The bright side of judgment is that the righteous shall go (continued)
KINGDOM OF GOD
1. THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM ob HE TIME is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand"' (Mark i. 15). Christ came to set up the kingdom of
God among men, that they might be brought into subjection to it and might obtain salvation in it. He set it up by the preaching of the Gospel and a power going along with it. There was in the Old Testament both the promise of the
Kingdom of the Messiah and a time fixed for its introduction. The people in general were not so well versed in those prophecies, nor did they so well observe the signs of the time, as to understand these themselves. Therefore Christ gives them notice of them. The time prefixed is now at hand. Glorious discoveries of divine light, life and love are now to be made. A new dispensation, far more spiritual and heavenly than that which you have hitherto been under, is now to commence.
God keeps true. When "the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand''. For the vision is for an appointed time, which will be punctually observed, though it tarry past our time.
Christ gave them to understand the times, that they might know what Israel ought to do. They fondly expected the Messiah to appear in external pomp and power, not only to free the Jewish nation from the Roman yoke but to make it have dominion over all its neighbours; and therefore thought, when that kingdom of God was at hand, they must prepare for war, and for victory, and preferment, and great things in the world. But Christ tells them, in the prospect of that kingdom approaching, they must '"'repent and believe the Gospel". They had broken the moral law and could not be saved by a covenant of innocency, for both Jew and Gentile are concluded under guilt. They must therefore take the benefit of the covenant of grace, must submit to remedial law, and this is it: 'Repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ."" They had not made use of the prescribed preservatives, and therefore they must have recourse to the prescribed restoratives.