Christ's Reign

I know God’s Kingdom and His Spiritual reign has already been here for more then a thousand years, but many don’t accept a Spiritual reign of Christ, they are looking forward to Christ physically reigning on earth. This is what the Jewish nation was waiting for when Christ came to them before, but they rejected Christ because it was not the Christ they were looking for. To this day they are still looking for Christ to come and reign physically on earth like King David did, but Christ’s physical kingdom would not be limited to a section of the world, but would be a reign over the whole world.

For this discussion I will pretend to believe that Christ’s physical Kingdom and reign is yet to come. Where there will be peace and joy around the world. A kingdom where everyone will love one another. Where there is no more selfishness, hurt, sorrow, and pain. Where everyone would be living by the light of God and fully submitting to the Lordship of Christ. Sounds good and I admit that this would be heavenly.

There is one big problem with most (not all) of the people that believe this, and that is they are unwilling to submit to the Lordship of Christ in their lives right now. Do they think that somehow their selfishness will just evaporate to nothing when He returns or even when they get a new spiritual imperishable body? Where the problem comes in, is that our selfishness is part of our soul, not our fleshly body. What we love makes up what and who we are. Whether we are selfish or unselfish is a big part of who we are. Our love for self or our love for God is our spiritual nature. It is not part of the fleshly body that dies. It lives on in our soul that passes on to eternity.

So for all the people that are looking forward to this utopia of God’s physical reign, where do they fit into this new beautiful physical kingdom of Christ? If any of them are unwilling to have Christ be the Lord of their life now, what makes them think that they would want Christ to be their Lord in this new physical kingdom? Let’s say that Christ forgives their sinful ways and has covered their sinful behavior by the cross and that living a pure and righteous life is not required to enter this new physical kingdom – then what. What happens when someone still has their selfishness and sinful nature in this new and sinless kingdom? Is Christ going to throw them into jail? What happens when some of the nations of the earth don’t want to follow and obey the Kingship of Christ? What will Christ do? Will He go to war and upset this pure peaceful heavenly environment? Will Christ just send them all to hell with a Word? Is this the perfect kingdom that people are expecting? As soon as Christ would accept anyone into His Kingdom that still has their selfish sinful nature, then it would be at that point that it would stop being a heavenly place. That one bad apple would ruin the whole bushel.

We need to see that there is no place in God’s Kingdom for selfishness. Selfishness doesn’t have any place in His Kingdom and since what we love (ourselves or God) is the very essence of who we are and is the very essence of the person we are, we have to understand that if we have not died to our selfishness, then we have no place in God’s Kingdom. This is true whether you believe in a spiritual kingdom or a future physical kingdom.

Since God’s Word says His Kingdom has come to earth and is in the hearts of men, then let us bring God back into this world by killing our selfishness and live by God’s love. Let us show the people of the world that God’s love reigns over evil. Let us show people that they can be in God’s Kingdom today.