The Kingdom Perspective

Over the course of time, even the simplest terms can lose their meaning. Take for instance the word “sin.” What is sin? Well, biblically speaking, sin is a refusal to know God on His terms. It is a commitment on our part as human beings to make our lives work without God.

Christians of centuries past defined sin with these words: “Sin is any want of conformity to the law of God.” In other words, sin is the gap between what God requires of us and what we actually are.

So what does God require of people? According to Jesus the greatest commandment upon which all others depend is that we “love God with all our heart, soul, and mind.” We were meant to treasure and obey God completely. Notice that this does not involve merely external conformity but an internal attitude of the heart. We are to do all God commands with ALL our HEART. Thus, sin is primarily that attitude of our hearts that does not treasure and love God above all else. It’s that internal drive that says, “I can find ultimate meaning, ultimate fulfillment somewhere other than God himself.” Sound familiar?

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.”

~ 1 John 3:4

If there is a God who has spoken to us so clearly, then why is it not more obvious who He is and what He is like? This is a good question. If the existence and identity of God is as obvious as most Christians would want to argue, then why isn’t it obvious to more people? Now you might not like my answer but from a biblical perspective it seems clear enough: The answer is that people by nature really don’t want to know the true God. Listen to the words of Jesus himself on mankind’s natural reaction to the  revelation of God: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” Although God has clearly communicated, people refuse to listen. As a matter of fact, the brighter God shines the light the more mankind runs for the darkness. This tendency of the human heart to reject the light and hide in the darkness is at the heart of the biblical concept of sin. Sin is not so much the bad things we do, but rather our stubborn refusal to know God and to come to Him on His terms. It was Winston Churchill who said, “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”

How about you? Are you running from the truth? Or are you standing naked in the full light of the revelation of God?

Something to think about from “The Kingdom Perspective.”

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”

~John 3:19

Could I have a few seconds of your time to encourage you to think about something? Who do you think God is? And what do you think God is like? I would imagine that you probably have some idea or opinion of this.

Now, let me ask you another question, perhaps an even more profound one. On what do you base your answers to those first two questions? I would imagine that by and large in this culture there are two common answers to that question. The first is: “Well that’s just the way that I feel. It’s just what I think. It’s my own personal idea of God.” If this is the case, do you really think that if there is a God He would have left us wondering what He is like? Don’t you think that He would have clearly revealed Himself to
us somewhere, somehow? The second common answer in our culture is: “This is what the Bible says.” In theory this is a good answer. However, the irony that I find is this: Among those who would profess such an answer, a surprisingly low number of them actually take the time to see what the Bible says about God. Therefore a surprisingly high number entertain ideas about God that are less than fitting with the God revealed in the Bible.

Something to think about from the “Kingdom Perspective.”

“These things you have done and I kept silence; You thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.”

~Psalm 50:21

How do you view your relationship with God? Do you see yourself as having any leverage before the seat of divine justice? Is there something about you or something about what you have done or accomplished or want to accomplish in your life that makes you feel that you have special standing before God?

Well, the Scriptures make it clear that if you think that you do, you really don’t understand what it means to have a relationship with God. According to the Bible, our relationship is based on unmerited favor, that is grace. In other words we don’t deserve the privilege of being in a right relationship with God; rather we are at His mercy. The book of Titus puts it this way: “He saved us not on the basis of righteous things we have done, but because of His mercy” (Titus 3:5).

Martin Luther understood this when on his death bed he said, “We are but beggars.” Do we have anything to offer God? No. Does God owe us anything? No. We’re beggars.

Something to think about from the “Kingdom Perspective.”

“Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come immediately and sit down to eat’? But will he not say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me
while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink’? He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he? So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we
have done only that which we ought to have done.’”

~Luke 17:7-10

What is the most important thing in your life? What is the one thing that you possess that would bring you the most sorrow if you lost it? If you were forced to give up everything in your life except one thing, what would it be? Think hard!

For the Apostle Paul there was no question. It was “knowing Christ.” Listen to what he say of himself in Philippians 3:7-8. “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ…”

Paul considered knowing Christ not merely a necessity, though it is, but the most desirable of all pursuits.  Can you say with the Apostle Paul that knowing Christ is the most valuable, most desirable thing in life? Perhaps, you need to take another look at Jesus?

Something to think about from the “Kingdom Perspective.”

“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ”

~Philippians 3:7-8

Do you really know God or are you just busy “doing a lot of things for Him?”  Have you ever consider what it is that really pleases God?  Is it our activity for Him, or is it simply knowing Him, our relationship with Him?  What do you think?

Well, the more fundamental question is what does God think.  In Hosea 6:6 God corrects the Israelites for their false, perfunctory worship of Him without a heartfelt knowledge of Him.  Listen to the words of God through the prophet Hosea:  “For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”  They thought that true religion merely boiled down to a divine “honey-do list” rather than a change of heart that desired to know God for real.

Where’s your heart today?  Are you merely checking your list “for Him” or are you seeking to know Him?  These are two different things.

Something to think about from the “Kingdom Perspective.”

“For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

~Hosea 6:6

Is God guilty of not speaking clearly or is the human race guilty of not listening well?  God says of people in Jeremiah 9:6:  “Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know Me.”  Elsewhere in the book of Romans Paul says that people “suppress the truth [about God] by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain…because God has made it plain to them.”  It seems clear enough.  God is speaking but in general people are not listening.

It is quite impossible to speak to someone who refuses to listen and therefore impossible to have a relationship with someone who refuses to connect.  From God’s perspective the human race is refusing to listen to Him as He has spoken to us through His creation, through His Word (the Bible) and most importantly through His Son Jesus Christ.  Are you listening?

Something to think about from the “Kingdom Perspective.”

“For the Heart of this people has become dull, with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them.”

~Matthew 13:15

An atheist once said to me, if God is really there, why doesn’t He reveal Himself? Why doesn’t He say something?  If He really wants us to know Him, why doesn’t He just say so?  Good question, right?

Well, maybe not.  Maybe there is a false assumption underlying this.  For true communication to take place you have to have both a sender and a receiver.  You need someone sending a clear message but also someone willing to receive the message on the other end.  Both are necessary.

Now allow me to propose a question.  Could it be that God is sending a clear message but for whatever reason we are not truly listening?  God says of Himself in Isaiah 45:19  “I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness…”

So is God guilty of not speaking clearly or is the human race guilty of not listening well?  As for myself, I’d hate to lay the blame at the feet of God.

Something to think about from the “Kingdom Perspective.”

“For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God, who formed the earth and made it. He established it; He did not create it empty, He formed it to be inhabited): ‘I am the Lord, and there is no other. I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, Seek me in vain. I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right.’”

~Isaiah 45:18-19