For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son. Col 1:13 NLT
Greetings to the readers in the matchless name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am writing this article on January 31, 2021. God has rescued us from all the evils that are happening around us in the world and keeping us safe. In the high priest prayer in John 17, our Lord prayed to the Father not to remove us from this world but instead save us from the evil. John 17:15. As per the prayer of Jesus, He is keeping us from the evil. One who carried us thus far, will carry us for rest of the time until He returns back. Praise Him.
As per the title, I got a hint from the Spirit of God to write about the two invisible kingdoms that are at work among us. The title which was taken from New Living Translation says there are two kingdoms. One is the Kingdom of darkness and another is the Kingdom of his dear Son, Jesus Christ and that refers to the Kingdom of light. Col 1:12. It was the first message of John the baptist calling, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" Matthew 3:2 and Jesus too started to preach with the same verses in Matthew 4:17. The first blessed one of the sermon of the mount starts with Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven and the last of the list says, Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3,10. So, the list starts with kingdom of heaven and ends with kingdom of heaven. Before going to the cross, Jesus told to Pilate that His kingdom is not of this world. John 18:36 and after resurrection, Jesus was teaching His disciples about Kingdom of heaven. Acts 1:3. So, if there is one thing that Jesus preached when starting His ministry, throughout His ministry, before His death and resurrection and after His resurrection, then it is about the Kingdom of Heaven.
Now, let's see why Jesus had to preach about the Kingdom all the time. To understand this, we need to understand why Jesus had to come to this world first. We all know the mission of Jesus is Restoration of all things as it was before the fall. If you have gone through the earlier articles, you would have been clear why God had to create humans? The answer is in Malachi 2:15, where God wants a Godly seed for Himself so that He can love them and receive back love from them. He wants a Godly generation, a people who think like God, speak like God, act like God. So, He created Adam and placed Him on the earth. The earth is not heaven but a separate place created for humans to live. He created them in a different form than Him where the spirit lies within flesh. We saw about these in my earlier posts, so not going in details. But, Adam and Eve created in flesh couldn't work through Spirit and yielded to temptations through the flesh by devil.
In other words, God created the earthly Kingdom and handed that over to Adam and Eve. He gave them all dominion over all creation. Gen 1:28. As they disobeyed the only one commandment, they were given, satan became the legal ruler of the earthly kingdom and he started to rule over humans and all creatures. It was not lie when devil said to Jesus that all the earthly power and glory was delivered to him as in Luke 4:6. But, he is not the ultimate authority and that authority is only for a time. Jesus came in to the world to restore that authority back to humans in a legal and rightful way. Jesus said that in Luke 19:10, For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. He legally paid for all the sins of all humans from Adam to last man of this world in cross and that's why the scriptures call Him second Adam or later Adam. This is the primary mission of Jesus, that is to restore what Adam has lost.
But, as the title says, there are two kingdoms at work in this world. In fact, God originally designed in such a way, when He created both light and darkness and day and night for this earth. That means, there are two things which will be present in this world, they are good and bad. The world we live in is a world of opposites or dual things exist, good and bad, happy and sad, life and death and many others. But, at the end, this will be separated permanently. Good and bad will be separated eternally in new heaven and earth as in Revelation 21. Back to the kingdoms, there are two kingdoms in this world. One is Kingdom of heaven and the other is Kingdom of this world. If there is a kingdom, then there has to be a king. So, Jesus says to Pilate that He is indeed king but His kingdom is not of this world. John 18:37,36. That means, Jesus is the King of Kingdom of heaven. So, who is the Kingdom of this world? Jesus identifies that devil is the King of this world. John 14:30, He says prince of this world is coming and he has nothing in me. Jesus has nothing to do with or nothing common with this prince and it clearly means he is the god of this age, satan.
So, we identified the kingdoms and the kings. But, we may think the kingdom of the world is at present and the kingdom of heaven is coming during the return of Jesus. Though this is true, this is not fully correct. The Kingdom of God (heaven will be established by force when Jesus returns back. But, the Kingdom of God was already established and in force when Jesus came back 2000 years ago. John the baptist and Jesus preached the Kingdom of heaven is near. If you don't believe that, then just check the response of Jesus to Pharisees that Kingdom of God will not come apparently but Kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:20,21. So, when exactly it came? It came in when the King, Jesus was born and the Kingdom was in force from the time when Jesus started His ministry. There is another verse that confirms this work of Jesus brought Kingdom of God to them. But If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Matthew 12:28. Same verse is mentioned in Luke as, But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. Luke 11:20. So, the Kingdom of heaven was at work from the time of Jesus ministry and it was strongly established from the time when Holy Spirit took over the disciples and the Church of Christ was in force from the day of Pentecost.
When Jesus returns back, the Kingdom of the heaven will take over the Kingdom of the world by force. Now, every person who is born and living in this world belong to one of these Kingdoms. When a man born, he is under the kingdom of darkness or this world's kingdom by default. But, when he recognizes the light and come to Jesus Christ, who is the true light of this world, then He is entering the Kingdom of light. This is the only choice we have. Either enter the Kingdom of the Son of God and receive the gift of eternal life or be in kingdom of darkness and perish. God is good that He provided a way for all of us to enter His kingdom through the death and resurrection of His only beloved son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He himself has to bring one to the light.
Jesus Christ, the king of the kingdom of heaven, operated in this world by attacking the opponent king. Though there are two kings, the one is far greater in power and glory than the other one. Jesus is far greater than devil in His power than the devil. The scriptures applies that to us as well. Greater is the one who is in you than the one who is in the world. 1 John 4:4. Wherever Jesus went, the demons ran away. Jesus manifested that power to resurrect the dead. He condemned the evil works of the world. If we carry Jesus with us, are we manifesting the power. We are also supposed to attack the powers of the devil. We should tell about the kingdom of light to the people who are under the power of darkness. That was the mission given to Paul. When Paul explains His mission to king Agrippa, he says Jesus gave him the following mission, "for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee. To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me." Acts 26:16-18. Peter also says the gist of this in his epistle as "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:" 1 Peter 2:9.
Are we able to display the works of the kingdom of heaven ? Are we in kingdom of heaven or kingdom of the world. We can easily identify that. We will do the works of the kingdom that we belong to. If we belong to the kingdom of heaven, we will do the works of the heavenly kingdom and heavenly mission. But, if we do works of darkness, then that means we are under the kingdom of darkness. Following verses talk a great detail about the works of kingdom of darkness. Ephesians 5:3-14. Let's meditate the above verses and about the two kingdoms and work to expand the kingdom of God in these last days.
All glory, honor and praise to God the Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless you and protect you, may the Lord shine your face upon you and provide you His abundant grace. May the Lord make His countenance upon you and provide with you His divine peace through out this year and for the time to come until His return. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
