The kingdom of Grod, therefore, as consisting of those wlio ac- knowledge, worship, love, and obey Jehovali as the only living and true God, has existed in our world ever since the fall of Adam. It has ever been the light and life of the world. It is the salt by which it is preserved. It is the leaven by which it is ultimately to be pervaded. To gather his people into this kingdom, and to carry it on to its consummation, is the end of all God's dispensations, and the purpose for which his eternal Son assumed our nature. He was born to be a king. To this end He lived and died and rose again, that He might be Lord of all those given to Him by the Father.
§ 2. Christ is truly a King.
Although the kingdom of God had existed from the beginning, yet as everything therewith connected before the Advent was merely preparatory, the Scriptures constantly speak of the Mes- siah as a king who was to set up a kingdom into which in the end all other kingdoms were to be merged. The most familiar desig- nation applied to Him in the Scriptures is Lord. But Lord means proprietor and ruler; and when used of God or Christ, it means absolute proprietor and sovereign ruler. Apart from Christ's right in us and sovereignty over us as God, He as the God-man is our Lord. We belong to Him by the purchase of his blood, and God has set Him as King on his holy hill of Zion.
In the Book of Genesis the Messiah is set forth as the Shiloh to whom is to be the gathering of the people. In reference to Him it was said in Numbers xxiv. 17, " There shall come a Star out of Jacob ; and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel.' In 2 Samuel vii. 16, we have the record of God's formal covenant with David, " Thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever be- fore thee : thy throne shall be established forever." In fulfilment of that promise Isaiah predicted that a virgin should bear a son and call his name Immanuel, on whose shoulder should be the govern- ment, whose name should be called " Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this."^ (Isaiah ix. 6, 7.) In the second Psalm God declares in reference to the Messiah, I have " set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. .... Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine in- heritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession,
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Thou shalt break them with a I'od of iron ; thou shalt dash them in pieces Hke a potter's vessel." The whole of the 45th, 72d, and 110th Psalms is devoted to the exhibition of the Messiah in his character as king. In Daniel vii. 13, 14, it is said, " One like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all [)eople, nations, and languages, should serve him ; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not j)ass away, and his king- dom that which shall not be destroyed." The prophet Micah v. 2, said, " Thou, Bethlehem, Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel ; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." After the captivity the people were cheered with the hope that the promised king was soon to appear. " Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion ; shout, O daughter of Jeru- salem ; Behold, thy King cometh unto thee ; he is just, and hav- ing salvation ; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass." (Zech. ix. 9.) This is the mode of representa- tion which pervades the Old Testament Scriptures. As the priest- hood, and sacrifices, and prophets of the former dispensation were typical of the prophetic and priestly offices of Christ, so the kings of Israel were typical of his kingly office, and so the national the- ocracy of the Mosaic economy was typical of the spiritual theoc- racy of the Messianic period.
In the New Testament Christ is set forth as a king, in harmony with the predictions which foretold his advent. The Angel Gabriel, in announcing to the Virgin Mary the approaching birth of the Messiah said, " Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever ; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." (Luke i. 31-33.) John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, prepared the people for his coming, saying, " Repent ye : for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matt. iii. 2.) And our Lord himself, when He entered upon his personal ministry, went everywhere preaching "the gospel of the kingdom of God." (Mark i. 14.) Much of his teaching was devoted to setting forth the nature of the kingdom which He came to establish.
Nothing, therefore, is more certain, according to the Scriptures, than that Christ is a king ; and consequently, if we would retain
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the truth concerning Him and his work, He must be so regarded m our theology and religion.
§ 3. Nature of Chrisfs Kingdom.
Although the kingdom of God on earth was set up immediately after the fall, yet as the Messiah was to come to make all things new, and to take into his hands as the Theanthropos the adminis- tration of this kingdom, the Old Testament predicted, and the New Testament announces, the establishment of a new kingdom as con- sequent on his advent.
The word (SaatXeia is used in Scripture in three senses. (1.) For royal authority or dominion ; such dominion as it is the prerogative of a king to exercise. (2.) For those who are subject to that authority. Among men any community, or commonwealth, or territory subject to a king, constitutes his kingdom. And in the New Testament, those who acknowledge Christ as their king constitute his kingdom. (3.) The word is used metonymically for the effects of the exercise of royal authority. It is to be understood in the first of these senses in all those cases in which a kingdom or dominion is said to be given to Christ ; or when we pray. Thy king- dom come, or when it is said. Of his kingdom there is no end. It is used in the second sense when men are said to enter into the kingdom of Christ, or to be cast out of it, or when the char- acter of those is described who are to constitute that kingdom. And it is used in the third sense when men are said to inherit, to see (or enjoy), to seek, and to value more than hid treasure, the kingdom of God. Hence also the kingdom of God is said to con- sist in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Such are the effects of the reign of Christ.
This kingdom is called the kingdom of Christ, or of the Son of God, because administered by Him. The royal authority is vested in Him. It is called the kingdom of God, because Christ is God, and because it is the kingdom which God was to establish on earth in distinction from the kingdoms of men. It is called the kingdom of heaven, because its king dwells in heaven, because it is spiritual and heavenly, and because it is to be consummated in heaven. Various as are the applications and uses of these designations in the New Testament, they are included under the general idea of the Messianic kingdom ; that kingdom which the Messiah came into the world to establish. That kingdom, however, is presented in different aspects, or, in other words, Christ exei'cises his royal authority, so to speak, in different spheres.
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Christ'' 8 Dominion over the Universe.