The Nation Of God
Quickly, name a passage of scripture where Jesus commands what the government should do. I would dare say that this is not possible. Quickly do a search for these words in the Gospels; King, Caesar, Pilate, and Herod. How many commands do you find here directed at people with these titles? I believe you may find one comment that is directly about what one of these people was doing, and it was not even Jesus who said it, but it was John the Baptist saying that it was not lawful for Herod to have his brother’s wife. So if Jesus never made a political command, how is it that today and in years past we have tried to marry our political and theological views, and create some kind of pseudo religion in which if you do not have perfect political views we no longer have correct theological views? Of course Jesus was here to establish a Kingdom, but it was never intended to be a political nation, but a spiritual one, perhaps it is time to reevaluate what this kingdom is and how to become a part of it and how to aggressive expand the Nation of God.
27 “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will plant the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the offspring of men and of animals. 28 Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the LORD. 29 “In those days people will no longer say,
‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’30 Instead, everyone will die for his own sin; whoever eats sour grapes’his own teeth will be set on edge.
31 “The time is coming,” declares the LORD,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,”
declares the LORD.33 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time,” declares the LORD.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the LORD.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”35 This is what the LORD says,
he who appoints the sun
to shine by day,
who decrees the moon and stars
to shine by night,
who stirs up the sea
so that its waves roar’
the LORD Almighty is his name:36 “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,”
declares the LORD,
“will the descendants of Israel ever cease
to be a nation before me.”37 This is what the LORD says:
“Only if the heavens above can be measured
and the foundations of the earth below be searched out
will I reject all the descendants of Israel
because of all they have done,”
declares the LORD.
In this passage there is no doubt that God desires a nation, a Holy nation that follows his commands. He will be their God, and they will be his people. He will forgive their sins, and he will never forget them. This is a new covenant. So the question is, has this New Covenant be established, and if so what does this nation that God wants to establish look like.
Jesus says in Luke 22:20 ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.’ Jesus says this at what is classically known as The Last Supper before which he is crucified. Jesus during this time is telling his disciples his whole purpose. He is fulfilling the promise that he is to come and be the sacrifice that will forgive sins. Jesus here is equating himself with the Passover lamb. When the Israelites were held captive by the Egyptians he had sent a deliverer in Moses. Pharaoh, though seeing the power of God in many plagues had refused to let the Israelites go. Thus God sent a final plague on the land of Egypt. This was the plague in which the firstborn sons were to die. The Israelites were to prepare for this. They were to kill a perfect lamb, and put its blood over their doorposts, and they would be passed over, and only those who did not have the blood of the lamb would die. It was after this plague that the Israelites were set free. Jesus equates himself with this lamb. Matthew 26:28 says ‘This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’ The Passover feast was to be a reminder of how God freed the people of God from the oppression of the Egyptians, but not only that it was to point to a savior for their sins. Just as the Israelites were passed over and freed from their earthly oppressors, Jesus came to be the sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins so that God would see that they were covered in the blood and that they are His people and He is their God.
God, is not looking to establish a political Kingdom on earth, his kingdom is not to be an earthly one but a spiritual one. Perhaps people have a flawed view on how to change people. They believe that if their government has the correct laws then God will somehow view them more favorably than all the other nations. Maybe if the government has the right social programs helping the poor, God will consider them righteous. This is not what God is looking for. Has God not already done this with the nation of Israel? Is there not books of the Bible that clearly show how it failed? God gave the Law to the Israelites, they had laws directly from God, yet their nation failed.
The other flaw that people make is they confuse the role of government and the role of the church. Perhaps we have decided in our minds to make the government the driving evangelistic force for the church. Not only that but also use the government to create a heaven on earth, a perfect world, instead of realizing that God has a perfect place waiting for us in heaven, and it is our job to make disciples who follow God and join his nation so that they may go to heaven someday.
Perhaps Christians should quit on the government. Well, maybe that is extreme, but maybe we spend too much time trying to change the government instead of trying to teach the world who Jesus is and what he taught and what he gives us and how to follow him. Instead Christians tell the government what to do in slow tedious process that tends to create more division than unity among people in general. Then at the end of this process it forces a code of morality on people which tells them what they can or cannot do how to spend their time and money whether or not they agree with it, which in turn creates more animosity towards religion than converts.
Of course its not that there everything will be perfect if Christians leave the government alone. There will be persecution and animosity will still grow against Christians. Instead of people being mad though because Christians change the government, they change the people first. Then because the people change it causes animosity towards the Nation of God.
Perhaps Christians should use the book of Acts as their example on what Christians should do in this world. People that believe in Jesus and go out teaching, encouraging, correcting, training, and evangelizing the world about who Jesus is and how to become a member of the nation of God. Instead of trying to change the government they changed the people around them. Instead of forcing laws made by men they showed people the superiority of following God. They let their actions and their love for each other do the talking. The only flaw that the law could find in them is that they were Christians.
In summary, the Nation of God is not a nation united under a ruler on earth trying to create a political Utopia by trying to change the government by spiritual teachings. The people of God are also not a group of people with the same ethnicity united under a political banner that has all the right rules. The Nation of God is people who follow God, believe in his Son, Jesus, have been saved, and live in accordance with what Jesus taught. It is a nation that has no physical boundaries; all people can have citizenship, and is not of this world. Christians should change the world. Not by a decree of man which requires proper behavior, but by living a life in total agreement with the teachings of Christ.
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Comments
Wow…lots of thoughts, not nearly enough time right now.
I am currently reading Trocme’s Jesus and the Non-Violent Revolution, which was somewhat of a pre-cursor to Yoder’s Politics of Jesus. Both texts have a lot to say about the political nature of Jesus, and you reallly need to take a look at them.
I will come back at some point with more actual thoughts…just not now…
Lot of things to digest in this post.
I like your summary, but I have to disagree with the interaction of Christians with the government.
In an almost unprecidented move in world history, Christians as a group have a chance to modify their government as they see fit. How would God want us to use this chance we have? Surely He would want us to formulate a governance that was in accordance with His principles of justice and mercy.
It is within that line of thought that I approach this subject. I do recognize that first and formost we are to be gospel bearers. As a whole, many christians seem to be failing in this area. Christ, in addition to bringing the Gospel to us, was a champion of the poor and downtroden.