In other words, to
be in the kingdom is to live in willing submission to God’s rule.
As we proceed in our study, we must understand two
very important points:
·
God’s kingdom is
founded on covenant.
·
The very essence of
covenant is worked out in relationships.
1. The Importance of
Relationships
-
Our God is a God of relationship.
-
Everything that God created, redeemed and blessed was
with a view to an ongoing relationship with Himself.
-
This is why, when speaking of relationships, the New
Testament never uses sentences like the following:
·
Let’s go to church.
·
I’ll see you at
church next week.
·
Let’s check out
that church.
-
Such terminology tends to make “church” something
separate to the living of one’s life.
-
Consider the following verses of Scripture:
· Romans 12:5 says, “each member belongs to all the others.”
·
Romans 12:10 says, “Be devoted to one another in
brotherly love.”
·
Hebrews 13:1 says, “Keep on loving each other as
brothers.”
·
1 Peter 1:22 says, “love one another deeply, from the
heart.”
-
On the importance of strong relationships, Bryn Jones has
written, “A church is only as strong as people’s relationships. Churches don’t usually collapse because of
doctrinal differences; they fail because of Christian’s failure to relate.”[1]
2. The Covenant Family
-
God’s intention is that His kingdom be filled with
people who are joined together in covenant
relationship.
-
Charles Simpson has pointed out that “The purpose of
covenant is to produce a family.”[2]
-
Since we know that it has been God’s desire from all
eternity to produce a family for Himself (see Titus 2:14), we must understand
that such a family is made possible by the covenant God made available to us in
Christ.
-
Both in the Bible and in secular history, a covenant
brought parties into a bond of family who were not blood relatives
previously. It bound them to each other.
This is why the simplest definition of the word covenant is “to bind
together.”
-
In the Old Testament, one of the chief concerns the
Lord had regarding His people was the condition of their hearts.
-
Deuteronomy 5:29 says, “Oh, that their hearts would be
inclined to fear me and keep my commands always, so that it might go well with
them and their children forever!”
-
From this, we must understand that the ability to keep
covenant begins in the heart. It follows that an inability to keep
covenant reveals a problem in the heart.
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