| CHAPTER 6 — THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT GOD’S KINGDOM Why the Delay? Jesus won the war at the cross. At the cross, the entire universe saw God and Satan’s character contrasted; selflessness and selfishness, love and hate, life and death were utterly contrasted. Satan was unmasked as a destroyer, and God was shown to be an unconditional lover. Based upon the unquestionable evidence, they have been praising the righteousness of God ever since. So why has God waited an additional 2,000 years to end the war? Because most of us down here still don’t have all the information. Satan has circulated his lies about God so well that even most Christians believe them. Many people have turned away from the vindictive, arbitrary, severe God Satan has pictured. God doesn’t want anyone to decide against him until they have given him a fair chance. He wants everyone to know the truth before he asks us to take a final stand. It’s up to us. If we are God’s friends, we will want to clear his name of the false rumors the enemy has perpetuated. Power In the Blood Many people teach that God is coming to subdue evil by use of force. They say that Jesus is going to set up an earthly kingdom and rule the world with “an iron scepter.” The conflict of the ages is not so much a great war in which the powers of Heaven are arrayed against the powers of earth, where God will eventually move in and bring it to an end. The essential conflict is in the minds of his children, both men and unfallen beings. The end occurs when the loyal are committed forever to the truth revealed by Jesus and the disloyal are committed forever to their rejection of this truth. If God were going to move in and force his enemies into submission, why didn’t he do this at the beginning of the war? He has all the power of the universe at his disposal; he can merely speak and hang a galaxy in space[313]! He certainly has the power to force his enemies into submission. He was tempted on the cross to use it to rescue himself. “Come down from the cross and save yourself! Let us see the Messiah, the king of Israel, come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him!”[314] If Christ had come down off the cross and flashed a demonstration of his majesty and power, even his cruelest persecutors would have been on their knees and joyfully proclaimed, “The Messiah has come!” The news would have quickly gone out to the Jews scattered throughout the world and they would have flocked into Jerusalem to crown him. Yet he wouldn’t use his power to gain their submission. If he had, he would have been admitting you can’t bring peace without the use of power. This is why we will feel safe for all eternity. It’s not just the fact that God has all that power; Satan and his angels recognize God’s infinite power, and it makes them tremble with fear when they think about it[315]. Our security is in the fact that he’d never misuse it. Never. Jesus demonstrated that he would rather die than misuse his power. The one who wields all this power is returning with great power and glory, to be sure. “God is coming again... the holy God is coming. His splendor covers the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise. He comes with the brightness of lightning; light flashes from his hand, there where his power is hidden.”[316] This is the true source of his power. The nail-prints in his hands—the eternal reminder of his self-sacrificing love—is the power that will hold the universe together for all eternity. |
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| 313 Genesis 1 314 Mark 15:30, 32 315 see James 2:19 316 Habakkuk 3:4 |
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