Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
The Law and The Millennial Reign of Christ
“Therefore, the law is indeed holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.”
Paul, in Romans 7:12
“Everyone who commits sin also transgresses the law, for sin is lawlessness.”
John, in 1John 3:4
The law, being God’s law, was a revelation to man of how God viewed right worship, good government, and holy living. And because God is perfect in wisdom from the beginning, He still thinks what He has always thought. Faith in God understands this:
God has never learned anything.
God has never improved upon anything He ever said or did.
What God thought was righteous living in Moses’ day, He still thinks is righteous living, and what God thought was righteous judgment then, He still thinks is righteous judgment. If Jesus Christ is “the same today, yesterday, and forever,” then what is the Father?
The principal reason God gave His law to Israel was to lead them to the Christ and to prepare them for him. The law pointed to Christ, the future suffering Savior, and it perfectly prepared God’s obedient servants to receive God’s Christ. That same law, now written in believers’ hearts by the holy Spirit (Heb. 8:10), is still doing what it was originally intended to do. It is still pointing God’s people to Christ, the future King of earth, and it is still preparing God’s obedient children for his return. “The law of the Lord is perfect,” sang David. Those who obey God now sing the same song, for God’s law is still perfectly pointing them to Christ, the coming King. A disobedient servant of God will not be prepared for his Lord’s return, and when Christ returns, he will give that servant his portion with the wicked (Mt. 24:51).
If you would know the mind of God, you have a tool in your hands that will help you understand how He thinks and what He requires of you. It is called the law of Moses, and it is found in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and the great book of Deuteronomy. But to mine from the law the gold that is there, you MUST believe that it is God’s law and that it really does reflect what He thought, and still thinks. If you believe that the law evolved over time, or was taken from other cultures, or that Moses or Israel’s leaders concocted it, you cannot revere it as you should. Your heart will not tremble and bow before what it considers to be a good idea of men.
Because God’s thoughts are perfect and unchanging, the law is still perfect and profitable to us. Because God’s thoughts are perfect and unchanging, the law must still be prophesying of the Christ, still pointing to him, and still preparing those who trust the law to meet Christ in peace and to work with him in his kingdom. Because God’s judgments are perfect and unchanging, the judgments found in the law are the kinds of judgments Jesus will render when he comes to rule the earth for a thousand years. My dear friend, the law is not at all a dead relic of the past; on the contrary, it is telling us what kind of government to expect from Jesus when he sets up his kingdom on earth. Jesus will rule over the wicked, we are told, “with a rod of iron”, and the “iron” judgments he will execute are the kinds of judgments found in Moses’ law!
Consider this description of the millennial reign of Jesus, from Zechariah 14:
16. And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem will come up from year to year to worship the King, Lord of hosts, to make pilgrimage for the Feast of Booths.
17. And it shall come to pass that there will be no rain on those who do not come up to Jerusalem from among the families of the earth to worship the King, Lord of hosts.
18. If the family of Egypt does not go up to Jerusalem, and does not come, then on them shall there be none. This is the plague with which Jehovah will strike the nations who do not come up to observe the Feast of Booths.
19. This shall be the punishment for Egypt’s sin and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to observe the Feast of Booths.
We who believe in Christ are given no authority to physically punish criminals. For that authority, we are commanded to wait for the return of the Master. Indeed, it is sin for a believer to become entangled now in the governmental affairs of this world. We are citizens of another, heavenly country, and we are here only as ambassadors of Christ. The world’s social ills and political controversies are of no consequence to us at all. Our king is going to restructure the entire earth and completely replace every government in every place with his own form of government. His kingdom is a kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy in the holy Spirit, and we who believe are supposed to be in the process of learning to serve God in those things, to judge in the Spirit, and to stand in the Spirit against strong opposition. We are kings and priests to God, but not yet with earthly civil authority. When Jesus returns, he will give to his people the civil authority he has until now denied us.
So then, the law of God is to be re-instituted on the earth, and if a child of God has not prepared his heart to reign with Christ, if he has not been “transformed by the renewing of his mind” to agree with God’s judgments, he will not be given much authority in the coming kingdom. It may be that he will be cast out of the kingdom entirely and “given his portion with the hypocrites.”
Next time, Part Six: Agreeing With God