The Coming of the Kingdom, Part IV

Eye Hath Not Seen, Nor Ear Heard

When we pray, as commanded, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” many have little idea of the grandeur and glory of that for which they pray. This is not a problem in and of itself, for the Spirit also prays in and with us, in groanings too deep to be heard (Romans 8:26).

When Christians think about God's will being done upon earth as it is in heaven often times our frame of reference is superficial. We think of a new law being promulgated defining abortion as a capital crime, for example. Or, we think of the dismantling of the edifice of the government education system. Or, we think of some other moral issue like the repealing of the legalisation of prostitution. These things may indeed be part of the coming of the Kingdom upon earth—but only relatively minor matters. They are minor, not in the sense of their importance in and of themselves, but in a programmatic sense. We would argue that as the Kingdom indeed comes, and as God's will is indeed done on earth as it is in heaven, such things will come to pass—as naturally, inevitably, effortlessly, and as condign to life as breathing or eating.

To borrow a construct from anthropologist, Clifford Geertz the Kingdom of God is thick. As the Kingdom comes and increases in the world it embraces and changes everything—all of life. In heaven, God's will and obedience to His will is all encompassing and all embracing. There is nothing excluded. There is no neutral zone. There is no middle ground. The will of God is totalitarian; obedience to Him is complete, artless, and natural. This is the state we are commanded to pray (and work for) upon earth. Our Lord commands us to pray and work for the increasingly approximate replication of this heavenly state upon earth.

This inevitable thickness of the Kingdom means that there are no short-cuts, no silver bullets, no quick fixes. Since through man sin entered into the world, the new mankind, led by the triumphant and glorious second Adam are to roll back the curse wherever it is found (and it is found everywhere upon earth.) The Kingdom of God embraces and transforms the life of the individual in body, soul, heart and mind. It is to embrace and transform the family so that it approximates increasingly back to the pre-Fall Edenic pattern. Children are to be raised in God-fearing, faithful homes. They are to come to faith in the context of a household of faith. A thousand Christian habits and disciplines are to be transmitted to them and built into their lives so that thinking and living Christianly, in accordance with the commands of Scripture, becomes artless and natural.

Many Christians who have been raised in non-Christian homes and who have been conformed to the present world and who have been subsequently converted in later life, when the habits of Unbelief have become deeply ingrained, will tell you that even basic Christian disciplines and constructs can be a great struggle. For example, if they come from broken and abusive homes they may struggle to understand and believe and live in terms of the fatherhood of God, whereas one raised with a godly human father will intuitively and naturally grasp this wonderful and necessary transforming truth. Similarly, they may struggle, at least initially, with a faithful adherence to the Church community, whereas those who all their lives have known the love and attendance of a faithful Christian mother will embrace Church life and community as the most natural thing in the redeemed world. (As Cyprian said, no-one can claim God as his father who does not also embrace the Church as his mother.)

We could make similar observations about the thickness of the Kingdom as it touches public worship, the sanctification of the Sabbath, schooling and education, the giving of alms, the concept and practice of an all-embracing stewardship of all that God gives, and the habitual doing of good to neighbours. The thickness of the Kingdom means that all of these are included, influenced, and transformed as the will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven.

Now, when Christians start to think these things through an objection inevitably arises. A dichotomy is introduced between doing something habitually, as an automaton, and doing something truthfully from the heart. The Scriptures, of course, have plenty to say about the evil of such a dichotomy. Our Lord's denunciations of the Pharisees both expose the magnitude of such evil, and bring fear to every believer's heart. But because something is institutionalised in a cultural sense does not therefore cause or require inward apostasy. As the Kingdom of God comes in truth, it always is and remains a spiritual kingdom—that is, it is generated and sustained by the Spirit of God in truth. In other words, the Spirit is the one One who can generate and sustain an enduring, intergenerational consistency between outward habits and inward faith and truth.

Now, let us for a moment, conceive of a society where the Spirit of God was brooding in power and over ninety percent of the people were truly regenerated believers and that this had been the case for three or four generations. There had consequently been an explosion in the study and understanding of God's will as revealed in the Scriptures. No part of the culture of the society remained untouched or uninfluenced. The busiest day on the roads was the Lord's day as the vast majority of the population streamed to worship. What would schools, law courts, parliament, business, and family life in such a society actually look like? They would reflect the Kingdom of God coming upon the earth, and would approximate the will of God being done on earth as it is in heaven.

Even Unbelievers would be constrained in their unbelief and would be conformed to the prevailing culture of Belief—-in other words, it would be the exact opposite of what we experience in the West now.

As we contemplate these things and reflect upon the coming of the Kingdom in truth we realize that few, if any, societies have ever reached such a penetration and capture of the Gospel. We have seen glimpses only, in redemptive history. But God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask and think (Ephesians 3:20). We are called above all to believe and live in faith, hope, and love. God's hand is not shortened that it cannot save.

But also, contemplation of these things leads us to focus upon the basics and the fundamentals. The preaching of the Gospel and working for the conversion of men, the careful instruction, teaching, and training in faithful Christian living in homes, schools, and churches—these are the building blocks of the Kingdom. There are no short cuts. There are no quick-fixes. There is only faithful service in our day, looking to the Lord to bless us and overcome our many weaknesses and lacunae.

As we labour in the “small” things, the things which are essential to creating a thick Kingdom culture, and pray in faith, “Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” nothing on earth will be able to withstand, for He sits at the right hand of God.