Chapter 339—Still Future
Thy kingdom come.
Matthew 6:10
.
The disciples of Christ were looking for the immediate coming of the
kingdom of His glory, but in giving them this prayer Jesus taught that the
kingdom was not then to be established. They were to pray for its coming as
an event yet future. But this petition was also an assurance to them. While
they were not to behold the coming of the kingdom in their day, the fact that
Jesus made them pray for it is evidence that in God’s own time it will surely
come.
The kingdom of God’s grace is now being established, as day by day
hearts that have been full of sin and rebellion yield to the sovereignty of His
love. But the full establishment of the kingdom of His glory will not take
place until the second coming of Christ to this world.
Not until the personal advent of Christ can His people receive the
kingdom. The Saviour said: “When the Son of man shall come in his
glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of
his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations.... Then shall the King
say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (
Matthew 25:31-
34
).... When the Son of man comes, the dead are raised incorruptible and
the living are changed. By this great change they are prepared to receive the
kingdom.... Man in his present state is mortal, corruptible; but the kingdom
of God will be incorruptible, enduring forever. Therefore man in his present
state cannot enter the kingdom of God. But when Jesus comes, He confers
immortality upon His people; and then He calls them to inherit the kingdom
of which they have hitherto been only heirs.
If “ye are Christ’s,” “all things are yours” (
1 Corinthians 3:23, 21
). But
you are as a child who is not yet placed in control of his inheritance. God
does not entrust to you your precious possession, lest Satan by his wily arts
should beguile you, as he did the first pair in Eden. Christ holds it for you,
safe beyond the spoiler’s reach.
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