Think Kingdom

Wow!  I've just determined I might be the world's worst blogger.  Funny how these things have a way of getting away from you, huh?  In any case, I promised that I would talk about what I would teach if I could only teach a few things.  Last post, I said that the essence of discipleship is getting over yourself.

Today, I think what I'll talk about is this:  I've come to believe that many of us need a change of mindset--that we need to start to think "Kingdom" rather than "salvation." 

I can't say that salvation isn't a Biblical concept.  It clearly is.  But I think we've come to misunderstand Biblical salvation.  When we talk about it today in evangelical churches, what we mean is that "when I die, I'm going to go to heaven."  So, I can remember being trained to do evangelism by asking the question, "If you were to die tonight, do you know where you would spend eternity?" 

I don't know, maybe that's a good question, but I think it's a pretty one-sided question according to the Bible.  I think as Christians, our calling is to follow Jesus.  In fact, if you look at the ministry of Jesus, He didn't tell people to get saved.  He does talk about eternal life, which includes living forever in the presence of God, but it means much more than that.

You see I think we often teach a pretty self-centered salvation.  As long as I'm OK--as long as I'm going to heaven that's what God wants.  This view of salvation, lends itself to having churches that have little impact on a community or the world.  But I believe Jesus calls us to even more than just reserving a place in heaven when we die.

Ever since the fall, God's purpose has been to redeem all of creation.  He created each day and said that it was "good."  Humans are the prize of His creation, for sure and we have a great say in what happens to the world.  Ever since the fall (since Adam and Eve sinned), we've managed to mess it all up and all of creation suffers because of it.  A world that was once filled with beauty and peace and relationship is now characterized by ugliness, war, and broken relationships.  There are glimpses of the original creation, but what we see is only a shadow of what God intended when He put us in charge.

In Matthew 6, Jesus taught us to pray "[God's] Kingdom come, [His] will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  In other words, originally, the earth was God's Kingdom and His will was done on earth as it is in heaven.  But now things are corrupted and we God's will isn't always done on earth and we pay the price for that daily.

But when Jesus talks about eternal life, He's talking about us entering the Kingdom of God--that His will is done in our lives as it is in heaven.  That's what it means to be "born again."  We're born again into a new picture of the world, into a new way of living our lives that was made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus.  We're forgiven for how we've messed up the world and messed up our own lives and given a clean slate and the power of the Holy Spirit to impact our fallen world for the Kingdom of God.

In the Old Testament, we read that the people of Israel were God's chosen people.  Have you ever asked what they were chosen for?  Were they chosen to reap all the benefits of God's love, but have no responsibility?  Not at all.  They were chosen to be a "blessing to all the nations." (Genesis 18:18)  Israel wasn't given a blank check to live however they wanted and enjoy God's favor forever.  They were chosen for a purpose and when they didn't fulfill their purpose, God allowed them to be punished (taken into exile).

In the same way, we read in Ephesians 2 that we were saved by God's grace.  But that's not the end of it.  In Ephesians 2:10 Paul writes this, "For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  We were saved in order to partner with God to bring people a glimpse of His Kingdom.  That includes heaven, but it also means that we live our lives now as if we have heaven inside our hearts.  We pray for and work tirelessly for God's Kingdom to expand in our world here and now.  It won't come completely until Jesus returned, but God doesn't just love Christians--He loves everyone and wants them to experience His Kingdom.

So whenever I teach about being born again or being saved, I believe it means having our eternity settled, but I also believe it means we've joined the team, not an exclusive club.  So think Kingdom.