The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Man

The Conflict
Everyday I feel the pressing temptation, the overbearing seduction to settle for the ordinary, to domesticate my soul and anchor my hopes, my identity, my dreams in the here and now, the kingdom of man. What is the ordinary? The ordinary is gaining the entire world, yet forfeiting my soul. Even if I should indeed gain the whole world--the fame, money, power, status, and the glamor and glory of man that accompany treasures and accomplishments of the kingdom of man, I will have remained ordinary, for to forfeit my soul is to lose everything. Indeed, it would be to not have truly lived at all. I was created for the purpose of knowing God, and to be known by Him. Everything else pales in comparison. I was created to love God--the highest pleasure of eternal measure. I was created to be loved by the infinite, personal God, who is the creator and the embodiment of love. I do not need to gain the whole world. That desire is far from my soul. I desire a King, whose desire is to give me His kingdom. I refuse to settle for anything less.

The Kingdom of God is glorious and majestic beyond all comprehension. However, seen through the lens of the value system of the kingdom of man, it lacks the prestige, glamor, and the worldly beauty that would draw those deeply embedded in the principles of this world.

The kingdom of man values utility--what one can offer, how much one can produce, and to what end. Physical beauty is prized, and when it is objectified in a person, his or her beauty can be commodified and marketed for a profit. And the one whose physical beauty is commodified becomes a resource and tool for the indulgences of others in the lusts of the flesh. If a person works in a reputable field, has a title, salary, and all of the status symbols that accompany that particular lifestyle afforded by the culture surrounding that individual’s social location, then under the value system of the kingdom of man that individual is more impressive, attractive, and desirable in the eyes of others. Take away the material possessions, the luxury vehicles, the home, neighborhood, job, income, status, fashionable clothes, and add 40-50 years to their life along with a chronic illness or two, and that same individual and his or her worth as a human being is perceived quite differently according to the values of the kingdom of man.

The Kingdom of God entered the world with the incarnation--the beneath the radar event of a fragile baby born in a small village town to a poor carpenter and his teenage wife. No pomp, no buzz, no hype save the celebratory announcement from multitudes of angels to a handful of shepherds out in a remote pasture somewhere outside Bethlehem.

Blinded Eyes
The kingdom of man is an infinitely inferior kingdom. Faced with the following choices--the eternal, glorious kingdom of Christ, or this world system that is finite, fleeting, continuously corrupting, and will soon pass away, who in their right mind would choose the latter? A luxury cruise liner or a an old, decrepit, sinking fishing dingy? Under the deception of the spirit of this age, the human race, born into sin, perceives this old fishing dingy--the structures, systems, and philosophies of man--as the ideal, and that indeed nothing could match it or be greater. It represents the ultimate opportunity and expression for living. The only alternative--the infinitely superior alternative, which is Christ and His kingdom--viewed within the deceived, delusional lenses of the kingdom of man would seem far inferior. In the words of humanistic intellectualism preached from the bully pulpits of the university classrooms, belief in Christ and His kingdom is a delusion, an opiate, pre-modern, a myth, an antiquated cosmology that holds back civilization rather than progressing humankind into the scientific utopia made possible with technology, science, and the casting off of the constraints of Biblical religion. “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake” (2 Corinthians 4:3-5).

Seen within the framework and value system of the kingdom of man, the Kingdom of God is not a viable option. The cross of Christ is culturally and intellectually offensive to the carnal mindset. Two kingdoms, two conflicting value systems.

Isaiah 53 speaks to the violent clash of systems which is accelerating and increasing in intensity in our day. “Who has believed our report?” (Isaiah 53:1). Certainly not the majority. Why should they? Might makes right, doesn’t it? Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Who wants to follow a lamb led to the slaughter, who doesn’t open his mouth, and while being reviled, did not revile in return? (Isaiah 53:7, 1 Peter 2:23). To the kingdom of man, weakness is futile. Empty oneself? Foolishness! The chief end of man is to gain the whole world, is it not?

“He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him” (Isaiah 53:2). Whose opinion, whose value system defines what “stately form or majesty” is? Whose definition of “appearance” are we talking about here? Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). The kingdom of man makes the outside of the cup and dish clean, but its inward part is full of greed and wickedness (Luke 11:39). Two kingdoms, two conflicting value systems.

A Strong Delusion
The Roman Empire was at its zenith. The culture of the Jewish temple under the Herodian dynasty was flourishing. It was a cosmopolitan context, an era of progress. In the eyes of the kingdom of man, epic progress abounded. Yet, “He [Jesus] grew up before Him [the Father]...like a root out of parched ground” (Isaiah 53:2). The context out of which Jesus grew up was dry, dying, in desperate need of good news. God viewed the culture of the day severely lacking--a condition of spiritual famine unto death. Despite this, the King of Glory “continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him” (Luke 2:40).

The Jewish people sought out and waited for a Messiah of their own understanding--not an unblemished lamb to remove their guilt, conquer sin and death, and display the glory of God on a Roman cross, but rather a temporal king who would crush their enemies. They would desire to install Jesus as king by force when He fed them with bread that satisfies for a moment, but they would refuse to bow their souls to the King who would feed them with His very flesh and blood.

The problem is that we have a love affair with the kingdom of man. We desire to accommodate our lives to comfortably fit into the parameters of a system that is corrupting and marked for wrath. We love and value money. Yet our gold and silver will rust and will be a witness against us and consume our flesh like fire (James 5:3). We crave fashion and appearance. Yet styles come and go, beauty is fleeting, and garments wear out. Humanity, in its sinful condition, craves the monuments to self, and the glories of reputation, fame, status, power, and wealth. These are sand castles constructed in the pathway of the pounding surf. Humanism posits man as the the end of all things, the measure and standard of the world’s values. It is the philosophy of the kingdom of man. It is the statue in the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar, the glorious statue with a head of gold yet whose composite iron and clay feet are crushed by the Rock of Ages, smashing and bringing the statue down into a dust heap that is blown away like chaff by the wind. But the stone that struck the statue--Christ’s Kingdom--became a great mountain and filled the whole earth (Daniel 2:31-45). God’s kingdom cannot coexist with the spirit of the age. Jesus walked into His Father’s house and cleansed it of money. You cannot serve both God and mammon. Do not allow the world to squeeze you into its mold (Romans 12:2, J.B. Phillip’s paraphrase). Two kingdoms, two conflicting value systems. One is eternal; the other is corrupt, finite, and marked for wrath.

Christ’s temptations in the wilderness was the clash of the two kingdoms. “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work” (John 4:34). This food Jesus spoke of was greater than turning rocks into bread in the wilderness by His own power (Matthew 4:3). It was the sustenance necessary to endure the cross. The King of Glory, lifted high upon a Roman cross, stretched out high on a hill called Golgotha, choosing to hang there until the work He came to accomplish was finished was greater than jumping off the high pinnacle of the temple (Matthew 4:6). The publicity stunt, the temptation to bring glory to man, would be fleeting; the glory of the lifting up of the Son of Man on calvary is eternal. Obtaining all of the kingdoms of the world and their glory by bowing down and worshipping satan is the devouring of Esau’s bowl of stew (Matthew 4:8-9). It is the gaining of the whole world yet forfeiting the soul. Far superior is the Father exalting Christ to an eternal throne, declaring to Him, “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet” (Psalm 110:1).

The Power of Weakness
The perfect humility of Christ was found in His willingness to fully submit Himself to the Father while He walked the earth. To the world it was weakness. However, the reality that in Christ all the fullness of the deity dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9) is a far cry from weakness! It pleased the Father to crush the Son (Isaiah 53:10). That was not weakness. It is the glory of the cross and the power of the resurrection. The kingdom of man thought it had taken Jesus in its own cunning, wisdom, and strength, “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter” (Isaiah 53:7). However, like the sheep who hear the shepherd’s voice and follow, so Jesus followed the Father in perfect obedience and submission as a Son. God Himself provided for the human race the perfect passover lamb. It was not the Roman empire, Caiaphas the High Priest, nor the elders of Israel who led Jesus to the cross. It was Christ Himself, His eyes locked onto the perfect love and will of the Father, following His leading the entire way of the cross. It was not weakness--helplessness and fear at the mercy of the powerful. The cross was the violent crushing of the serpent, the mortal wound inflicted upon head of the lawless one, and the glorious revealing of the mighty right arm of the Lord that saves to the uttermost. “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:13-15). Christ’s Kingdom is not of this world.

The gospel appears like weakness and foolishness in the eyes of the world. Yet the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. The good news is Christ’s Kingdom at hand in this world, eternity eclipsing the finite in this world, the glory of God and His perfect love manifest and made available in this world, a world that is fleeting and fading away. The good news is that “inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14-15). The decision confronting this generation is this: to choose the Kingdom of God or the kingdom of man; to choose life or to choose death; to choose to become a partaker of the divine nature or to partake in the adulteries of this world; to choose the cross of Christ and His sufferings or to gain the whole world yet forfeit your soul.

Written by Frank Obregon

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