Assessing Your Kingdom Status Series

ASSESSING YOUR KINGDOM STATUS

Matthew 5:19-20

“How is your son John doing?” said a pastor to the father of a prosperous young man.

“Oh,” said the proud father, “John is doing very well. He is really getting along in the world.”

After a moment’s hesitation, the pastor asked, “Which world?”

Far too many people are spending their days focused on the wrong world and consumed with the wrong kingdom. Jesus said to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness”, but rather than focusing on the eternal, many people (even genuine Christians) are consumed with the temporal. Rather than seeking God’s Kingdom, they are attempting to build their own.

Those of us who have been born again are citizens of God’s Kingdom. This is both a present and a future reality for the Christian. It is imperative that we spend our time here preparing for the hereafter. We must heed the words of our Savior and ensure that we are “laying up treasures in Heaven” as opposed to storing up temporal treasures here on earth that will rust, rot, and fade away.

When Jesus came to earth, He astonished the crowds with His teaching. At the conclusion of The Sermon On The Mount, Matthew says that “the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes”. (Matthew 7:28-29).

Throughout His earthly ministry, one of the constant complaints from the Pharisees was that Jesus’ teaching was contrary to the Law of Moses. In the preceding verses, Jesus makes it abundantly clear that His doctrine was not at all contrary to God’s Law. However, it was vastly different from the Pharisees incorrect interpretation of it. Jesus declares that it was not His purpose or desire to abolish the Law, in fact, one of the primary reasons for His coming to earth was to fulfill the Law that the Pharisees “claimed” to hold so dear.

It is important to note that Jesus’ primary audience during the Sermon on the Mount were Jews in Israel who lived during the time when the Mosaic Law was still in full effect. Herod’s Temple was still standing atop the Temple Mount, the prescribed sacrifices were still being offered, and the veil that separated the holy place from the Holy of Holies was still intact.

Unbeknownst to the majority of the Jewish people was the reality that the Promised Messiah was in their midst. The One that the Law pointed to, the One that the Prophets spoke about, was walking the earth and in time He would fulfill (not abolish) “the Law and the Prophets”. On the day of His crucifixion, when all things were accomplished Jesus cried, “it is finished”. Our Savior bowed His head, took His last breath, an earthquake rumbled across the earth, and the veil of the Temple was torn into. At that point in time those laws that regulated sacrifice and worship were fulfilled. They were fulfilled because Jesus was the final and complete sacrifice.

Jesus’ death satisfied God’s requirements for sin and for obedience to the Law. Those who are in Christ are not forced to obey the Law. However, we are compelled to obey God’s Law because of our love for Jesus and our appreciation for His selfless sacrifice for our sins. We have gone from being slaves to sin to living as children of God. Therefore, a good Christian does obey, but we do so because of grace, not in an attempt to earn God’s favor by our compliance to His Law.

Galatians 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

As born-again Christians, we are not under the ceremonial law; we have no obligation to comply with the dietary laws, to observe certain days or feasts, etc. However, we are expected to obey God’s moral laws. There is no excuse or justification for us to lie, cheat, steal, covet, lust, or to commit adultery or murder.

Our obedience concerning these laws is not the source of our justification, instead they are the result of our salvation. As God promised the prophet Jeremiah, He has put His teaching within us and has written it on our hearts. Anyone who claims that a Christian is not obligated to obey God’s moral laws has not spent much time in the Epistles, for there are many passages that make it clear that these laws are most certainly still in effect.

Last week we examined Christ and the Law; this week we will spend some time considering the Christian and the Law. Here in Matthew chapter 5, after proclaiming that He did not come to abolish God’s Law and stating that “not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished”, Jesus went on to warn His listeners that “whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.