A Now And Future Kingdom

A Now and Future Kingdom

Be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create.

Isaiah 65:18

IN WORD God has promised a new Kingdom. It will be dramatically different than the kingdom we’ve grown up in. In fact, He has already begun it. Jesus gave us glimpses of it whenever He taught, healed, and forgave. He gives us glimpses of it even now, whenever He answers our prayers and grants us the pleasure of His presence. The new heavens and the new earth are a future promise with a present taste. Still, we often live a lot like captive citizens of this fallen planet.

Are we? Of course not. We know God’s promises and we depend on them. We’ve seen His mercy and known His love. We know there’s more to look forward to than the status quo. The King is coming, and what He does when He comes will be amazing.

The problem for many of us is living the future glory in this present world. Basing our lives on one-day promises doesn’t seem very realistic today. But doing so is one of the clearest ways for us to honor God. We can go ahead and live His Kingdom’s ethics, count on His Kingdom’s plans, fit into His Kingdom’s culture, and learn His Kingdom’s language. Most of all, we can rejoice, worshiping as if we were living in Revelation 22, even when we’re still only lingering after the end of Acts.

IN DEED In fact, we must. Worshiping that way is our witness that He is who He says He is, that He will do what He says He will do, and that it will all be good. When we joyfully live as citizens of the coming Kingdom, conforming to all of its character and falling in line with all of its plans, we are a visible sign to this world that: (1) it is fallen and there’s a more glorious purpose for it; and (2) God is real and His Kingdom is coming.

Yes, others may think we’re strange. They don’t understand this Kingdom’s ethics, and they don’t grasp its values. No matter. The joy they observe in the lives of its citizens will be a testimony to them, and they will have to choose. If we are glad in what God will create someday, He is glorified now, as well as then.

Solid joys and lasting treasure none but Zion’s children know.

—JOHN NEWTON