March
21, 2003
MY
KINGDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD
"Jesus
answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom
were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should
not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from
here' " (John 18:36, NKJV).
"The
kingdom of God comes not with outward show. The gospel of
the grace of God, with its spirit of self-abnegation, can
never be in harmony with the spirit of the world. The two
principles are antagonistic. 'The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness
unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned' (1 Cor. 2:14).
"But
today in the religious world there are multitudes who, as
they believe, are working for the establishment of the kingdom
of Christ as an earthly and temporal dominion. They desire
to make our Lord the ruler of the kingdoms of this world,
the ruler in its courts and camps, its legislative halls,
its palaces and market places. They expect Him to rule through
legal enactments, enforced by human authority. Since Christ
is not now here in person, they themselves will undertake
to act in His stead, to execute the laws of His kingdom. The
establishment of such a kingdom is what the Jews desired in
the days of Christ. They would have received Jesus, had He
been willing to establish a temporal dominion, to enforce
what they regarded as the laws of God, and to make them the
expositors of His will and the agents of His authority. But
He said, 'My kingdom is not of this
world.' He would not accept the earthly throne.
"The
government under which Jesus lived was corrupt and oppressive;
on every hand were crying abuses,-- extortion, intolerance,
and grinding cruelty. Yet the Saviour attempted no civil reforms.
He attacked no national abuses, nor condemned the national
enemies. He did not interfere with the authority or administration
of those in power. He who was our example kept aloof from
earthly governments. Not because He was indifferent to the
woes of men, but because the remedy did not lie in merely
human and external measures. To be efficient, the cure must
reach men individually, and must regenerate the heart.
"Not
by the decisions of courts or councils or legislative assemblies,
not by the patronage of worldly great men, is the kingdom
of Christ established, but by the implanting of Christ's nature
in humanity through the work of the Holy Spirit. 'As many
as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but of God.' (John 1:12, 13). Here is the only
power that can work the uplifting of mankind. And the human
agency for the accomplishment of this work is the teaching
and practicing of the word of God."-- The Desire
of Ages, pp., 509, 510.
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