Its Subjects or Citizens
Perhaps no other question has excited more controversy and argument than the IDENTITY of those within God's kingdom.
The Prophet Daniel wrote of the time when ". . . many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Dan. 12:2). Jesus taught His disciples during His earthly ministry of the coming RESURRECTION of the dead! Notice Christ's statements in John 5:28-29. "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves [dead and buried] shall hear his voice, and shall come forth . . ." Christ spoke of the RESURRECTION of the dead!
The apostles constantly stressed the RESURRECTION Of the dead! When they were preaching in Jerusalem immediately after the Day of Pentecost, the Sadducees were disturbed because ". . . they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead" (Acts 4:2).
The Apostle Paul, when disputing with the "learned" men of Athens,". . . preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection"! (Acts 17:18)
Jesus Christ came preaching a message that you and I may be BORN INTO the Kingdom of God! That rebirth is by a resurrection! When the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, tried to trick Christ, He revealed the NATURE of those who are raised from the dead by the coming resurrection. "Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, NOT KNOWING THE SCRIPTURES,
nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven" (Matt. 22:29, 30).
Angels are SPIRIT BEINGS (Heb. 1:7) and are not capable of marrying or reproducing. That which is spiritual is eternal — and Christ said WE will be LIKE the angels in the kingdom of God.
A Rebirth
When Nicodemus came to Christ privately, after dark, Jesus explained the condition of those who are finally REBORN into His kingdom. "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be BORN AGAIN, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). Christ went on to explain: "Except a man be BORN of water and of the SPIRIT, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (verse 5).
Before anyone may enter the kingdom of God, he must be REBORN, of the SPIRIT!
Only one person has been born of the spirit at this time!
That One is Christ!
"That which IS BORN of the FLESH if FLESH; and that which is BORN of the Spirit is SPIRIT." Many who believe they have had a "born again" experience can perform a simple test to PROVE whether or not they have actually been BORN OF THE SPIRIT! (Verse 6) Can such persons be SEEN? Are they VISIBLE? Do they still have BLOOD in their veins?
CERTAINLY!
Remember! That which is BORN of the Spirit is — they are literally COMPOSED of — SPIRIT!
But Christians today are still FLESH — BORN OF THE FLESH — FLESHLY, PHYSICAL, human BEINGS!
But that which is BORN of the Spirit will be just as the wind is, INVISIBLE! Notice verse 8, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: SO Is EVERY ONE THAT IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT"! They will be INVISIBLE to the natural human eye — just as WIND is invisible!
The Church is NOT the kingdom of God! The British Empire is NOT the kingdom of God! "Now this I say, brethren, that FLESH AND BLOOD cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption" (I Cor. 15:50). The physical, fleshly people of Great Britain are HUMAN beings, and so cannot inherit the kingdom of God so long as they are human! The Church is composed of HUMAN beings, and so has not as yet INHERITED the kingdom of God!
The kingdom will be composed of those who are BORN of God, just as Christ was BORN of God, either by a resurrection, or by an immediate CHANGE at the second coming of Christ (I Cor. 15:51-52). They will be no longer human, but now CHANGED — transformed INTO spirit! Jesus Christ is the firstborn of many brethren! (Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:18; I Cor. 15:20)
Those who will be BORN of God, who will be finally CHANGED into spirit beings, will be a part of the actual governing agency — co-rulers with Christ (Rev. 20:4). The subjects, or those being governed, will be physical, carnal nations on this earth! Notice again Zech. 14:16-19. God will send plagues to chastise those physical, carnal nations who do not want to OBEY His immutable laws! The scripture already quoted from Micah the 4th chapter shows God's kingdom which is composed of those who will be BORN of God, actually doing the RULING over the nations of this earth, who are physical, human beings! "And many NATIONS shall come and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain [nation, or kingdom] of the Lord . . ." God shows through Isaiah that the INHABITANTS, or the citizens of the earth shall be scattered abroad, and, although He will furiously punish the inhabitants of the earth for their sins, there will be a FEW MEN LEFT to repopulate the earth in the 1000 years (Isa. 24:1, 5, 6).
A Job to Be Done
When God's literal kingdom is established, those who are co-rulers with Christ will be instrumental in TEACHING all nations the correct WAY TO LIVE. Notice Isaiah 2:2-4, "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain [kingdom] of the Lord's [Eternal's] house shall be established in the top of the mountains [earthly kingdoms] and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it."
"And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of HIS WAYS. . ." God's government will then be ENFORCED on those who still choose to be disobedient! "And he shall JUDGE among the nations, and shall rebuke many PEOPLE: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."
Whenever physical, sinning people begin to turn out of the WAY of God, those who are in the very kingdom of God WITH Christ will say, from their INVISIBLE vantage point, "THIS IS THE WAY, WALK YE IN IT" (Isa. 30:21).
Laws and a Form of Government
God's kingdom will be a world-ruling governing kingdom, set above the kingdoms of THIS earth, judging and carrying out the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God! God's government is accomplished through HIS LAWS! God alone is LAWGIVER! (James 4:12)
God's immutable laws, summed up in the ten commandments, STAND FAST forever and ever! (Psalms 111:8) Jesus Christ was a living example of God's laws — and taught that man is to live by "every word of God" (Matt. 4:4). Jesus set us the perfect example, that we should follow in His steps (I Peter 2:21).
Since Jesus Christ is the SAME yesterday, today and forever, He will be KEEPING the Ten Commandments of God within YOU and within ME just as He kept them within the Apostle Paul!"I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me . . ." (Gal. 2:20).
Paul also wrote that God's law is SPIRITUAL (Rom. 7:14). He said that he served the law of God with his mind, with his volition, his will-power! (Rom. 7:25) When a young man came to Jesus Christ and asked Him the way to eternal life, Christ turned to him and said, "KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS"! (Matt. 19:17)
The only ones who will finally inherit eternal life, who will be BORN of God, are those that have a contrite spirit, and TREMBLE at God's Word! (Isa. 66:2) The keynote of the entire Bible from cover to cover is OBEDIENCE to God's laws! God's method of governing is through His perfect laws, which express, in the first four points, HOW to love God — and in the last six, How to love your neighbor! John tells us if we PROFESS we know Christ, and yet do not KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS, we are LIARS, and the truth is not IN us! (I John 2:4)
Solomon, in his excellent wisdom, summed up the matter when he wrote, "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: FEAR GOD, and KEEP his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man" (Eccl. 12:13).
God's kingdom, His own FAMILY of persons who will have been BORN into that God family by a resurrection or by being changed while yet alive, will rule with Christ on this earth. The LAWS with which they will rule will be the SAME laws God instituted at creation! For God says, "I CHANGE NOT"! (Mal. 3:6)
HOW PLAIN!
And what glorious, GOOD NEWS! God is going to STEP IN. He will soon intervene in His almighty POWER to SAVE man from his wretchedness, his poverty and crime, his total degradation and degeneracy! The kingdom of God will NOT be a teetering, disease-ridden, chaotic system set up by MAN.
Instead, it will be the PERFECT, joyous, happy, UTOPIA OF THE WORLD TOMORROW — the time of GOD'S RULE ON THIS EARTH! God grant that YOU will strive with all your heart to qualify as a citizen of this soon-coming kingdom!