You Can Know You Have Eternal Life
#55 Gods Standard for Mankind (39)
The Bible has Two Testaments! Why? (4 of 6)
The King of the New Covenant
by Jim Mettenbrink
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One of the stipulations of Gods
Old Covenant with Israel was that God would be their king
a true theocracy (Exodus 19:3-6). When Jesus fulfilled
the law and died on the cross, He set aside the Old Covenant,
thus it is no longer in effect (Colossians 2:13-14; Hebrews 8:7-13).
At the same time, Jesus initiated the New Covenant (Hebrews
9:16-17), thus establishing His kingdom, also a theocracy like
under the Old Covenant. So, is Jesus the King and if so,
where is He? Where is His kingdom? How does He rule?
Who and where are his subjects citizens? These
are reasonable and necessary inquiries.
Interestingly, Jesus did not refer
to Himself as the King and only the apostle Paul called Jesus
the king (1 Timothy 1:17; 6:14-15). Before Jesus ascended
into heaven 40 days after He rose from the dead, He said all
authority on heaven and earth had been given to Him (Matthew
28:18). Just 10 days later, on the Jewish holiday Pentecost
AD 33, Peter preaching in the temple, proclaimed that Jesus was
in heaven and on His throne at the right hand of God (Acts 2:30-36).
Thus, Jesus is king of His kingdom and has been for almost
2000 years.
Regarding Jesus birth, Matthew
(2:6) cited the Micahs prophecy (Micah 5:2), that the Ruler
of Israel would be born in Bethlehem. Was ancient Israel
Jesus kingdom? During His three years ministry on
earth, Jesus announced that the Kingdom of God was coming (e.g.,
Matthew 4:17). Since His listeners were Israelites, Gods
chosen descendants of Abraham, how would they understand the
coming kingdom? Were they not citizens of Gods
kingdom at that moment, and living in the promised land for 1400
years? Further, Israel was ruled by the Roman empire, thus
no longer an autonomous kingdom. Surely His audience would
want an explanation.
Moments before Jesus ascended into
heaven, He promised to send the Holy Spirit to His disciples
soon. His closest disciples asked Will you at that time
restore the kingdom to Israel?
(Acts 1:6), revealing that they too, after being with Jesus for
three years, did not understand the nature of the kingdom of
heaven. Likely they thought Jesus would drive the Romans
out of Palestine and establish the earthly kingdom again. However
six weeks earlier, during His trial before the Roman governor,
Pontius Pilate, Jesus declared, My kingdom is not of this world... (Matthew 18:36). Clearly
His kingdom would not be earthbound. So, if Jesus
kingdom is not on earth, what and where is the kingdoms
territory?
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