Gregory Scott

Psalm 22

Psalm 22 is a well-known messianic Psalm: v1 (“My God, my God was hast Thou forsaken me?”); v.16 (“They pierced my hands and my feet.”); v. 17 (“I can count all my bones.”); v18 (“And for my clothing they cast lots.”). But as often as these verses are cited and discussed, the prophetic verses in the later half of the psalm are ignored. Here are the verses to which I am referring:

“All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord,

And all the families of the nations will worship before Thee.

For the kingdom is the Lord’s

And He rules over the nations.”

Psalm 22:27-29. My question is, “How did David expect that all the earth would turn to the Lord and worship Him?” At the time David spoke these words, Israel occupied a modest portion of the Middle East. King David knew the Philistines, the Moabites and the Egyptians didn’t yet worship the Lord.

I suspect when David spoke these words, he was looking down the road thinking his kingdom or his descendants’ kingdom would continue to expand and bring the knowledge of the Lord to the ends of the earth. Of course, a prophet needn’t understand fully the meaning of his prophecy, and I believe that was the case here. Here, I believe David was prophesying of the coming kingdom of God. He was speaking of the kingdom, whose ruler is not a man, but the Lord, “For the kingdom is the Lord’s, and He rules over nations.” (v. 28).

Anyway, that’s how it reads to me. Your thoughts? GS

Kingdom Hero: S. Truett Cathy

The kingdom of God is functioning as it should when Christians in earthly positions of authority execute their responsibilities in those positions diligently, skillfully and ethically in obedience to King Jesus, who thereby reigns through that position. S. Truett Cathy is an excellent example of one who has used his position of authority to exercise the delegated authority of King Jesus.

Cathy opened a restaurant in the Atlanta, Georgia suburb of Hapeville in 1946, which has since multiplied and grown into the franchise known as Chick-fil-A. Cathy, a devout Christian who has taught Sunday School for more than forty years, made a decision before opening his first restaurant to honor the Sabbath and provide his employees Sundays off “to rest, spend time with family and friends, and worship if they choose to do so.” He has never wavered from that decision in any of his more than 1,300 restaurants.

The decision to forego profits one day out of every seven to purchase for one’s employees a day of rest demonstrates that Cathy values his employees more than profits. It is the sort of value choice King Jesus expects of business owners exercising His delegated authority in the kingdom of God, and it the sort of decision Jesus blesses. Check this out: Chick-fil-A, though operating only six days out of seven, in terms of revenue produced is now the second-largest fast-food chicken restaurant chain in the United States.

When Christians hold positions of authority and exercise that authority in obedience to Jesus, He is free to pour out His blessings so that all who are subordinate to that authority can enjoy the blessings of being on Kingdom territory. Whether those who work at Chick-fil-A are Christians or not, when they are at Chick-fil-A they are on Kingdom Territory, nesting under the branches of the tree that is the Kingdom of God. (Matt. 13:31-32). In such a place, even those who aren’t Christians experience the blessings of the rule of King Jesus.

So, hats off to Mr. Cathy. And, oh yeah, remember to “eat mor chikin.” GS

The Kingdom Metaphor

The administration by which God has chosen to rule and reconcile creation is unique. Because there has only been one such administration, the problem the Lord faced was how best to communicate its existence to people who had no concept of it. Imagine, for example, tring to communicate the idea of an airplane to a people who had never seen one. The best one can do with something no one has ever seen before is to describe it. Names are not helpful because they only have meaning associated with a known object.

One way to communicate descriptive information is by means of a metaphor. Through a metaphor one can describe something previously unknown by using something known. Metaphors also have the benefit of communicating a package of information by picture or story that would be burdensome if not impossible to convey by mere description.

Choosing a good metaphor necessarily requires an understanding of the thing being described and the comparative thing so that one can know which metaphor is most analogous. One must also understand one’s audience to know what metaphor is best understood by the audience. Otherwise, one may choose a metaphor that gives the wrong impression when viewed in light of the experience of the audience.

People choose metaphors from their own limited pool of knowledge and experience. The Lord does not suffer from such limitations. We can rest assured that when the Lord chooses a metaphor, He has chosen for us the metaphor which paints the best and most accurate picture of that which is being described. We can know then when Jesus sought to describe this thing He called “the kingdom,” He chose the most accurate metaphor possible.

Taking this a logical step further, this also must mean there is something to learn about the kingdom of God by looking at earthly kingdoms. By exploring components common to earthly kingdoms we can begin to understand the design of God’s kingdom. As with any metaphor though, at some point the comparison breaks down. This cannot be avoided because the only way a metaphor could not break down is if the two things being compared were identical in all respects, in which case the metaphor would not be a metaphor but the thing it sought to describe.

How do we know how far we can pursue the metaphor of the kingdom as an accurate description? Certainly, the outside boundary must be the point where the metaphor contradicts scripture. That does not mean anything short of contradicting scripture is accurate though because the metaphor may lead us to a conclusion that is not contradicted by scripture but is not specifically supported in scripture. Any conclusion we might draw about the kingdom of God at that point may be true, but we could not be sure. Where the metaphor leads to a conclusion supported by scripture though, we can know we stand on solid ground.

I mention all this because much of what you read in this blog will flow from the presupposition of the kingdom metaphor. See, for example. 2 Benefits of Kingdom Citizenship, How King Jesus Rules and The Role of Citizenship in the Kingdom. So, next time you read in the Bible Jesus using the word “kingdom,” recognize He is describing something; He is providing information to you about the administration by which He rules the earth.

2 Benefits of Kingdom Citizenship

I’m a citizen of the United States of America. Unfortunately, it’s something I too often take for granted. There are benefits to citizenship. Citzenship in the kingdom of God comes with certain benefits too. Here are two of them:

1. Delegated authority. In earthly kingdoms, the status of citizenship is necessary to identify persons who will be loyal to the king so the king can know with whom he can share power. In the Roman Empire one had to be a citizen to vote and hold political office. In Ancient Greece one had to be a citizen of their city-state to participate in the Assembly that met to make decisions regarding the affairs of state. In modern democracies one must be a citizen to vote or participate in governing the kingdom. This is not by mere coincidence. Citizenship helps identify those who are loyal to the king, and the king needs to know who is loyal so he can know to whom he can delegate authority.

It’s no different in the kingdom of God. Citizenship in the kingdom is reserved for those who have been born again (John 3:5-8) and have believed and confessed Jesus’ Lordship over their lives. (Rom. 10:9). One who is not born of the Spirit cannot hear the voice of the King who rules from the spirit realm. And one who has not acknowledged Jesus’ Lordship is not likely to obey what King Jesus orders. So, both are necessary. God is not parsimonious about sharing rulership with those who serve Him, but one must be a citizen to be delegated authority from the King.

2. Inheritance rights. The kingdom of God has both a spiritual and earthly dimension and is woven seamlessly into the fabric of realty. When one is born again, one becomes a citizen of the kingdom, with full privileges in both the spiritual and earthly realms and can begin to function in both. One who is birthed spiritually gains entrance to the spiritual part of the kingdom as well as the earthly part of it. Because the kingdom has a spiritual dimension, when a citizen of the kingdom dies he continues in eternal life in the spiritual realm of the kingdom known as heaven. By contrast those who are not citizens of the kingdom, do not inherit the kingdom at their death. Cf 1 Cor. 6:9 (“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?”). Although they can live under the covering of the kingdom of God while on earth, at death they do not inherit, but are taken out of the kingdom. (Matthew 13:30, 49).

Too many Christians only consider their inheritance rights, never realizing that a citizen of the kingdom of God they can also share in the delegated authority of King Jesus. GS

How King Jesus Rules

Authority, not power, is the primary means by which earthly rulers rule. Confusion arises because the terms power and authority are often used interchangeably, when they are in fact two very different things. Power is brute force. Power is physically enforcing one’s will on another person or thing. When an army overtakes a city it does so by power. When a boxer defeats another boxer in the ring, he does so by power. Earthly rulers, however, do not rule primarily by power, but by authority.

Think about your own life, if you are like most people you have lived a law-abiding life even though you have never been compelled by force to do so. You arrive at work by a certain time each day, not because someone physically forces you to but because someone with authority at work, your supervisor or the owner, told you to do so. You obey the parking lot attendant when he directs you to the right instead of the left, not because he forces you to but because he has authority over the parking lot.

When earthly kings rule they do so by delegating authority to subordinates, who delegate that authority to their subordinates, thereby lengthening the reach of the will of the king. A king appoints a minister of defense and gives him authority over the military forces of the country. The military forces must then obey the minister of defense as they would the king. And so it goes for each department under the king.

Delegated authority has one very important condition: delegated authority only extends the rule of the king if those to whom the king delegates authority are obedient to the king. A minister of defense who initiates a war contrary to the instructions of the king has not extended the rule of the king, but his own. Implicit in the delegation of authority is the condition that that authority will be used to carry out the will of the king. To the extent the subordinate uses that authority to do his own will, he has perpetrated a fraud, representing to the world by his office that he is promoting the will of the king when he is promoting his own.

These same principles apply in the kingdom of God. Jesus also rules (though not exclusively) through delegated authority. Just before Jesus ascended into heaven He reminded His disciples, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” Matthew 28:18. Jesus’ words confirm He has been given all the authority necessary to rule and fulfill His role as King of the kingdom of God. But as a general rule, that authority is only exercised on the earth when those under Jesus’ delegated authority act in obedience to Him.

Think about this: The Book of Hebrews says that after Jesus ascended into heaven “…He…sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.” Hebrews 10:12-13. In I Corinthians the Apostle Paul makes a similar statement saying of Jesus that “…He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.” I Cor. 15:25. Here’s the question: How can Jesus reign at the same time that He is waiting? And how can Jesus put His enemies under His feet if He is in heaven? The answer: By means of delegated authority. Jesus is waiting, just as an earthly king waits after delegating the authority to subordinates, for His people to carry out his instructions on earth.

Jesus puts His enemies on earth under His feet in the same way an earthly king overcomes his kingdom’s enemies—by delegating authority to others to accomplish His will. Not only has He chosen to do so, but He has chosen gladly to do so. Luke 12:32.