We are constantly aware of the fact that the sword of the Word of God has two edges, Kingdom and Gospel, and we
want them both to be sharp as we wield that sword in these postings.
We sharpened the Kingdom edge for several weeks as we looked at Donald Trump, his election, his initial successes, and how civil government functions biblically. Then in the last posting, we worked on sharpening the Gospel edge as we reminded ourselves again that our relationship with God, in every aspect, is by grace alone, through faith alone, and even that faith is a free gift to us from God!
It is interesting to me that some teachers are aware of both of these messages but seem to emphasize, and are knowledgeable about, and thus teach, only one of the two. This has been true historically as well.
For example, Martin Luther has no peer when it comes to the gospel of the grace of God, but his view of the Kingdom was less certain and always seemed to be in flux. He saw there to be two Kingdoms—a spiritual one over which God was actively involved, and a secular one that seemed to function without His direct involvement.
On the other hand, John Calvin and the reformers, particularly a Dutch theologian, Abraham Kuyper (who also was the prime minister of the Netherlands from 1901-1905), left us the opposite perspective. Their understanding of the Gospel of Grace, illustrated by the classical Reformed teaching of the “third use of the law,” corroborates this observation. It would appear that the gospel edge of the sword they are wielding needs some sharpening!
However, I believe Kuyper’s view of “sphere sovereignty” is diamonds, and I believe it forms the proper biblical foundation of a comprehensive Kingdom perspective! My “Ship of the Kingdom” diagram, that I will publish again in my next posting, is based on Kuyper’s ideas!
So, it is not surprising that there are differences of opinions among serious, sincere believers about theological issues like these, which have tremendous implications on how we live..
I am but an octogenarian nearing the finish line, sharing what I have learned about running this race called “life” during my 65 years in the race. It is up to each reader to ask God to open the eyes of his/her heart to new ideas, and go with what GOD TELLS HIM/HER! Christianity is a right-now, experiential relationship with the Living God, not simply an intellectual body of knowledge to learn!
In the next posting, I want to look at the “Ship of the Kingdom;” what I believe to be, when rooted in the Gospel of the Grace of God, the best, most complete summary of Kingdom theology I have seen, covering the time-frame from the Ascension to Pentecost. It is the forest in which all the trees of our daily, Christian-life struggles occur, and seeing the forest clearly is essential in order to make sense out of, and then being victorious in, all those struggles.
