The Kingdom in Word, and the Kingdom in Power
’ For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.” — 1 Cob. iv. 20.
These words were written in connection with a particular question about discipline, which arose in the Church of Corinth; but they teach a doctrine for all places and all times. This method prevails throughout the Scriptures. The seeds of universal truth grow on the actual incidents of human history. Such a union of the concrete and the abstract is best both for the understanding and the memory. As seed, attached at first to an individual plant and afterwards set free, is carried on the currents of air or ocean to germinate in every land; those apostolic utterances which, in their origin, adhered to persons and places, were cast loose upon the tide of time, that they might grow into fruits of righteousness wherever and whenever they should fall upon a kindly soil. Accordingly, we violate no law in proceeding at once to explain and apply the doctrine which the text contains, without taking further notice of the circumstances from which it sprung. Such a word as this you may sever from the context as freely and as safely as you sever a ripened seed from the withered stalk that bore it. “The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power;” that truth is the same to us, whatever dispute among the Corinthian converts may have given Paul occasion to record it. In the New Testament many intimations are made regarding the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven. As to the manner of its advance, it “cometh not with observation;” as to its site, it is within the hearts of its subjects; as to its substance, it is “not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost;” as to its progress from small beginnings to ultimate greatness, it is like a mustard seed sown in the ground, or leaven hid in the meal. No wonder that the Scriptures have much to say about the kingdom; Christ is its King, Christians its subjects, and the Bible its law; earth is its battle-field, and heaven its home of rest.
Consider —
I. Negatively, and chiefly with a view to doctrinal exposition. What is the distinction between the kingdom in word, and the kingdom in power?
II. Positively, and chiefly with a view to practical application, What is the kingdom in power?
I. What is the distinction between the kingdom in word, and the kingdom in power?
Generally, in regard to this subject, three conditions, are possible: True religion, false religion, and no religion; and three corresponding classes actually exist in the world. The truth, accordingly, must be distinguished from two species of antagonists: Idolatry, and Worldliness. In idolatry there is power, but it is not the kingdom of
God; in worldliness the name of the kingdom is admitted, but its power is denied. Briefly, the one is power without the kingdom, the other is the kingdom without the power.
Those of human kind who do not submit to the Lord and his Anointed, branch off into two streams. One division adopts a falsehood, and intrusts it with real power; the other division makes a profession of the truth, but a profession only. Those plainly say, “We will not have this man to reign over us;” these salute him king with their lips, but obey another in their lives. Such are the two constituent streams of the world’s great flood; where there is power in religion, Christ is not confessed; where Christ is confessed, there is not power in religion.
In contrast with either form of error, the church of the living God is distinguished by the union of truth and power. Christians proclaim the right King, and render to him a real obedience. False appearances abound. A word-kingdom destitute of power, overspreads the land, and deceives the people. True Christians are much wanted in these days. The world needs them; the Lord needs them.
Our lot has fallen on an age that tends strongly to the material. The spiritual does not occupy a large place in the nineteenth century; neither the human, nor the divine. The mass of mankind gravitate towards matter. It is this that has enabled the Romish Church to obtain a species of revival: it is this that has enabled Romanizers in England to make so much head. The advance is due not to the aggresso/s inherent power, but to the feebleness of the defence. The age, engrossed with matter, did not supply enough of true spiritual food, and the appetite, unsatisfied, fastened greedily on falsehood. In animated nature there is an appetite for both food and drink: food alone will not satisfy. The creatures must have drink; and if you do not supply them with clean water, they will take foul. In like manner there is in human nature a craving for both the material and the spiritual. When in the spiritual department there is a lack of healthful provision, men quench their thirst from poisonous streams. Many of those who venture to sip a little superstition, diluted and toned down to British taste by pretentious Scotch or English apostolics, are caught and carried over ere they are well aware into the rank idolatry of Rome; as many, through an analogous bodily appetite, become in rapid succession tasters, tipplers, drunkards.
The fashion has been to admit without dispute a form of sound words, allowing them a place in our creed, but not a power in our lives. Like bladders full of air, these hereditary professions occupy all the space, and are easily carried. To a great extent the kingdom of God has been owned, but the word which owns it is an empty word. Men will not bear the burden of a real kingdom — will not submit to the authority of a real king. The people of this country, and more especially those who, through birth, or wealth, or political opportunity, occupy its highest places, truly desire to be accounted Christians, and yet few are willing to be servants of Chiist. They hold the truth, but the truth is not permitted to hold them. They remain their own masters, and do not abandon themselves to the will of a superior. They consent to bear and wear true religion as the seemliest moral costume that has ever predominated in any country, or any age; but, in point of fact, they do not permit true religion to grasp their hearts, and guide their lives, and carry them whithersoever it will.
Hence, a characteristic of our Protestant country has been, that while in its high places the kingdom of God is not disowned, it is kept there as a poor relative, without consideration or influence. So good is her title, and so high her birth, that our character would suffer if she were cast out; therefore her presence is endured, and her expenses paid. But she is expected not to interfere in the management of the house, and to keep out of the way when her presence would be disagreeable to the company. Hence the opinion which Papists sincerely entertain, and the reproach which they continually cast on Protestants, that their religion is the nearest possible approach to infidelity. Those who allow falsehood to wield the real power of their life, are acute enough to perceive that we do not so surrender ourselves to the truth which we profess.
In the long run, and in the nature of things, materialism must succumb. Matter yields to spirit, whether the spirit of truth, or the .spirit of falsehood. Ideas are more powerful than armies. If spiritual truth is not permitted to animate and control our age and nation, we must lay our account with a slavery to spiritual error. A living superstition gradually overcomes, and ultimately destroys a lifeless form of sound words, however stately, as ivy first covers, and then casts down the withered stump of the most majestic oak; but the truth in power withstands and throws back all the assaults of falsehood, as the great and growthful tree keeps down, or kills off the parasite that tried to climb its stem. Our conflict is not with flesh and blood; it is with “spiritual wickedness in high places.” On that battle-field, and against that adversary, our mechanical superiority is not available: we shall lose the day unless we can oppose to spiritual falsehood spiritual truth.
11. What is the kingdom in power?
1. The instrument of this power is revealed Truth. Although the word may be present without power, whereever the power is put forth, it employs the word as its instrument: although the letter is sometimes dead, it is by that letter, when it lives, that all the real work is done. The Scriptures, in relation to the kingdom of God, constitute the lade which contains and conveys the water. That channel does not put forth the power which propels the machinery; but, without it, the machinery could not be propelled. In this Protestant land, many men and women, old and young, are like water wheels standing still, with well - cut dry channels abutting on the buckets. The channels are useless, and yet not useless. They cannot act instead of water; but they are precious to hold and convey the water when it comes. When the Spirit is poured out like floods upon the dry ground, the activity and fruitfulness of the church in this country will be very great, because of the scriptural education which prevails. Let not the diggers of these channels weary of the work, or intermit the longing look to heaven for the shower which will make the work effectual: pains and prayers are our part, and a” faithful Creator ‘’ is ready to perform his own.
2. The essence of the power is Christ. Christ crucified is “the power of God” (1 Cor. i. 24). Here is the fountain-head of all the force, which, through the preaching of the truth, can be brought to bear upon the hearts and lives of men. The word and ordinances stand ready to convey the power, but the redemption that is in Christ is the power which must be led to men’s hearts, and let on. If this do not move them, they will never be moved. Unless the love of Christ constrain a man to yield himself unto God, he will, without restraint, give himself over to work all iniquity with greediness.
This power moves man, not God. Those who deny or dislike the atonement, cannot see, or will not observe this plain distinction. The doctrine of substitution, they say, represents God as a monarch destitute of mercy, refusing pardon to the sinful, until the blood of the innocent has appeased his wrath. They think that in the evangelical system, the blood of Christ is represented as the power that moves God to forgive sin. There could not be a greater mistake. By turning the truth upside down they have turned it into a lie. The atonement offered by Christ is not the cause, but the effect of God s mercy. God is love; and the gift of his Son is the greatest out -flow from that fountain-head. Infinitely, eternally, unchangeably merciful, the one living and true God would have been although no substitute had suffered, and no sinner been redeemed. Mercy provided the sacrifice, in order that divine righteousness might be honoured, and the sinful forgiven.
Thus the atonement constitutes the power, by opening a way through which the love of a just God may reach the unjust. There is no winning power in the terror of the Lord. That end of the magnet repels; and yet an attractive virtue lies in the magnet. In the gospel of his Son the just God turns his forgiving love towards sinful men. Those who are caught by the unseen current are drawn near and held fast. All the principalities and powers of heaven and earth could not separate them” from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’’ You might as soon break the cord that holds a planet in its path, as that which keeps saved men hanging upon God their Saviour.
3. The application of the power is effected by the ministry of the Spirit. Before his own ascension, our Lord promised the Spirit, and explained the nature of his work; “He shall glorify me: for he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” At the day of Pentecost the promise was conspicuously fulfilled. Then the kingdom came in power to a multitude who had previously known it in word only. From that day to this, with a ministry sometimes silent and invisible as the dew, and sometimes terrible as a tempest, the same Spirit has been working in the world. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord lifts up a standard against him. Thus Christ’s kingdom is maintained until he come again.
4. The effects of this power are great and various.
(1.) It Subdues. At the set time the boldest rebel must bow before it. It seizes Saul on his way to Damascus, and in a moment lays him prostrate on the earth. It makes him blind, and again gives him light. It strips him of his own righteousness, and forthwith clothes him in another. The soldier is compelled to change his side, and without even putting off his armour marches under another Captain to fight another foe. The conquest, as might have been expected, is more complete than any which earthly powers can achieve. Those who can look only on the outward appearance must be content with bodily service; but it is the peculiar attribute of this kingdom to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. x. 5). The whole man is reckoned a fortress in revolt, and the multitude of his thoughts the teeming population: by a resistless onset the king takes possession of the place, and all the defenders faU into his hands. Thoughts are arrested as well as actions: the will is conquered, and the life accordingly turned at its source. Other monarchs rule men’s actions; Christ is King of thoughts.
(2.) It Comforts. The child Jesus is set both for the fall and the rising again of all his own (Luke ii. 34). It was a true instinct that stirred in believing men when they said in a time of trouble, “Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind ns up” (Hosea vi. 1). When a man has been taught by the Spirit to count his own righteousness filthy rags, he soon hears a still small voice saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him, I will clothe thee with change of raiment” (Zech. iii. 4). When the law of God in the conscience has quenched the light of nature s confidence, blessed hope, kindled by a spark from heaven, soon begins to struggle, like smoking flax, in the desolated breast. It is a characteristic grace of the King that he will not quench it: he will cherish it till it burst into a flame. It is a wonderful display of divine power in the cross of Christ that it can make a sinner sing when the judgment-seat is near, without hiding either his own unworthiness or the righteousness of God. It is as much the peculiar prerogative of royalty to make peace, as to declare war. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto 3’ou; not as the world giveth, give I unto you.” These are kingly words; only One has the right to use them.
(3.) It levies Tribute. This is the sure mark of a real kingdom. In the days of James YI. the actual monarch of Britain claimed to be also king of France. “King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland” was his title. The iron and miry clay are mingled there. In France his kingdom consisted in word only; in Britain and Ireland it came in power. Here tribute flowed into the royal treasury from every portion of the country, and from all classes of the people; there not a penny was paid. Christ’s kingdom, wherever it is real, puts forth the taxing power. Tribute bearing the image and superscription of earthly kings flows into its treasury to maintain its machinery and extend its bounds; but the self of the subject is the coin in which the King best likes the tribute to be paid. When a question regarding the royal revenue comes up for solution, the demand is not, Show me a penny, but, Show me a renewed man. Whose image and superscription hath he? God’s, for into that blessed likeness he has been restored in the regeneration. Render, therefore, unto God the things that are God’s: yield yourselves as instruments of righteousness, whereby the operations of the kingdom may be carried on: ye are not your own: he who bought you claims not only yours, but also you.
With a view to a suitable lesson vdth personal application at the close, I now request you to examine impartially whether the kingdom of God within yourselves is a word merely, or a supreme power. It is certain that our spirits are subject to a controlling power as well as our bodies. We are all under authority. A kingdom in word cannot cast out the strong man who holds hereditary sway in the sinful. The substance of the kingdom of darkness is more powerful than the shadow of the king — dom of light. If we have not been made free by yielding, to the kingly power of Christ, we are still in bondag*e to» the god of this world. The question is not, Which spisii of the legion rules you? Covetousness, pride, envy, anda. long list of kindred lusts, are ranged on one side, while Christ stands alone on the other. If any of these stiE maintain a controlling power in your heart, the allegianceprofessed with the* lip to another King will avail you
nothincr.
The body of a man cannot maintain an independent place in the material world; it must lie with all its weight on something greater than itself The earth grasps us by the law of gravity, and holds us helplessly on its surface. Constant and complete is the control which this kingdom of nature exercises over us. Although the earth on which we stand were dissolved, and reduced to nothing, a man could not physically be a world for himself Other bodies in space would attract him according to their nearness and their bulk. Although he were left at first in equilibrium on the border line between two worlds, one would soon obtain preponderance. Towards it he would fall, and on it he would lie, unless and until a greater force should remove him.
The spirit of man is subject as much as the body, although its subjection is not a seen thing. The human soul is not, and cannot be, a god unto itself: by necessity of nature it must worship another: around some spiritual centre it must revolve. It may be that some are, in point of fact, for a time hovering on the confines of two opposite worlds. The kingdom of light may have begun to grasp, while the kingdom of darkness has not yet let go the man. Two real powers — the power of God and the power of evil — are contending for possession. The captive of the one or of the other must a human spirit be. There is such a thing as a borderer halting between these two kingdoms; but he does not halt always — he does not halt long there. While he stands quivering in the balance, sensible that redeeming love is drawing, but refusing to throw himself absolutely over into its power, the world holds him yet by a bond unbroken, and will suck back into its bosom all its own.
What is your position, brother? It is not enough to say that you are not wallowing in the mire of manifold lusts; you may be far removed from the vicious, and yet be as completely subject to the same spiritual power. The men who soar in a balloon among the clouds are as perfectly controlled by the earth’s attraction as the men who heavily trudge on foot along the miry road below; soon, and perhaps suddenly, the lofty will be on a level with the low. Such, and no greater, is the difference between the more and the less reputable of those who live without God in the world. The movement upward from the earth, which is made by aid of earth’s own powers and laws, will neither go far nor last long: if you are not caught and carried off by a power in heaven, the earth will soon have you on its bosom again. As long as a soul remains in the power of its old centre, a few degrees more or less of elevation in the standard of conventional morality will not decisively affect the final issue. A word will not avail. The kingdom that does not exert supreme controlling power is not a kingdom. In whose power does the soul actually lie? On that hinge turns all our time — all our eternity.
If the sun, while its grasp of the earth by gravity remained the same, were otherwise so changed that all its rays should be darts of death, the only hope for our world would be to escape from the sway of the destroyer. A method of deliverance can be at least conceived easily. Let the suffering planet forsake its orbit, and flee toward some other of the suns that people space; it would then revolve round another centre, and bask in another light. The passage of a human spirit from the power of Satan into the kingdom of God is a real event, as great and as decisive as the supposed transference of a peopled planet to the sphere of another sun. If there should not be in all cases the power of precisely observing and recordiug the moment when the border line between death and life is crossed, there ought at least to be a well-defined and clearly seen distinction between living under the power of darkness and a translation into the kingdom of God’s dear Son.
On the Sabbath, when you leave your labour behind, and worship with your fellows in the house of prayer, or in the silence of night within your own dwelling, when you kneel alone to pray, which kingdom retains the control of your heart? Does the love of Christ hold you, as the sun holds this planet in its power? If the new kingdom has not gotten the command, the old kingdom has not lost it. A kingdom in word cannot wreneh you from the gTasp of this world’s god. The word of the kingdom may tingle in your ears every Sabbath for a lifetime, and you, nevertheless, lie in the wicked one. There is only one way of deliverance, and that is by a simple and unreserved personal surrender to the power of Christ’s kingdom — to Christ its King.
Whether do you keep Christ in yom- power or lie in his? Strange question, you will say; how could we keep
Christ in our power although we would? True, you cannot ascend into heaven and drag Messiah from his throne; but those who are determined to have Christ at their disposal take not the power but the word, and make it lie where it will disturb them least. Some persecutors, when the victim is beyond their reach, dress and execute his effigy. Thus some who are called Christians treat Christ. They keep a lifeless image which bears his name, leaving it outside the door while they entertain company within, and subjecting it to a thousand indignities. The name and the garb they will endure, but not the life or power. In order to carry out a certain political system, the British Government maintained a personage at Delhi in royal state, with royal titles; but they crushed their own creature as soon as he tried to be a real king. It is thus that the same persons who bow the knee and cry, Hosanna! before the Christian religion, crucify Christ because he claims to be a King. The struggle of rebellion is painful; but simple, trustful, loyal obedience is sweet. Those who have surrendered without reserve to the Redeemer’s claim of sovereignty, bear witness willingly that ills yoke is easy and his burden light.