1. I understood that Jews were a part of the Kingdom program and that today Jews and Gentiles alike are a part of the Body of Christ/ the Grace program.
2. I understood that a Jew had to lead a righteous life and follow the law in order to go to heaven (e.i. faith and works), whereas today we are saved by faith and not by works.
3. I understood that even if we sin we will not go to hell if we have accepted Jesus Christ's payment for our sins.
I didn't understand why Paul would refer to "the Kingdom of God" in verses like Gal. 5:21 and Eph. 5:5 and say that people that do the sins mentioned will not inherit the kingdom of God. Though a lot of Christians strive to be righteous, godly people there is no one that is perfect and I would dare to say that all Christians struggle or have struggled with one of the sins mentioned below.
Galatians 5:19-21
"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
Ephesians 5:3-5
"But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."
I wondered, what did these verses mean? Wasn't "the kingdom" a Jewish term?! Did they state that if you do any of these evil things you weren't going to heaven? That idea didn't line up with scripture so I'd always explain it away or just read through the verse without dwelling on that part of the scripture. I was glad to know what the works of the flesh were but I could explain the "shall not inherit the kingdom of God" part so I would just ignore it.
....but what did these verses mean?
The question burned quietly in the back of my mind begging to be answered. Finally, a couple months ago, a friend asked me the same questions and so I knew it was time to study it out.
I took my dad's copy of Strong's Concordance of the Bible.
As Wikipedia says about the concordance, "Unlike other Biblical reference books, the purpose of Strong's Concordance is not to provide content or commentary about the Bible, but to provide an index to the Bible. This allows the reader to find words where they appear in the Bible. This index allows a student of the Bible to re-find a phrase or passage previously studied. It also lets the reader directly compare how the same word may be used elsewhere in the Bible. In this way Strong's Notes provides an independent check against translations, and offers an opportunity for greater, and more technically accurate understanding of text."
I looked up the word "kingdom." The phrase "kingdom of heaven" is found throughout the old testament but never in Paul's epistles. The phrase "kingdom of God" however is found throughout the Bible.That excluded "the kingdom of God" from being just a dispensational/grace term or from only being in Paul's epistles.
After this discovery I went to the next step and just read all of the verses and the context of the verses. The verses outside of Paul's epistles were definitely different from the Pauline verses. That is they were obviously written for and about different programs.
Here is a summary of what I learned:
The kingdom of heaven is when God will set up His earthly kingdom and it is where the Jews will spend eternity. The kingdom of God is more of a broad term meaning that if you are a part of God's plan period (whether it be through Israel's program or through the Body of Christ/the dispensation of grace), you are a part of "the kingdom of God." One friend of mine described it simply like this, "The kingdom of heaven pertaining to Israel and the kingdom of God being universal."
No comments:
Post a Comment