The kingdom of God is both a simple and profound reality. Previously, we discussed the simple truth that the kingdom of God has a king named Jesus. But as we teased out of that simple truth, there is a profound significance that every major dimension of the kingdom is shaped by the cruciform character of the king. At the heart of the kingdom is a crucified Messiah (albeit also a risen Messiah). But there is also the simple reality that to have a true kingdom, there must be people in the kingdom and these people will bear the distinctive marks of the king. Scot McKnight suggests two major marks of kingdom people.

First, kingdom people perceive themselves as a people redeemed and rescued from the world (sin, self, systemic evil) by King Jesus (McKnight). The king defines His own mission in this way. For example, in Mark 10:45, Jesus says, For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Or in the institution of the Lord’s Supper, Jesus refers to the cup as the blood of the covenant poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Or John the Baptizer’s cry, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Jesus understood that part of His kingly work was a rescue mission.

And so, we must remember we are a redeemed people that have been freed from one kingdom to be part of another kingdom. In the Old Testament, the grand redemptive event was the Exodus, God’s deliverance of His people out of Egypt. He established annual festivals for the people to remember this event and the writers of the Old Testament make constant reference and allusion to it. So, we remember routinely the redeeming work of Christ in His life, death, and resurrection. We do this in our individual spiritual practices, our weekly corporate gatherings, our partaking of the Lord’s Table, and in some of our annual observances. We must never forget from where we have come and what was necessary to make us kingdom people.

Unfortunately, this is where many of us stop, if not in our theological/intellectual commitments, then in the application of and living out of the kingdom in our lives. We love the redemption part and it is great and glorious. Praise and thanksgiving are appropriate responses to the reality that our sins are forgiven, we have peace with God, and have been given eternal life. But we also need to see our redemption in terms of being continually set free from our sin and selfishness as the Spirit sanctifies us and makes us more and more like the king.

But there is more to being the people of God in the kingdom of God and this second area is more challenging for us because it confronts our notion of freedom. For the second part of being kingdom people is that we know at the deepest level that we are governed by King Jesus (McKnight). That means He is the ultimate authority and what He says, goes. We are not the ultimate authority; the family is not the ultimate authority; the church is not the ultimate authority; and the state is not the ultimate authority. Jesus is. And the vast part of the Christian life is learning to submit ALL OF OUR LIVES to Him.

Now, Scripture is clear that we owe a certain amount of deference to these lesser authorities but we owe it because King Jesus has commanded us to do so. So, we do have choice as individuals, we can honor our parents as the Lord tells us to, we can be good employees at our work, we can be good church members, and we can be good citizens of our cities, states, and nation. But, as McKnight writes, kingdom people answer to King Jesus and follow his teachings and cruciform vision and that alone sets their agenda for how to live in this world. This means there will be times when we have to challenge those authorities (and there is a kingdom way to do that) and even times when we will need to disobey lesser authorities because of our allegiance to Jesus.

Saints, we need to embrace both aspects of what it means to be kingdom people. We need to see that they are intimately interconnected. We must come to see that God’s subduing us to Himself and ruling and defending us is not separate from our redemption but a beautiful part of it. That submission to King Jesus is a blessing and allows us to receive the true blessings as defined by our king. This is the way we come to terms with the call to self-denial, sacrifice, and suffering. May we more and more see our lives defined by Christ and His ways and not by the idols of nation, culture, and self.