Kingdom Disciples

In Romans , Paul presents his most detailed explanation of the “Good News of God,” a message centered on His Son, Jesus Christ. He was dealing with conflicts between Gentile and Jewish believers in the Assembly of Rome and preparing the ground for taking the Gospel to the western regions of the Roman Empire. In the process of doing so, he addressed several related topics, including death, redemption, the Law, resurrection, and the New Creation.

Humanity is divided into two and only two groups – The followers of the Lamb or subjects of the Beast . In the Book of Revelation , every human being is either “ Tabernacling in Heaven ” or included among the “ Inhabitants of the Earth .” These descriptions are not geographical or spatial. They reflect the allegiance of either group. A man or woman either belongs to “ Heaven ” or to the “ Earth .” Those who “ Tabernacle in Heaven ” elect to “ follow the Lamb wherever he goes ” no matter the cost, but the “ Inhabitants of the Earth ” are enslaved by the “ Dragon ” and await a grim fate.

The final paragraph of Chapter 3 in his Letter to the Galatians is pivotal to Paul’s larger argument. It stresses the oneness of God’s people. In the covenant community, the old social divisions that existed under the Mosaic legislation are inappropriate since the promised “ Seed of Abraham ” has arrived, namely, Jesus of Nazareth. In the covenant community, “ there can be neither Jew nor Greek .”

Jesus sent his twelve disciples to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom throughout the region. In the Gospel of Mark , this incident is followed by the execution of John the Baptist. His death serves as a warning to the would-be disciple that rejection will inevitably follow his or her decision to follow Jesus of Nazareth no matter where he leads. To walk in his footsteps, one must first COUNT THE COST to have any hope of seeing the journey through to the end.

When the subject of the Second Coming is raised, inevitably, the question of what “sign” or “signs” will precede it is asked, and invariably, wars, earthquakes, tsunamis, famines, and similar catastrophes are pointed to as harbingers of the End. But Jesus himself gave us the definitive answer to this question, namely, the completion of the mission of the Church to proclaim his Good News of his Kingdom to all the nations of the Earth.

Human society and institutions are part of Babylon’s domain, but God is summoning His children to separate from her . Scripture teaches the followers of Jesus to live as people who are distinct from the world. Not physically, but morally and spiritually separate from the “ forms ” and ideologies of the present evil age. They are to be “ in the world but not of it .” Their mission is to call other men and women to “ save themselves from this crooked generation ” before Jesus arrives in glory and judges the world.