Chapter 2. What is the Kingdom Life? Christianity does not consist in the fewness of our vices, but in such a thorough change of heart, as makes reverence and holiness the measure and rule of all our emotions. William Law. Believe me, if you will but persevere, you will be forced to confess that one single day of surrender is worth more than a thousand years of worldly life. Francis de Sales.
About a decade ago, I wrote the book The Kingdom That Turned the World Upside Down, which describes the Kingdom of God and many of the Kingdom teachings of Jesus. In that book, I mainly discuss the external commandments of this Kingdom, such as non-resistance, the permanence of marriage, and refusal to take oaths. Those are some of the laws of God's Kingdom. However, in this present work, we will be talking about Jesus and His Kingdom totally possessing us.
When I use the term "The Kingdom Life," I'm referring to something much deeper than just external obedience to Jesus' Kingdom commands. Jesus revealed one of the secrets of the Kingdom Life when He said, "The Kingdom of God is within you." Luke 17:21. The Kingdom Life is something that has to begin inside of us, and it must flow from the heart to the outward applications. In the pages that follow, we're going to be looking at the secrets that enable us to live this life.
When I say "secrets," I don't mean that nobody else knows about the things I'll be sharing. Rather, I'm using "secret" in the dictionary sense of "a method known only to a few." Neither the world, nor nominal Christians, nor those who have bought into easy believism know anything about the Kingdom Life. The Kingdom Life requires Jesus and His Kingdom dwelling inside of us, changing and motivating us from the inside out. When we are born again, Jesus automatically comes to live inside of us.
However, His continuing to dwell in us is not automatic. Jesus explained this when He spoke to the apostles at the Last Supper. "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. And they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. So you will be My disciples. As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." John 15:1-10. Here Jesus explains that the Christian life is one that requires an abiding or continuing relationship with Him. This abiding relationship is obviously not automatic, or there would be no point to what He said.
Whether or not Jesus remains in us depends upon our obedient response to His love. "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." John 15:10. Jesus tells us there is an inseparable link between our obedience and our abiding or continuing in His love. Maintaining this link requires our surrender to Christ. Gelassenheit.
The German medieval spiritual writers used the term Gelassenheit to describe such self-surrender or total abandonment to God. In the 16th century, the Anabaptists espoused this term to describe the Kingdom Life. Anabaptist writer Hans Denck said, "There is no other way to blessedness than to lose one's self-will." It was this Gelassenheit, this total surrender to God's will, that enabled the 16th-century Anabaptists to accept the cross of imprisonment, torture, and often death.
Gelassenheit remained an important concept of the Anabaptists even after the age of persecution ended. The German Pietists also adopted the word to refer to total surrender to God and the joyful acceptance of His will. In short, the Kingdom Life can only be lived by Christians who have totally surrendered themselves to God. Such Christians live no longer for their own personal ambitions. They live wholly for Christ. They think of God in everything they do. They serve God in every way possible.
What I'm calling the Kingdom Life, spiritual writers in the past often called the devout life, the surrendered life, or Christian perfection. They all refer to the same thing: a life totally devoted to God. The Christian who lives the Kingdom Life sanctifies his daily life by doing everything in the name and spirit of Christ. His body may be on earth, but his mind is in heaven.
George MacDonald, 19th-century Scottish pastor and spiritual writer, describes the Kingdom Life in these words: "No man can have the consciousness of God with him and not be content. No man who has not the Father so as to be eternally content in Him alone can possess a sunset or a field of grass or a mine of gold or the love of a fellow creature according to its nature as God would have him possess it. If you are not content, it is because God is not with you as you need Him to be with you.
For you need Him more than your body ever needed food or air. You need Him as much as your soul has ever hungered after joy, peace, or pleasure. The person who loves his fellow man is infinitely more alive than he who tries to exalt himself above others. The person to whom God is all in all, who feels his life roots hidden with Christ in God, this person knows himself to be the inheritor of all wealth, all worlds, all ages, and all essential power. This person has begun to be alive indeed.
For he is in the image of God, and he is ready to partake of the life of the Most High and be alive as he is alive." All of this goes back to creation. We were made in the image and likeness of God. So we can only find true happiness and rest in God Himself and in the very things that God enjoys. In Genesis, God commanded every tree to bear fruit according to its kind. Today, God asks the same thing of us: to bear fruit consistent with the image of God imprinted on our souls.
Without Christ, we cannot possibly bear such fruit. But with Him, we can bear an abundance of fruit. Paul gives a perfect description of the Kingdom Life when he writes, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20. 18th-century English spiritual author William Law writes, "Would you know the blessing of all blessings?
It is this God of love dwelling in your soul and killing every root of bitterness. For bitterness is the pain and torment of every earthly, selfish love. When we live in the spirit of love, all needs are satisfied and all disorders of nature are removed. Life is no longer a burden. Every day is a day of peace. Everything you meet becomes a help to you because everything you see or do is all done in the sweet, gentle element of love." John and the Kingdom Life.
The apostle John describes the Kingdom Life when he writes, "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome." 1 John 5:3. Most Bibles translate this passage as two separate sentences, as I've just quoted above. However, many Christians don't realize that in New Testament koine Greek there were accent marks but no punctuation marks, no periods, commas, colons, or quotation marks. So translators have to make judgment calls as to where to put punctuation marks.
Perhaps the apostle John intended for this passage to read as two separate sentences. However, I think it is more likely that he intended for the passage to say, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome." In other words, we know that we finally love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength when we reach the point that we not only obey all of His commandments, but we also find that they are no longer a burden.
At this point, we've solved the great paradox. The Christian living the Kingdom Life lays down everything for God, totally denying Himself. However, he is so in love with God that he finds such surrender the lightest burden anyone could carry. Christians who live the Kingdom Life don't love God because the Bible commands them to, but because of the new nature inside their souls that reaches out to God in love.
Likewise, they pray continually, read the Scriptures daily, and give thanks in all things, not because God has commanded them to do so, but because their souls cherish being in constant communion with their beloved Maker. Those living the Kingdom Life repent at once of their mistakes, sins, and follies. Again, this is not merely because Scripture commands them to, but because they recognize their spiritual needs and do not want anything to jeopardize their relationship with God.
They know the misery of a sinful and spiritually barren life, and they have no desire to return to it. Surprisingly, however, those living the Kingdom Life often don't have the support of their own brethren.