Kingdom Minded

Among conservative, Bible-believing Christians we hear much talk about how to get to Heaven. This is as it should be as far as it goes, for being saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to avoid hell and get to Heaven, what we call a sine qua non, “without which nothing.” Without salvation you have nothing.

We hear much use of the term The Great Commission, and well we should, but the Great Commission says to make disciples of all nations. Disciples are not just people who have been saved, but people who are learners of the Lord Jesus. The word “disciple” means “learner.” They are not just learners about Jesus and about the truth of Jesus, but learners of Jesus: “You did not so learn Christ….” (Eph. 4.20). We all know the difference between knowing about a person and knowing the person. I know about George Washington from my studies of history, but I don’t know George Washington. For all I know he never lived, though I believe he did. I know a lot about Jesus from my studies in the Bible, but do I know him? A disciple is a person who is learning about Jesus and the truth he teaches, but more importantly, he is learning to know Jesus, the person.

There is also a step further: “But now having known God, or rather having been known by God…” (Gal. 4.9; see also Jer. 1.5, Rom. 8.29, 1 Cor. 8.3). What does this mean? In Mt. 7.23, the Lord Jesus said to some who claimed to be his, “I never knew you.” The Lord knows everyone and everything, but he told them he never knew them. It is because there is more than one kind of knowledge, as we have been seeing, knowledge about, and personal, relational knowledge. Those whom God knows have yielded themselves to him and lived in trust and obedience toward him. He has a relationship with them. I know a lot of people, but I have a relationship with only a few. God knows every person, but he has a relationship with only some.

What is the point of all of this? The title of this paper is “Kingdom Minded.” The point is that there is far more to God’s plan for our future than getting to Heaven. So many people seem to stop when they get saved. All they talk about is that they got saved and they are going to Heaven. But that is like a baby being born and then staying a baby all his life. There is a life to be lived. In the same way, salvation is a new birth, a spiritual birth from above (Jn. 3.3, 6, 8), but there is a life to be lived after that. And there is more than just getting to Heaven.

The Bible teaches that at his return, the Lord Jesus will establish a kingdom on this earth, a kingdom of righteousness that will last for a thousand years. It will be what we might call a golden age. I think this is prefigured by Solomon’s reign after the war-torn days of King David in ancient Israel. It is of utmost importance to see that not all saved people will have a place in that kingdom. I do not mean they will not be there, but that the Lord has rewards for his faithful servants that those who have not walked with him in trust and obedience will not share in. We are saved by the free gift of grace through faith. There is no work and no amount of work that we can do to earn salvation. It is not available at any price, but it is free for the asking. But rewards are the result of work. We must prepare for our place in the kingdom by our works as the Lord’s people. We need to be kingdom-minded, not Heaven-minded. Heaven is settled by salvation. Our place in the kingdom has not yet been settled.

This matter of rewards is of utmost importance. Paul tells us in 2 Cor. 5.10, “For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things through the body, for the things done, whether good or bad.” This was written to Christians. Paul elaborates in 1 Cor. 3.12-15:

“But if anyone builds on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, the work of each one will become evident, for the day will reveal it, for it is being revealed by fire. And the work of each one, what sort it is, the fire will test. If the work of anyone remains, what he built, he will receive a reward. If the work of anyone be burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but so as through fire.”

This was also written to Christians.

This concept is also found in the Old Testament. In 2 Sam. 3.39 we read, “May I AM [the English translation of the Hebrew name of God, Ex. 3.14] reward the evildoer according to his wickedness.” This statement shows that evildoers are included in the giving out of rewards and punishments. Ps. 28.4 says, “Give them according to their work, and according to the wickedness of their doings. Give them after the work of their hands. Render to them what they deserve.”

Ps. 62.12 and Prov. 24.12, quoted in Rom. 2.6: “For you render to every man according to his work.” Every man – good and evil.

Eccl. 12.14: “For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it be good or evil.”

And finally, Jer. 17.10: “I, I AM, search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to his conduct, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

In case someone says that this is the Old Testament, take note that we have already quoted 2 Cor. 5.10 and 1 Cor. 3.12-15, and there is more.

Mt. 16.27: “For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will render to each one according to his practice.”

2 Thess. 1.5: “This is proof of the righteous judgment of God for you to be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.” We are not counted worthy of salvation. We are unworthy. Salvation is a free gift to unworthy people. But if we walk with the Lord in trust and obedience, we are counted worthy of the kingdom.

2 Tim. 4.14: “Alexander the coppersmith did me many wrongs. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds.”

Heb. 10.29: How much severer punishment do you think he will be worthy of, the one having trampled underfoot the Son of God and having considered the blood of the covenant common, by which he was sanctified, and having insulted the Spirit of grace?”

1 Pt. 1.17: “And if you call Father the one judging impartially according to the work of each one, conduct yourselves in fear for the time of your sojourn.” Why in fear? Not because we may lose salvation, but because we may lose reward.

Rev. 2.23: “And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches will know that I am the one searching minds and hearts, and I will give to you, each one, according to your works.” These words were written to a church.

Rev. 3.11: “I am coming quickly. Hold fast what you have that no one take your crown.”

Rev. 20.12-13: “And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is of life, and the dead were judged from the things having been written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and hades gave up the dead who were in them, and each one was judged, according to their works.”

Rev. 22.12: “Behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me, to repay each one as his work is.”

Mt. 22.1-14 tells the story of a marriage feast given by a king for his son. When the invited guests would not come, the king said they were not worthy and sent his slaves out to bring in anyone they could find, evil or good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in he saw one man not wearing a wedding garment, and he asked him, “Friend, how did you enter here when you did not have a wedding garment?” The man was speechless and the king had him thrown out with harsh words, “When you have bound him foot and hand throw him out into the outer darkness.” I believe Jesus spoke the next words himself, rather than the king in the story: “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth there, for many are called, but few chosen.”

There is much dispute about the meaning of this story with regard to the man who did not have a wedding garment. Many say that he was not a saved man at all, but was found to be an interloper, as with the weeds and wheat in the parable of the Lord Jesus. If this is true, the outer darkness the man in Mt. 22.1-14 was cast into was hell, but I do not believe that is true. At the end, the weeds in the kingdom will be separated from the wheat. This seems to me to confuse two different periods. The separation of saved and lost (wheat and weeds) occurs at the very coming of Christ (Rev. 14.14-20, where the saved are harvested and the lost, the grapes, are picked and thrown into the winepress of the wrath of God). But the wedding feast occurs in the kingdom after Jesus has touched earth and established his millennial rule. No unsaved person could be there. Those who are alive but lost at the return of Christ are cast into hell at that point (Mt. 25.41, where the lost, the goats, are not nations, but individual Gentiles). The outer darkness the man with no wedding garment was cast into was the darkness outside the wedding hall, not hell.

Some might object that a saved person could not be weeping and gnashing his teeth at the return of Christ. Oh? We looked at 1 Cor. 3.15 earlier in this chapter. Let’s quote it again: “If any man’s work be burned, he will suffer loss, but he will be saved, but so as through fire” (emphasis mine). What does it mean that a Christian, absolutely stated here as saved, will suffer loss? It means he will lose something of value in the millennial kingdom of God on earth. It is in Heaven, after the millennium, that all tears will be wiped away (Rev. 21.4).

In Rev. 19.6-8 we read,

“And I heard as a voice of a great multitude and as a voice of many waters and as a voice of strong thunders saying, ‘Alleluia, for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready.’ And it was given to her that she might clothe herself in linen, bright, clean, and the linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.”

This passage continues the story of the marriage feast in Mt. 22 and shows us what the wedding garment is. It is the righteous deeds of the saints, woven during their lives as the Lord’s people by their faith and obedience. In order to be present at the marriage feast of the Lamb, we must weave our own wedding garment by our righteous deeds. If we do not do so, though we will be saved, we suffer this loss. Presence at the marriage feast of the Lamb in the kingdom is a reward. It can be forfeited by failure to do the righteous deeds of God’s will for our lives. One can be in the darkness outside the wedding feast.

We read of the crowns of life, righteousness, and glory in Ja. 1.12, Rev. 2.10, 2 Tim. 4.8, and 1 Pt. 5.4. These, too, can be forfeited, as we noted in Rev. 3.11 above. These are rewards in the kingdom.

We are not living to get to Heaven, but for the kingdom. We do not need to have our minds on getting to Heaven. That is a settled issue if we have been saved. We need to be kingdom-minded, both doing our part to hasten the coming of the day of God (2 Pt. 3.12), which will bring in the kingdom, and living in faith and obedience to the Lord that we may gain our reward in his kingdom. May the Lord give us grace to do so.

But let me make a final statement: If our purpose in living for the Lord is just to gain a reward, we are missing the point. Our trust in and obedience to God should not be just to get something, but should come out of love to him for all he has done for us, and more importantly, all he means to us.

Copyright © 2019 by Tom Adcox. All rights reserved. You may share this work with others, provided you do not alter it and do not sell it or use it for any commercial purpose. “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10.8). Also you must include this notice if you share it or any part of it.

Old Testament quotations are the author’s updates of the American Standard Version unless otherwise noted. New Testament translations are my own unless otherwise noted.’