THE KINGDOMS OF GOD'S
POWER, GRACE AND GLORY
Dr. Walter A. Maier
Some
passages of Scripture speak of God as the ruler over all men (Psalm
103:19). Other passages speak of the
Pilate was a practiced politician. Examine the record, and you will find that
he was convinced that our Lord was innocent, that the priests in
God protect our country from anything like that! God give us political leaders
who love the truth which blessed
Pilate lost no time in examining Christ on the one issue which to his mind was
uppermost and decisive. Pointedly he asks the Savior, "Art Thou a
king?" There was only one question which at first troubled the Roman governor's
mind: Was this Jesus, beaten, bruised, and bleeding -- Oh, how could He be! -- a rival to the Roman rule, a competitive king, a royal
threat of rebellion against the Latin lords of the world? A
king without a crown, without a court, without a scepter, without a subject?
Pilate could not begin to imagine that this poor, persecuted Prisoner could lay
claim to real royalty.
You can understand, then, how surprised the blasé Roman official was to receive
this reply from our Lord: "Thou sayest that I am
a king"! Yes, Christ is not only "a king"; He is the King,
"the King of Kings," "the Lord of lords," the Ruler of
rulers. He regulates this entire universe with its billions of stars. He
controls the trillions of human beings in all history. He produces and uses the
mighty forces of nature. He directs the course of human events. "In him we
live and move and have our being." Whether you realize it or not, you, as
every person, are subject to Him in His
Because Pilate misunderstood this universal rule, Christ hastened to add,
"My kingdom is not of this world," that is, not after the manner of
earthly monarchies and the pattern of princely rule which men see. Thank God
for that! Human kings have often secured their thrones by fraud and falsehood,
brutality and bloodshed; but Jesus reigns as the divine Creator. Monarchs among
men have sometimes been sensual degenerates, selfish criminals, with hands and
souls stained by the crimson blood of their murdered victims; but our Lord
rules with righteousness and justice. The mightiest potentates have lived their
brief span and disappeared in death; but of our Redeemer even the Old Testament
records, "Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever!" The crowned heads
of this world have waged costly, deadly warfare; but Jesus tells Pilate:
"If My kingdom were of this world, then would My
servants fight, that I should not be delivered." Reread these words and
realize that the son of God never wants His Church to engage in bloody
conflict; He condemns those gory butchers who under the banner of the cross, in
the name of His truth, with the sanction of churches, have cut down in cold
blood their fellow men who refused to believe as they did. Behold the Lord of
love, when weak and wan, torn and tormented, He faces Pilate! As the King of
compassion, He condemns those who have sought to spread or defend His Gospel
with the sword; He rejects the ghastly cruelties which misguided minds visited
on His enemies. He warns the churches today against the danger of heaping up
income from war's profits. David, some of you remember from your Scripture
reading, was prevented from building the temple in Jerusalem because, God said, he had waged too many wars. The Almighty spare America a
third global conflict and keep the churches of Jesus from losing many of
their spiritual privileges by applauding and promoting war! The churches
in
The Savior tells us, too, "My kingdom is not of this world," to
remind those who love Him that they should shun fleshly means of extending His
realm. He does not want churches which bear His holy name to heap up inordinate
wealth, overlarge real-estate holdings, bulging bank deposits, while hundreds
of millions in our war torn world are starving, physically and spiritually. He
forbids His followers to use illegal means of raising funds for His cause. In
Christ's work, contrary to the teaching of some creeds, the end never justifies
the means. Gambling, in its fine and gross forms, or profiteering in the name
of religion, is abhorrent to the Christ who drove the money-changers from the
temple. Our Lord does not want His church in politics any more that He wants
the state to intrude upon religion. He asks for the sacrifice of loving hearts,
not for suppers and socials as substitutes for generous giving.
Learn also from these words, "My kingdom is not of this world," that
you have no reason to expect worldly, financial, or social rewards from
following Christ. His disciples hoped He would establish a mighty kingdom here
on earth, and repeatedly they debated the question, who is to have the
positions of highest importance in the new realm? Today, likewise, misguided
people reach out for selfish rewards in following Jesus. They look forward to a
time when the believers will be happy, healthy, wealthy, in a kingdom of might
here below, forgetting entirely the plain truth of these clear words, "My
kingdom is not of this world." Every Bible reader ought to know, in
protest, that the Savior's Word reminds us, "We must through much
tribulation enter into the
Is it not clear, then, that Christ is not a worldly Ruler, with the sin and
selfishness which often mark and mar royal blood? Yet, in direct contradiction
to this straightforward teaching of Scripture, men today claim that our Lord
really was an earthly monarch. A recent, widely heralded book, under the title
King Jesus, actually, but blasphemously, makes the Savior a Sovereign descended
from Herod, a mere man with a mortal father, mother, and wife. Christ says,
"My kingdom is not of this world." But this book, which has been
endorsed by high church officials, contradicts all this and in effect has Jesus
say, "My kingdom is of this world." How, we ask ourselves, can we
expect a national blessing from Heaven when divine truth is thus flatly and
flagrantly denied? The most alarming sign of these turbulent times is this, that instead of returning to God's Word with sorrowful
repentance for their past disloyalties, many are straying farther from the only
Truth which can ever save them. They live only for the things of this earth --
money, gold, and gain are their gods; lust and pleasure, their idols; but in
the midst of life they are in death; and when they feel themselves safe and
secure, the Almighty suddenly appears to them and declares, "Thou fool,
this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be
which thou hast provided?"
How reassuring, then, to know that Jesus' kingdom outlasts this world, which,
according to Scripture, is to be consumed by fire! How comforting to be sure
that after death and decay have returned our bodies to the dust, Christ will
truly reign over a kingdom of glory in which He has prepared unspeakable
blessings for all who trust Him as their Savior! Praise God with me for this
triumphant truth: When our Lord told Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this
world," He implied that His rule and realm, here in the hearts of His
believers, will hereafter be in heaven, His throne surrounded by the cherubim
and seraphim, the angels and archangels, the ten thousand times ten thousand
ransomed saints in white! This Christ, pale and pained before Pilate, will rule
in might and mercy such as the human mind cannot measure.
Jesus is the King of Heaven, with all its majesty, because He
is our God, together with the Father and the Spirit, the only, but almighty
God. You may question and contradict this as you blaspheme the Redeemer,
abuse His holy name, ridicule His Patient love; but the time is coming, more
surely than I now speak to you, when, with "weeping and gnashing of
teeth," everyone who died in unbelief will know that the Crucified is
truly Ruler of heaven and earth. It will be too late for any hope of salvation
then. Those who rejected Him will be sentenced by this verdict of the
unbreakable truth: "He that believeth not shall be damned."