Pastor Sola Ogidan
[biblegateway passage=”Matthew 6:9-13″ display=”Matthew 6:9-13″]
There are many kingdoms but across the bible, there are specific places where “the Kingdom” was mentioned and that the kingdom belongs to the Father. At this time there was a manifestation of the kingdom that Israel was expecting because Israel was not yet a kingdom. We will, therefore, consider the kingdom from the angle of the freedom of its citizens. A kingdom is a community where the citizens are free and an understanding of this will help us relate with the operations of the kingdom.
[biblegateway passage=”John 8:32-36″ display=”John 8:32-36″] -Despite the fact, at this time the Israelites were still under the rule of Rome, they still said that they were free. Therefore we cannot talk about kingdom if we do not talk about freedom [biblegateway passage=”Acts 22:27-28″ display=”Acts 22:27-28″]. The word translated as freedom means citizenship or commonwealth. When we talk about the kingdom of God we talk about the conferring of freedom on us.
Basic Things That Constitute the Scope of Our Freedom
- Freedom from sin [biblegateway passage=”Romans 6:12-23″ display=”Romans 6:12-23″]
There are three major instances where it was made mention that we have been made free from sin (Verses 14, 18, 22). If the Kingdom talks about free citizens then we should understand what freedom has God provided for us. There will never be a time that the church will stop talking about the issue of sin. Unfortunately, when sin is mentioned, there is a disorientation that the church have. Presently, the church still talks about sin from the perspective of a victim but we ought to understand sin from the angle of a victor. We should not talk about sin seeing where are coming from but with the understanding of where we are going. One fundamental thing about our freedom in God is that we are free from sin.
The church sometimes talks about the fact that we cannot live without mistakes but that is not the gospel [biblegateway passage=”1 John 2: 1″ display=”1 John 2: 1″]. As much as the father does not want you to sin, there is a still a provision to take of the situation when anyone sins. Of course, this scripture does not give anybody the liberty to sin but says you are not expected to, but in case you do, God has taken care of the situation by the advocacy ministry of Jesus. Paul placed sin and righteousness side by side, which means if it is not sin then it will be righteousness Romans 14:17. The first reality a man experiences when he enters into the kingdom is righteousness. You cannot have the kingdom of God and at the same time have the kingdom of sin.
There have been two major dispensations that we have interfaced with, the law and grace John 1:17. You need to understand that a system has many things that work together. When you talk about the law as a system, you talk about many things. When God talks about the law, He is not talking about the commandments alone. Truly under the law, they received the Ten Commandments but that was not all that they received. The law of sin and death is not the law of Moses. The gentiles were not under the law of Moses but both gentiles and Jews were under the law of sin and death Romans 8:2-3.
The Old Testament commandment was given under a weak system. There was nothing wrong with the commandment but the provision was weak Hebrews 7: 15-19. The system of the Old Testament is characterized by weakness. On the contrary, the kingdom in the New Testament is not weak but supplied with all that it needs to succeed. The commandments in the New Testament are even more than that of the old but God has also given the capacity to fulfil it. It is the same law but different systems. Therefore, the real thing we are celebrating is not the law but the solution that God has provided and that provision is called grace.