of the Holy Spirit?
JT Yes. God is seeking hearts. He wants an upright people and a living people, and He puts His love in their hearts by the Holy Spirit. It is promised that gladness would be our portion. You have it here, “joy in the Holy Spirit”, for the love of God is in Christ Jesus. It is not simply authority, it involves His priesthood, and the love of God is in Christ Jesus towards us.
Ques Do we have the principle of peace in Romans 8? The Lord is ever interceding for us.
JT Exactly. We were speaking of how practical it is, and how the epistle to the Romans is to bring about an upright people, a people amongst whom God could dwell, and amongst whom, therefore, His kingdom is realised. There is every encouragement to step out, and as we step out we get the Lord’s support and grace, and become representative of the kingdom. The kingdom of God is here for the protection and support of the weak. It is not for destruction like the kingdoms of men; it is for the support of the weak.
Ques How do you understand the verse where it speaks of destroying not the work of God?
JT I think it has a bearing on what one is doing, it is put in that way. I do not think it means that the work of God can really be destroyed. Do I regard God in such a way that I should destroy His work in another? The kingdom would help us to view one another as so much valuable material. What a thing it is to have an upright people amongst whom [p. 459] God dwells! All their movements are marked by righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Ques Do you think those things are found practically amongst brethren?
JT I think so. I think that is the way things stand. The mediatorial system implies that we are all useful in a greater or lesser degree. The Lord acts through us and by us, and it is most practical, so that whether I am in my workshop or at home, or among the brethren, I express the kingdom of God: I am among a people where God is.
Ques You act for the glory of God. Is that the meaning of verse 18?
JT That is the mediatorial thought.
JJ I suppose the last verse of chapter 13 prepares for chapter 14. “Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ ...”
JT It is really like putting on the kingdom, the mediatorial kingdom: I am clothed with that, with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is put on like clothing. A man has a commission in the army, he represents the king, he is really the king in that way, he has authority. The Lord is the absolute representative of God mediatorially, and as I understand it I am in the mediatorial kingdom and have part in it. Each one should represent God in that way. The armour of light is in the same connection; I am not puzzled by anything that comes up, I know whether it is of God or whether it is not; the enemy has no advantage over me at all.
Ques Would that be the result if we were found definitely in the path of the will of God?
JT Yes. You have light on anything that is presented to you; Satan has no advantage over you in that way.
Rem You look at everything from the standpoint of the path of Christ.
JT So that a man having on the armour of light is invulnerable to any wilderness attack. I have got [p. 460] power in having put on the Lord Jesus Christ; I am not only subject to Him, but have put Him on.
Rem And there are the arms of righteousness, too, in that connection. I suppose while the armour would be protective, the arms would be more operative.
JT Yes. I thought that the Colossian view of the kingdom is to bring in the Son of the Father’s love; not now the Lord Jesus “put on”, but an object for the affections. You get in both Corinthians and Ephesians the idea of inheritance in connection with the kingdom of God, and that flesh and blood does not inherit it. We have in such expressions as that to take account of them, as contemplating the kingdom as going on further, even to a higher level, for the idea is carried into eternity, in the sense that the Son delivers it up to the Father. It is retained by the Father, it is the Father’s kingdom. He never relinquishes it; so that “then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all”, 1 Corinthians 15: 28. Now that is the thought, and to my mind most far-reaching and worthy of the closest attention, as presenting the kingdom and its eternal relations, and what we inherit in it. It is not inherited by flesh and blood. God will be all in all, even the Son subject to Him, showing what a wonderful thing the kingdom of God is; how immediately connected with God; and we would not have it otherwise, not in all eternity. We would not have it otherwise than that God, being what He is, should be supremely dominant; even the Son Himself, as it says, taking the place of subjection “that God may be all in all”.
In Colossians it is the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love. Our hearts are filled by an object set before us, the Son of the Father’s love; it is the Lord apprehended in that way. And Solomon says exactly that. “I was a son unto my father”, Proverbs 4: 3.
[p. 461] So that He has a peculiar place. Young believers should listen to Him and be instructed in those affections that belong to the family; the kingdom understood as leading into the family, in the Son of the Father’s love.
JJ So that it would be David in Romans, and Solomon in Colossians?
JT Just so; Moses or David in Romans, but Solomon in Colossians for we come under the influence of the Son of the Father’s love. Solomon says, “I was a son unto my father, tender and an only one in the sight of my mother”, Proverbs 4: 3. He teaches us how to be sons to God, how to belong to the family of God. So that in 1 Corinthians 15 the Son is subject and we are all subject. What a delightful kingdom that will be! God all in all. That is the great end from the standpoint of the kingdom, culminating in God being all in all, to those who have learned from the Son of His love how to be sons to their Father. If there is anything a young believer ought to know it is how to be a son to our Father. Jesus says, “I ascend to my Father and your Father”. How am I to be a son like Him? I should like to learn how to be a son like that, and He teaches us. We are translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love, under His authority, and He will bring us into the understanding of sonship.
Ques Would Colossians 3 be the expression of the kingdom in the Son of the Father’s love?
JT Quite. We are there addressed as the elect of God, so that would lead on to it. Here it is “giving thanks to the Father ... who has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love: in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins”. Thus it gives us to see that He is “image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation”.