The Medical Missionary, vol. 18
April 14, 1909
“The Kingdom of God” The Medical Missionary, 18, 15, pp. 290-292.
ALONZO T. JONES
THE kingdom of God is that realm and dominion, that place and order of authority and government, in which God is king. MEDM April 14, 1909, page 290.1
Where God is king the rule, the authority, the power, the law—the whole order of things—is his alone; else it is not the kingdom of God in truth. In the kingdom of God, God is king of all and in all that is there. Where God is king there is no room for any other authority or law or order of things. He is not king in a divided kingdom; no one can serve two masters. In this it is always God manifest in Christ by the Holy Spirit—the Godhead—that is meant. MEDM April 14, 1909, page 290.2
In the second chapter of Daniel, where in the kingdoms of this world men are seen occupying their little place, playing their little part, and passing away, it is declared that when the kingdom of God shall come all these kingdoms shall be broken to pieces together and become as the chaff of the summer threshing-floor, and the wind carries them away and “no place” is found for them. This makes it plain that where the kingdom of God is there is “no place” for any other. MEDM April 14, 1909, page 290.3
Again it is written, “Then cometh the end, when he (Christ) shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.” This makes it perfectly plain that where the kingdom of God is, and in the presence of the King, all other rule, all other authority and all other power is “put down.” And this is so completely true that the Scripture continues to the effect that when all things shall thus be subdued unto Christ, and all other rule, and all other authority, and all other power, shall have been “put down,” “then shall the Son also himself be subject” to the Father, “that God may be all in all.” MEDM April 14, 1909, page 290.4
It is therefore perfectly plain and certain that the kingdom of God and of Christ is indeed “not of this world,” and is not like any kingdom or anything that is of this world or in this world. And in this mighty contrast between the kingdom of God, and all kingdoms and things that are of this world or in this world—it is there where lies its chiefest benefit and highest blessing. MEDM April 14, 1909, page 290.5
In the kingdoms, and unto the limitations of the kings, of this world it is impossible for the king to be personally and all the time with each person in his kingdom everywhere and all at once. With the kind of men that the kings in this world have mostly been, this is a blessed good thing for the people. But even if all kings of this world were invariably only good and kind and merciful and wise and humble and companionable, and so would gladly be with each person everywhere and all the time, still it would be impossible because of the essential limitations in his being but a man like other men, and so confined to just one place at a time. MEDM April 14, 1909, page 290.6
But God, the one time King, is nothing like that. He is infinite in all relations and in all ways. “Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.” He can be, and he is, with each one personally throughout the whole infinity of his universe, and is personally with each individual everywhere, and with all at once, all the time. “I am with you always.” “I will hold thy hand”; “I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness”; “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee”; “whither shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend into heaven thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light ahead me. The darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” MEDM April 14, 1909, page 290.7
And he is with each one personally everywhere and always, to teach him and to lead him in the way of the kingdom, and to show him the truth and the principles of the kingdom, so that he can be a true and faithful citizen of the kingdom. “I am the Lord thy God that teacheth thee to profit, that leadeth thee in the way that thou shouldest go.” MEDM April 14, 1909, page 290.8
“Thou shalt hear a voice behind thee saying, This is the way, walk ye in it.” MEDM April 14, 1909, page 290.9
And since he is with each one personally to teach and to guide each one personally in the way that he should go, he does not need in his kingdom a lot of satraps or petty sub-rulers, as in kingdoms of this world. And what does any citizen of the Kingdom need of any sub-ruler between him and the King when he has with him all the time the very King himself? “The Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee.... and thou shalt be turned into another man. And let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee; for God is with thee.” “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.” “And they shall be all taught of God.” “The anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you; but the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie.” MEDM April 14, 1909, page 291.1
Again the kingdom of God is unlike the kingdoms of the world, in that in it there is never any ambition for power, nor strife for place, nor exercise nor assertion of authority, nor exaltation of one over another. “There is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all and in all.” He the true and rightful King, is sole Sovereign, Lord, Ruler, Leader and Commander, in, over, and with, each one and all in the kingdom. And He being first King of Righteousness and after that King of Peace, the Kingdom is ever and always, and in and with all, only “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” MEDM April 14, 1909, page 291.2
In the Kingdom of God, on the part of the Governor the principle of the government is, Government with the consent of the governed. “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” “Choose life that ye may live... He is thy life.” “Whosoever will, let him come.” “Behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in.” Among all the infinite numbers in the kingdom there will never be one there other than with his own consent. When all shall be finished pertaining to the kingdom, and “every creature that is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them” shall be heard saying, “Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever,” among them all there can not he found one intelligence who is there without his own consent, in the exercise of his own free choice of the faith of Christ the rightful king. MEDM April 14, 1909, page 291.3
In the Kingdom of God, as pertains to the governed the principle of the government is, self-government. For when God governs each one only upon his own individual choice and consent, and when each one does thus choose to govern himself by God and in God, this is in the strictest sense self-government. And thus each one governing himself, there is no place for any governing or control of one by another. And so again all that is of the Kingdom and in the Kingdom is only “righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” MEDM April 14, 1909, page 291.4
The Kingdom of God is a kingdom of Spirit and in the Spirit God is King, and “God is Spirit.” And “the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” MEDM April 14, 1909, page 291.5
God is King over all, and with all, and in all, and he is “the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” Such is the Kingdom of God on the part of the King who is Spirit. MEDM April 14, 1909, page 291.6
And “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (self-control)”—the love of God which is the keeping of the commandments of God, the joy of the Lord which is your strength, the peace of God that passeth all understanding, the longsuffering of the Lord that is salvation, the gentleness of God that makes great, the goodness of God, the faith of Jesus, the meekness of Christ, the self-control by which a man rules his own spirit and is greater than he that taketh a city. Such is the kingdom of God on the part of the citizens of the kingdom of the Spirit. MEDM April 14, 1909, page 291.7
Therefore, the kingdom of God being all of the Spirit and in the Spirit, and man being of the flesh and in the flesh, “Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God,” but “now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” MEDM April 14, 1909, page 292.1
For though it be forever true that “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for those who love him,” in his kingdom now and evermore, yet it is also true that “God hath revealed them to us by his Spirit.” And “ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit: if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” MEDM April 14, 1909, page 292.2
“Ask, and ye shall receive.” “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” MEDM April 14, 1909, page 292.3