Week 45—Sunday Matthew 4:17, 23
Week 45—SUNDAY
THE INCARNATION AND THE KINGDOM
We come now to one of the most important aspects of the application of the Word become flesh—its application to the kingdom of God. For if this Incarnation is God’s Incarnation then it must have total meaning for the total life. The Christian conception of the Incarnation is unique in that the Incarnation is not only to be in a person, but in an order, the kingdom of God. Jesus made himself and the kingdom of God synonymous. He used interchangeably “for my sake” and “the Kingdom’s sake.” He was the Kingdom. One’s relationship to Jesus determines one’s relationship to the Kingdom. Not only was absolute love embodied in Jesus, but absolute authority. God was not only redeeming in Jesus, God was ruling in Jesus. The Incarnation is redemptive rule. The Kingdom came with Jesus. The Kingdom is Jesus, and Jesus is the Kingdom. The Kingdom is the Christlike spirit universalized. So the Incarnation is not only in a personal body, but also in a cosmic body. To have relations with Jesus is to have relationship with an Order. Religion is at once individual and social.
So when people talk about an individual gospel or a social gospel they are dividing what God has joined in the Incarnation. God is not a half-God ruling over a half-realm. God is God and the sum total of Reality. An individual gospel without a social gospel is a soul without a body, and a social gospel without an individual gospel is a body without a soul—one is a ghost and the other is a corpse. Together they make a living person. So when the Incarnation includes the Person and the Order then it meets a total need. They are one. So a personal Incarnation without a corporate Incarnation would be a half-redemption. Jesus incarnating the Kingdom is a whole redemption.
O Blessed Lord and Savior, we thank you for your all-embracingness. You were located in a body and yet the cosmic was your body, too. When we find you we find Everything, including ourselves. We thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I am made to be ruled; therefore, I welcome the rule of God—the kingdom of God.