My Kingdom!

My kingdom is not of this world," Jesus replied (John 18:36).
The kingdom of God does not come in a way that attracts attention. The Gospel of God's grace, full of a spirit of self-denial, can never be reconciled with the spirit of the world. There are two antagonistic principles here.

There are many in today's religious world who believe they must work to establish Christ's kingdom in an earthly, temporal form. Their ambition is to make Christ Lord of the kingdoms of this world, exercising his authority in courts, military camps, parliaments, palaces and marketplaces. They expect him to rule by laws sanctioned by human authority. With Christ physically absent, they substitute themselves for him in order to enforce the laws of his kingdom. The establishment of such a kingdom is precisely what the Jews wanted at the time of Christ. They would have been ready to receive Jesus, had he consented to establish a temporal dominion. If he had consented to impose what they considered to be God's laws, and to make them the interpreters of his will, the agents of his authority. But he declared, "My kingdom is not of this world." He refused an earthly throne.

Christ's kingdom will not be established by the decisions of courts, councils or legislative assemblies, nor by the influence of great men of the world. It will be established by the Holy Spirit communicating the nature of Christ to mankind. This is the only power capable of uplifting humanity. And the human means employed for this purpose is the teaching and practice of the Word of God.

Today, as in the days of Christ, those who work for the kingdom of God are not the men clamoring to be recognized and supported by human governments and laws. Rather, they are those who proclaim spiritual truths to the world in His Name. They renew Paul's experience in those who receive them: "I am crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." (Galatians 2:20).