Charles Hodge
In the account of the final judgement in Matthew 25:31-46, we are told that the King shall “say to those on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
1. In the Old Testament it was predicted that God would set up a kingdom which was to be universal and everlasting.
2. Of this kingdom the Messiah was to be the head.
He is everywhere in the Old Testament set forth as a king. (See Gen 49:10; Num 24:17; 2 Sam 7:16; Is 9:6,7; 11; 52; 53; Mic 4; Pss 2; 45; 72; 110.)
3. It is called in the Scriptures, indifferently, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of the Son of Man (Mt 13:41) and the kingdom of heaven.
4. It is described in the prophets in the most glowing terms, in figures borrowed partly from the state of man in paradise, and partly from the state of the theocracy during the reign of Solomon.
5. This kingdom belongs to Christ, not as the Logos [the Word], but as the Son of Man, the Theanthropos [God-man], God manifest in the flesh.
6. Its twofold foundation, as presented in the Bible, is Christ’s possessing all divine attributes, and His work of redemption (Heb 1:3; Phil 2:6-11).
Christ, being equal with God, “humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross”; therefore “God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”. All power in heaven and earth has been given into His hands, and all things – the universe – have been put under His feet. Even the angels are His ministering spirits, sent by Him to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation.
7. As this messianic, or mediatorial, kingdom of Christ is thus comprehensive, it is presented in different aspects in the Word of God.
Viewed as extending over all creatures, it is a kingdom of power, which, according to 1 Corinthians 15:24, He shall deliver up to God, even the Father, when His mediatorial work is accomplished. Viewed in relation to His own people on earth, it is the kingdom of grace. They all recognise Him as their absolute proprietor and sovereign. They all confide in His protection and devote themselves to His service. He rules in them and reigns over them, and subdues all their and His enemies. Viewed in relation to the whole body of the redeemed, when the work of redemption is brought to a conclusion, it is the kingdom of glory – the kingdom of heaven, in the highest sense of the words. In this view His kingdom is everlasting. His headship over His people is to continue for ever, and His dominion over those whom He has purchased with His blood shall never end.
8. As this kingdom is thus manifold, so it also is, in some aspects, progressive.
It is represented in Scripture as passing through different stages. In prophecy it is spoken of as a stone cut out without hands, which became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. In Daniel 7:14 it is said of the Messiah that to Him “there was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him”.
So too it is written of Him: “Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession” (Ps 2:8); “All nations shall serve Him. . . . All nations shall call Him blessed” (Ps 72:11,17); “All nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord; and shall glorify Thy name” (Ps 86:9); “I will also give Thee for a light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth” (Is 49:6); “The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Hab 2:14); “From the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, My name shall be great among the Gentiles” (Mal 1:11). The Scriptures abound with passages of similar meaning.
It is not only asserted that the kingdom of Christ is to attain this universal extension by slow degrees, but its gradual progress is illustrated in various ways. Our Lord compares His kingdom to a grain of mustard seed, which is indeed the least of all seeds, but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs; and He compares it to leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
9. Although God has always had a kingdom on earth, yet the kingdom of which the prophets speak began in its messianic form when the Son of God came in the flesh.
John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, came preaching that the kingdom of God was at hand. Our Lord Himself went from village to village, preaching the kingdom of God (Lk 4:43, 8:1). When asked by Pilate whether He was a king, He “answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world” (Jn 18:37). Wherever the Apostles went, they “testified the kingdom of God” (Acts 28:23). Their business was to call men to receive the Lord Jesus as the Christ, the anointed and predicted Messiah or king of His people, and to worship, love, trust and obey Him as such. They were therefore accused of acting contrary to “the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus” (Acts 17:7).
Men are exhorted to seek first the kingdom of God, as a present good. It is compared to a pearl or treasure, for which it is wise to sacrifice everything. Every believer receives Christ as his king. Those who receive Him sincerely constitute His kingdom, in the sense in which the loyal subjects of an earthly sovereign constitute his kingdom. Those who profess allegiance to Christ as king constitute His visible kingdom on earth. Nothing can therefore be more opposed to the plain teaching of the New Testament than the idea that the kingdom of Christ is yet future and will not be inaugurated until His second coming. This idea confounds the consummation of the kingdom with its commencement.
10. As to the nature of this kingdom, our Lord Himself teaches us that it is not of this world.
It is not analogous to the kingdoms which exist among men. It is not a kingdom of earthly splendour, wealth or power. It does not concern the civil or political affairs of men, except in their moral relations. Its rewards and enjoyments are not the good things of this world. It is said to consist in “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom 14:17). Christ told His hearers: “The kingdom of God is within you”. The condition of admission into that kingdom is regeneration (Jn 3:5), conversion (Mt 18:3), holiness of heart and life – for the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God; nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners (1 Cor 6:9,10, Gal 5:21, Eph 5:5).
11. In the interval between the first and second advents of Christ, this kingdom is said to be like a field in which the wheat and tares are to grow together until the harvest, which is the end of the world.
Then “the Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Mt 13:41-43).
Experience concurs with Scripture in teaching that the kingdom of Christ passes through many vicissitudes, that it has its times of depression and its seasons of exaltation and prosperity. There can be no doubt that this was the case in the past. Prophecy sheds a sufficiently clear light on the future to teach us, not only that this alternation is to continue to the end, but, more definitely, that before the second coming of Christ there is to be a time of great and long-continued prosperity, to be followed by a season of decay and of suffering, so that the Son of Man shall hardly find faith on the earth when He comes.
It appears from passages already quoted that all nations are to be converted, that the Jews are to be brought in and grafted again into their own olive tree, and that their restoration is to be the occasion and the cause of a change from death unto life – that is, analogous to the change of a body moulting in the grave to one animated with joyous activity and power. The ancient prophets speak of this period in terms adapted to raise the hopes of the Church to the highest pitch. It is true it is difficult to separate what refers, in their descriptions, to this latter day of glory from what relates to the kingdom of Christ as consummated in heaven. So also it was difficult for the ancient people of God to separate what referred, in the declarations of their prophets, to the redemption of the people from Babylon from what referred to the greater redemption to be effected by the Messiah.
In both cases enough is plain to satisfy the Church. There was a redemption from Babylon, and there was a redemption by Christ; and in like manner, it is hoped, there is to be a period of millennial glory on earth, and a still more glorious consummation of the Church in heaven. This period is called a millennium because in Revelation it is said to last a thousand years, an expression which perhaps is generally understood literally. Some, however, think it means a protracted season of indefinite duration, as when it is said that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years. During this period, be it longer or shorter, the Church is to enjoy a season of peace, purity and blessedness such as it has never yet experienced.
The principal reason for assuming that the prophets predict a glorious state of the Church prior to the second advent is that they represent the Church as being thus prosperous and glorious on earth. But we know that, when Christ comes again, the heavens and earth are to pass away and no more place will be found for them. After the second coming, the seat of the Church is not to be the earth but a new heavens and new earth. As therefore the Scriptures teach that the kingdom of Christ is to extend over all the earth, that all nations are to serve Him, and that all people shall call Him blessed, it is to be inferred that these predictions refer to a state of things which is to exist before the second coming of Christ.
This state is described as one of spiritual prosperity: God will pour out His Spirit upon all flesh; knowledge shall abound everywhere; wars shall cease to the ends of the earth; and the Lord says there shall be nothing to hurt or destroy in all His holy mountain. This does not imply that either sin or sorrow will cease in the world during this long period, or that all are to be true Christians. The tares are to grow together with the wheat until the harvest. The means of grace will still be needed; conversion and sanctification will then be what they have ever been. It is only a higher measure of the good which the Church has experienced in the past that we are taught to anticipate in the future.
1An edited extract from Hodge’s Systematic Theology, vol 3.