158. Alive and Blessed in the Kingdom
Deuteronomy 30:15, 16 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil. In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments and his statures and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.
The Lord says through Moses, “I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil.” What God set before all of us is a Moral Code of right and wrong. Life or death and good or evil is in the Commandments: life and good if you keep them, death and evil if you do not. The consequence of keeping the Law is life and good; the consequence of not keeping the Law is death and evil. The Law, summarized in the Ten Commandments, is a great and good thing; it promises to give a wonderful life full of life and good if you walk in it and keep it.
Moses is summarizing the purpose of the Law and the result of keeping it: You will live and multiply and the Lord will bless you in the land (the kingdom). God promises a living, active, enjoyable, growing and flourishing life to all who will obey the Commandments. Jesus kept the Commandments for us. He gives us the kingdom of God, which we may possess. This Land is the spiritual kingdom of God that dwells and rules in our hearts by faith in Christ. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom; no matter how small, weak, or insignificant you may feel, you possess, by faith, an awesome world inside you. This promised and received world inside is called “eternal life,” The Spirit calls us by the Gospel to come out of a world of death and evil and enter into the joy of the Lord, the Land God gives, which is a world of life and good.
Every time we hear the Law we are convinced of our own death and evil. We repent. Every time we hear the Gospel we are convinced of God’s life and good, which is given to us by grace, because of Christ, and possessed by faith. We believe. Thus it is really true: we really live in two worlds, one ruled by Sin and Death, the other ruled by Good and Life. We live in two realities: the one is seen; the other is believed. Believe this promise and thrive in the kingdom of God reality.