Law of the New Kingdom
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“But to sit on My right hand, and on My left,” He continued, “is
not Mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared
of My Father.” In the kingdom of God, position is not gained through
favoritism. It is not earned, nor is it received through an arbitrary
bestowal. It is the result of character. The crown and the throne are
the tokens of a condition attained; they are the tokens of self-conquest
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Long afterward, when the disciple had been brought into sympathy
with Christ through the fellowship of His sufferings, the Lord revealed
to John what is the condition of nearness in His kingdom. “To him that
overcometh,” Christ said, “will I grant to sit with Me in My throne,
even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His
throne.” “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My
God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name
of My God, ... and I will write upon him My new name.”
Revelation
3:21, 12
. So Paul the apostle wrote, “I am now ready to be offered,
and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight,
I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, shall give me at that day.”
2 Timothy 4:6-8
.
The one who stands nearest to Christ will be he who on earth has
drunk most deeply of the spirit of His self-sacrificing love,—love that
“vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, ... seeketh not her own, is not
easily provoked, thinketh no evil” (
1 Corinthians 13:4, 5
),—love that
moves the disciple, as it moved our Lord, to give all, to live and labor
and sacrifice, even unto death, for the saving of humanity. This spirit
was made manifest in the life of Paul. He said, “For to me to live is
Christ;” for his life revealed Christ to men; “and to die is gain,”—gain
to Christ; death itself would make manifest the power of His grace,
and gather souls to Him. “Christ shall be magnified in my body,” he
said, “whether it be by life or by death.”
Philippians 1:21, 20
.
When the ten heard of the request of James and John, they were
much displeased. The highest place in the kingdom was just what
every one of them was seeking for himself, and they were angry that
the two disciples had gained a seeming advantage over them.
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Again the strife as to which should be greatest seemed about to
be renewed, when Jesus, calling them to Him, said to the indignant
disciples, “Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the