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Entering into the Kingdom of the Heavens to Gain the Reward |
Week 24 --- Reigning with Christ |
Monday --- Scripture Reading: Rom. 3:24; Heb. 2:5-10; 2 Pet. 1:3-9, 11; Rev. 11:15 |
“For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings” (Hebrews 2:10)
This series of the Daily Food has helped us very much in two points of the utmost importance. The first is that the Christian overcomers will enter into the kingdom to reign with the Lord. The second is related to the light of the fourth day of creation. The Lord has also shown us that the gospel has two aspects: the gospel of grace, which refers to the Lord Jesus as the Son of Man, and the gospel of the kingdom, which deals with Christ as the Son of God.
We initially received the gospel of grace. Through it we were enlightened and saw that we became sinners because of Adam’s disobedience and thus committed sins. However, the Lord Jesus was punished in our place, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed” (Isa. 53:5). He died on the cross in our place. God gave His Son to us freely; this is a tremendous grace (John 1:14; Rom. 3:24).
After we believe in the gospel of grace, we need to receive more light, which takes place through the gospel of the kingdom. This is the light of life, which is definite and causes the life we received when we believed in the gospel of grace to grow. In this way we will attain to the requirements of the standard established by the Lord and will be qualified to reign with Him.
The Bible says that at the end of this age the Lord will make the kingdom of the world—which today is in Satan’s hands and those of his angels—the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ (Rev. 11:15). The coming world will not be ruled by angels (Heb. 2:5-10), but by the mature Christians, that is, by those who have grown in life. Therefore God demands that His life grow in us every day. The more we grow in the divine life, the more we will have of the divine nature.
Therefore, the Epistle of Second Peter portrays the virtues that will be added to us, one by one (1:5-7). These virtues must be developed so that there may be a progressive transformation in us the same way it happened in the apostle Peter, who was a good model for us.
At the beginning of His ministry, the Lord told Peter to follow Him, and He gave him a specific commission: “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men” (Luke 5:10). Peter passed through many situations while he was following the Lord, and in each one of them he was more enlightened and realized his true condition. At these times we believe he repented and realized how much he was still a natural person and was short of the Lord.
In the same way today, we have been continually enlightened by the Lord. So we must be willing to receive more of His light and repent and recognize when our soul-life is active, that we might renounce it. Thus, the divine life will grow in us little by little until we reach the necessary maturity that will allow us to reign with the Lord in the coming age.
Being enlightened in order to deny the soul-life.
To whom will the Lord deliver the government in the coming world?