MYSTERIES OF GOD'S KINGDOM. Kenneth B. Alexander
obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear (Hebrews 8:7-13; Jeremiah 31:33).
In order to walk in this New Covenant, without falling back into Old Testament legalism, we must have our consciousnesses cleaned by God. Hebrews says: “how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, CLEANSE YOUR CONSCIENCE FROM DEAD WORKS to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:14). We all have a conscience that we believe guides us into right or wrong actions. We always try to do the right thing i.e. follow the 10 commandments. But our natural consciences do not lead us to the “right thing” according to God. It leads us into trying to be religious, following the does and don’ts of the law. Every church has its own set of laws telling us falsely that if we do these laws we will “go to heaven” (don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t dance, come to church every Sunday, discipline yourself to read the Bible, discipline yourself to pray and on and on). The only “work” we must do id believe Christ. He will, or has already done the rest for us. Then our works coming from a faith in Christ are no longer dead works but living works.
We inherited our human consciences from Satan, when man fell in the Garden. Satan himself is a religious spirit. Our fallen nature causes us to do dead works. Dead works include doing things we think are right to appease our consciences’. If we don’t pick up the Bible for a while, our conscience convicts us and out of obligation we start to read. If we haven’t prayed, our conscience convicts us and we begin to pray. If we haven’t “witnessed” to someone in a week or gone to church, our conscience tells we should get with it. These feelings are not from God. Our own feelings about right and wrong are very deceptive. We must move by a revelation from God. The works our consciences tell us to do not merit favor with God.
The most important of the commandments under the New Covenant is: “for if you are living according to the flesh, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being LED BY THE SPIRIT of God, THESE ARE SONS OF GOD (Romans 8:14). We must walk by the spirit, not by our flesh inherited from Satan.
There is much more to say on this subject which is discussed in detail in the Books of Hebrews, Galatians, Romans, 1&2 Corinthians etc. Suffice it to say that trying to do the 10 commandments in ourselves will never work, nor will our best efforts to be pleasing to God. We don’t “get to heaven” by doing the best we can. We get there by dwelling where Christ is, in the Spirit realm, where Christ is at the right hand of the Father. The Law only foreshadows what is to come. Israel in the Old Testament typifies those of us who walk in the SPIRITUAL ISRAEL in the end time.
GOD’S PROMISES
God’s ultimate plan is that Believers become Sons of God, like Christ the first-fruits. God didn’t limit the number of Sons that He intends to bring to birth. It is his plan to bring many Sons to glory. Hebrews 2:10 says: “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing MANY SONS TO GLORY, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings”.
John talks about being like Christ: “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, WE WILL BE LIKE HIM, because we will see Him just as He is (1 John 3:2).
What we have received from God so far is not enough. He must meet us so that we can be like Him and have His righteousness written on our hearts. Let us demand an end of partial fulfillment—of seeing through a glass darkly, of knowing in part, and of speaking in part. We must put away the childish incompleteness (I Corinthians 13:11–12).
“Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48; Deut 18:13). As Christ was perfect before the Father, so we too are to be perfect like Christ and like the Father.
“And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:4)
Christ came to make us perfect like Him. He is the author and PERFECTOR of our faith.
“And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:39-12:2).
Christ has provided the means wherein we achieve this perfection.
“And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-15).
Note that we grow up “into Him” in that our old flesh nature is completely done away with and we become His righteousness. He is the head and we are His body. Together we are made perfect before the Father.
This doesn’t happen automatically happen only when you die and “go to heaven”. This is to happen right here, right now on this earth. Matthew 6:10 states, as part of the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
‘Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10).
What we call Heaven is the spiritual realm where God, Christ and the angelic beings reside. It is a realm largely invisible to us. God wants to merge the natural and spiritual realms together and thus bring forth His spiritual Kingdom on earth. Nothing in so-called “heaven” is imperfect now that Satan has been cast out. That same perfection is to come to earth to those who are perfected and to all those who believe. To those He reckons righteousness as He did to Abraham. (Genesis 15:6).
In Revelation John speaks of the Holy City New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven:
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea [of humanity].
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev 21:1-2).
“And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God having the glory of God” (v. 21:10-11).“and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (v. 21:27).
The Holy City comes down to earth from God’s spiritual Kingdom and is set up here on earth with no unclean thing in it. Many believe that a new physical temple will be rebuilt in Israel heralding this new day but that is not the case. It will be a spiritual temple comprised of the mystical Body of Christ wherein God can tabernacle (dwell). “I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Rev 21:22).
Here are only some of the real promises of God:
“And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle [presence] of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away” (Rev 21: 3-40.
“He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son (Rev 21:7).
And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.
The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.
In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates