The Kingdom of Christ
T. Guthrie, D. D. Colossians 1:13-14 Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:… I. THE IMPORTANCE WHICH CHRIST HIMSELF ATTACHES TO HIS KINGLY CLAIMS. 1. There are crowns worn by living monarchs of which it would be difficult to estimate the value. The price paid for their jewels is the least part of it. They cost thousands of lives. And yet in His esteem, and in ours, Christ's crown outweighs them all. He gave his life for it. 2. The connection between our Lord's sufferings and these claims marks some of the most touching scenes in His history. The people rejected Him in His kingly character. "We will not have this King to reign over us." The soldiers reviled Him as a King; and His claim to be such was the crime for which He was crucified. It was a kingly inscription that stood above His dying head. 3. Our Lord had the strongest temptation to abandon these claims; and if He refused to give them up in the desert when tempted by the devil, when He had not a morsel to eat, and at the bar, when to have parted with them would have saved His life, He is not likely to yield them now. He has now no inducement to do so. A friendless prisoner no more, He stands at the right hand of God, and claims to reign over all whom He has conquered by love and redeemed by blood. 4. Would God we could live up to that truth. How often is it forgotten! each of us doing what is right in his own eyes, as though there were no King in Israel. Oh, that we were all as anxious to be delivered from the power as we are to escape the punishment of sin. II. FROM WHOM CHRIST RECEIVED HIS KINGDOM. 1. Not from the Jews. "His own received Him not." Once they tried to thrust royal honours on Him: afterwards they bore Him in royal state to the capital, and then they crucified Him. The only crown our Lord gets from man is woven with thorns. Had Christ consented to rule on their terms the Jews would have made Him king. Now to-day how many would accept Jesus if He would allow them to retain their sins. But He accepts not the crown if sin is to wield the sceptre. 2. Not from His own people. The sceptre which a female hand sways so gracefully over the greatest, freest empire in the world was wrenched two hundred years ago from the grasp of a poor popish bigot; and his successor was borne to the vacant throne on the arms of a people who considered crowned heads less sacred than their liberties and religion. Is it by any such act that Christ is crowned? Is He a popular monarch in this sense? No. Here the king elects His subjects, not the subjects their king; and in that and other senses His kingdom is not of this world. Aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and enemies to God, it is necessary that Christ should first choose you as His subjects, before you can choose Him as your King. Christ reigns by conquest, but His reign is not one of terror. He reigns as He conquered, by love. Enthroned in the heart He rules through the affections. 3. From God. When we look at the two great occasions on which our Lord was crowned, what a contrast do they present. The scene of the first is laid on earth. Behold Him stripped of His garments, tied to a post, scourged, clothed with an old purple robe, a wreath of thorns upon His head. Some in bitter mockery bend the knee as to a Caesar and shout, "Hail, King of the Jews." Turn now to the other. The cross is vacant, the court empty, and from the vine-covered sides of Olivet a band of men are joyfully descending. While the disciples come down to the world, Jesus goes up to heaven escorted by a host of angels. His battle over, and the great victory won, the Conqueror is now to be crowned. Behold the scene as revealed by anticipation to the rapt eyes of Daniel (Daniel 7:13). III. IN WHAT CHARACTER JESUS HOLDS THIS KINGDOM. Not as God or as man, but as God-man. Our Lord appeared in both these characters at the grave of Lazarus. "Jesus wept," and yet Death cowers before His eye. So on the Sea of Galilee, the Son of Mary sleeps, but raising His hand He said to the rude storm, "Peace, be still." Those two natures He still retains. As both God and man He occupies the thrones of grace and providence — holding under His dominion all worlds; for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and He has been made Head over all things to His Church. Simply as God there could be no addition to His possessions, nor could He receive them simply as man. IV. SEEK AN INTEREST IN THIS KINGDOM. Your eternal welfare turns on that. You must be crowned in heaven or cursed in hell. 1. Are you poor? That is no bar. "Blessed are the poor in spirit." 2. Are you degraded? That does not exclude you from the mercy and grace of God. 3. Have you done nothing to merit this kingdom? Who has? 4. Though you are not saved by obedience, remember that submission to Christ's commandment is required of all who belong to His kingdom. 5. In a general sense we are all His subjects; but in a saving sense Christ's kingdom is not without, but within. Unless the heart be right with Christ, all is wrong. (T. Guthrie, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: WEB: who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love;