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Lewis Sperry Chafer Collection: Chafer, Lewis Sperry - The Kingdom In History And Prophecy: Part 4.1 - THE KINGDOM OFFERED

"The book of the generation (genea, nationality or line of descent, cf. Mat_24:34) of Jesus

Christ, the Son of David, the son of Abraham." Although, in this Gospel, JESUS is presented

as the "son of Abraham" in sacrificial death, the primary purpose of the writer is to set forth the

nation's King. This being the only office that is ever assigned to a "Son of David."



The tracing of the divinely appointed Kingdom thus proceeds from the Old Testament into the

New without a change other than the appearance of the long expected King, accompanied by His

forerunner, whose predicted ministry had occupied the closing words of the Old Testament

revelation. There is no break in the narrative.



The fact that JESUS was David's Greater Son, the fulfiller of all the nation's Kingdom blessings

is not based on human opinion. It was announced by the angel Gabriel before the birth of

CHRIST as recorded in Luk_1:31-33 :



"And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall 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 for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end."



This treats distinctly of the "Throne of David" over the "House of Jacob," and proclaims of this

Kingdom that "there shall be no end."



No Gentile blessings are in view here; nor need the Gentiles seek to intrude. Gentile blessings

will eventually flow out of this very throne; but these are not in view, nor are any Gentile

blessings endangered by a. faithful recognition of this distinctly Jewish purpose. The same is

clearly stated in Rom_15:8 : "Now this I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the

circumcision (Israel) for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers."



He did not come to annul those promises; but He did come to confirm them. The promises made

unto the fathers are well defined: no promises were made to Gentiles. The term "the fathers" can

mean none other than GOD's chosen men of Israel. By these promises Israel was to be redeemed

and placed in her own land and that by Immanuel who should be the final Prophet, Priest and

King. He should be her King over her covenanted Kingdom.



These promises made unto the fathers were this nation's only hope, as is clearly indicated: "We

trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel." "Lord, wilt thou at this

time restore again the Kingdom unto Israel?"



In CHRIST, then, the Kingdom covenant made to David had its confirmation as well, it being

one of the promises made unto the fathers. How certainly that covenant must stand to-day!



It is recorded of JESUS that He was "born King of the Jews" (Mat_2:2). To this throne He

made final claim at His trial (Mat_27:11). And under this accusation He suffered (Mat_27:29) and died (Mat_27:37). One needs only to search the Scriptures to discover the fact

that He is never mentioned as King of the church, nor King of the nations until He comes again

as "King of kings, and Lord of lords" (Rev_19:16).

He fulfilled every prediction that described Israel's Messiah King and the manner of His coming,

at a time when all the records and genealogies were intact.



He came of the tribe of Judah, a Son of David, born of a virgin in Bethlehem of Judea. Such

claims could not then be made by an impostor without arousing the violent opposition of the

rulers of the nation. His claim to be King was never challenged, so far as title was concerned. He

met every prediction concerning Israel's Immanuel King. He was that King.



Four centuries before the birth of JESUS Malachi had prophesied the coming of a forerunner to

the King:



"Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day

of the LORD: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the

children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse" (Mal_4:5-6).



This had a certain fulfillment in John the Baptist according, again, to angelic testimony:



"But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife

Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. And thou shalt have joy

and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the

Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy

Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to

the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the

hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make

ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Luk_1:13-17).



Thus also another Messianic claim was. met in the faithful ministry of John.



The first message of this divinely foreseen witness is recorded thus:



"In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, Repent

ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mat_3:1-2).



This, too, was the first message recorded of CHRIST:



"From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at

hand" (Mat_4:17).



So, again, it was the only message committed to His disciples when He first sent them forth to

preach:



"These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the

Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of

the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand"

(Mat_10:5-7).



This message, it will be seen, had no application to Gentiles:

The messengers were to go "only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." It can scarcely be

unnoticed that while every detail of the manner of their journey was subject to the most careful

instruction by the King, there is no record of instruction having been given them as to the

meaning of this first, or Kingdom, message committed to them.



Evidently they did not need such instruction concerning the Kingdom.



- had not the Kingdom hope been passed from father to son for generations?

- had it not been sung to them at their mother's knee?

- had it not been the one great theme of the synagogue instruction?

-was it not their national hope?

How much in contrast to this was the prolonged inability on the part of these same disciples to

grasp, later on, the new message and world-wide commission of the Cross!



This focusing of the testimony of JESUS, of John and of the disciples upon one solitary message,

"The kingdom of heaven is at hand," places that message under unusual emphasis and its

actual meaning should be carefully considered.



The phrase "The kingdom of heaven" is found only in Matthew, the Gospel of the King, and

there it appears with different shades of meaning.



One only of these shades of meaning is used in Chapters 1 to 12 of this Gospel. Here it seems to

refer to the Same earthly Davidic Kingdom with which the Old Testament had closed. As has

been stated, whatever was meant by this announcement of the "kingdom of heaven," it was

clearly understood by the preachers who proclaimed it and by the hearers.



No other Kingdom message could have thus been received by those people in that day. So, also,

it was addressed to one nation, Israel, and to them as a whole, rather than to individuals. Thus the

"kingdom of heaven" as a message must ever be distinguished from the message of the gospel

of grace which came by the Cross.



The gospel of grace Israel, as a nation, has never understood, and it is addressed to all peoples

and to them as individuals only. The message of the "kingdom of heaven" as first set forth by

Matthew had, therefore, a limited and national meaning,- limited as to time of its application,

because a new message has come in; and national, because, for the time being, it was addressed

to Israel alone.



The message of the "kingdom of heaven" did not concern itself so much with the Person of the

King as it did with His Kingdom. But Israel had never dreamed of a Kingdom apart from the

presence and power of the expected King. Thus JESUS could say of Himself, in the light of the

accepted close relation between the Person of the King and His Kingdom: "The kingdom of

God is within you" ("in the midst," in the Person of the King, Luk_17:21).



To assert the imminency of the Kingdom was, to them, to assert the imminency of the King.

This Kingdom message conforms in another respect, also, to the conditions of the Old Testament

Kingdom.



There must be a great national heart-turning, or repentance to GOD as an immediate preparation

for the Kingdom as seen in the Old Testament (Deu_30:1-3; Isa_24:7; Hos_3:4-5;

14:7; Zec_12:10 -13:1; Mal_3:7). Repentance, therefore, became an imperative part of

the message concerning the imminency of the Kingdom.



So each of these Kingdom messengers called upon that nation to repent:



-"a generation of vipers" must "bring forth fruits meet for repentance."

- they must turn about in heart as a condition of this covenanted Kingdom blessing.

This they, by His grace, are yet to do, "in His time." It is to be regretted that this required

national repentance of Israel has been so often misapplied as a necessary preliminary step in an

individual's salvation by Grace.



As certainly as the message of the "kingdom of heaven" was a claim upon the nation's hope, so,

also, the rule of life presented in connection with this claim by both John the Baptist and

CHRIST was in harmony with the Old Testament Kingdom rule of life.



The Kingdom as foreseen in the Old Testament had ever in view the righteousness in life and

conduct of its subjects (Isa_11:3-5; 32:1; Jer_23:6; Dan_9:24).



The" kingdom of heaven" as announced and offered in the early part of Matthew's Gospel is

also accompanied with positive demands for personal righteousness in life and conduct. This is

not the principle of grace: it is rather the principle of law. It extends into finer detail the law of

Moses; but it never ceases to be the very opposite of the principle of grace.



- law conditions its blessings on human works: Grace conditions its works on divine blessings.

- law says: "If ye forgive, ye will be forgiven," and in that measure only (Mat_6:14-15):

while grace says: "Forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you"

(Eph_4:32).

-so, again, law says: "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the

Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven" (Mat_5:20).

This is not a present condition for entrance into Heaven.



Present conditions are wholly based on mercy: "Not by works of righteousness which we have

done, but by his mercy he saves us" (Tit_3:5).



So the preaching of John the Baptist, like the Sermon on the Mount, was on a law basis as

indicated by its appeal which was only for a correct and righteous life:



"Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of

vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits

worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our

father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto

Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the roots of the trees: every tree therefore

which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. And the people

asked him, saying, What shall we do then? He answered and said unto them, He that hath

two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise.

Then came also publicans to be baptized, and said unto him, master, what shall we do?

And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is appointed you. And the soldiers

likewise demanded of him, saying, And what shall we do? And he said unto them, Do

violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely; and be content with your wages" (Luk_3:7-14).





This, like the Sermon on the Mount, is an appeal for a righteous life and cannot be confused with

the present terms of salvation without nullifying the grounds of every hope and promise under

grace. The present appeal to the unsaved is not for better conduct: it is for personal belief in, and

acceptance of, the Saviour. There are directions concerning the conduct of those who are saved

by trust in the Saviour; but these cannot be mixed with the law conditions of the Old Testament,

or the New, without peril to souls. Later on the same people said to CHRIST:



"What shall we do that we might work the works of GOD?" and to this He replied: "This is

the work of GOD that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" (Joh_6:28-29), John the Baptist

looked forward to the blessings of grace when he said: "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh

away the sin of the world"; but his immediate demands were in conformity with pure law, as

were the early teachings of JESUS.



Thus the legal principles of conduct of the Old Testament Kingdom are carried forward into the

revelations of the same Kingdom as it appears in the New Testament.



The right division of Scripture does not destroy these legal passages; but it does fully classify

them with the other Scriptures relating to the Kingdom, both in the Old Testament and the New.

There are many elements found in this body of truth that, indicate the required manner of life in

the kingdom: which will be found likewise under the consistent walk in grace; but whatever is

carried forward to be a life-governing principle under grace is there restated in its own place and

with its own new emphasis. Thus the two widely differing systems are meant to be kept distinct

in the mind of the faithful student of GOD's Word.



It should be borne in mind that the legal Kingdom requirements as stated in the Sermon on the

Mount are meant to prepare the way for, and condition life in, the earthly Davidic Kingdom

when it shall be set up upon the earth, and at that time when the Kingdom prayer, "Thy kingdom

come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven," has been answered.



These Kingdom conditions appear in the early ministry of JESUS since He was at that time

faithfully offering the Messianic Kingdom to Israel.



It has been objected that such stipulations as:



-"resist not evil";

-"if one shall smite you on the one cheek";

-"one shall compel you to go a mile"; and

-"persecutions for righteousness' sake,"

could not be possible in the Kingdom.



This challenge may be based upon a supposition that the earthly Messianic Kingdom is to be as

morally perfect as Heaven.



On the contrary, the Scriptures abundantly testify that, while there will be far less occasion to

sin, for the sufficient reason that Satan is then bound and in a pit and the glorious King is on His

throne, there will be need of immediate execution of judgment and justice in the earth, and even

the King shall rule, of necessity, with a "rod of iron." It is said that "all Israel shall be saved"

and "all shall know the Lord from the least even unto the greatest"; but it is also revealed that

at the end of that millennium, when Satan is loosed for a little season, he is still able to solicit the

allegiance of human hearts and to draw out of the multitudes within the Kingdom an army for

rebellion against the government of the King (Rev_20:7-9).



In that Kingdom age "a sinner being an hundred years old shall be cursed" (Isa_65:20).

The saints of that age will doubtless have Heaven before their eyes and be looking there for their

reward. And they will be the "salt of the earth."



These Kingdom commands and principles were given to Israel only and it is that same distinct

nation that shall stand first in that Kingdom when it is set up in the earth. JESUS was first "a

minister to the circumcision," and is it an unnatural interpretation of Scripture to understand

that He was performing this divinely appointed ministry at that very time when He was offering

the Kingdom to that nation and when He, with His forerunner, was depicting the principles of

conduct that should condition life in that Kingdom? Nothing is lost by such an interpretation; on

the contrary, everything is gained, for the riches of grace, which, alas, so few apprehend, are thus

kept pure and free from an unscriptural mixture with the Kingdom law.



It may be concluded that the term" kingdom of heaven" as used in the early ministry of JESUS

referred to the Messianic, Davidic, earthly Kingdom seen in the Old Testament.



As has been noted, the Jewish preachers needed no instruction in the details of that message. It

was the hope of their nation, and it was addressed to that nation alone. So, also, an appeal was

made with this message for the anticipated national repentance which must precede the setting

up of their Kingdom in the earth, and the requirements set forth were legal rather than gracious.

Israel's Kingdom was faithfully offered to them by their King at His first appearing.



~ end of chapter 4 ~



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