Jesus Christ said “for all the law and the prophets were till John. Now the kingdom is preached and all are pressing in”. And “the violent take it by force.”
God is Not lackadaisical about His love for us, but a relationship with Him requires a whole lot of pressing in and persistence on our part. Hebrews 11 says that”God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him”, and so we do. The psalmist said “to seek the Lord and call on him while he may be found”. That writer knew something about the Living God that many in our day don’t understand.
The word “Salvation” refers to all the work of God in you till you reach His conclusion “from faith to faith” and not visibly. We enter into His New Covenant and receive a The Kingdom of God. And this Covenant is not like the promise of some future time like the Law and the prophets, oh no it is something that is “at hand” that “the violent take by force”. God the Father takes delight in those who take Him at His word, and are aggressive with it. We do not take no for an answer. We have been given the keys to the Kingdom” and it is up to us to take God at His word and enter in. To “Him who calls those things that do not exist as though they do”, because for some of us they do. They exist on a different plane. An eternal one.They have become more tangible for Us, then the things you see with your physical eyes. Why? Because We have ears to hear of a different nature.
1 John 1; That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— 2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” This fellowship is the oneness of John 17 fulfilled to those who are able to receive it.
The scriptures are replete with this message that “today is the day of salvation”. God would like to complete His work in you. Paul defines this saying “13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”. For us to be nothing short of “a perfect man” in our understanding. For us to look into His word as a mirror and see our self in Him. “To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”. Till we too are full like Him. And we can only be full if Christ filled full all the law and the prophets. If your Christ must still “fulfill” something, you cannot be filled full for you do not see Him as He is but as He will be, but God is not the one in the making. You do not accept Him as He is. He is “the same yesterday, today and forever” and must not become anything. Christ came not to become something, but to prove who He already was. He was born King, and He told Mary “I am the resurrection and the life”.
It is said that “the evil steward said that his master delays his coming”. To say that Christ has delayed His coming, especially some two thousand plus years, keeps many waiting and in limbo looking for something that already is, being “The Kingdom prepared from the foundations of the world”. They like “the evil steward” believe the master is coming later. 48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of”. And that is? Today. He is standing at their door knocking, hoping to sup with them however they look for another. They reject Him as He is. The “Lo I am with you always” they dis-believe. In this way the giver becomes the taker and they are left “poor blind and naked”.
It is the second coming mindset that makes you spiritually fat and lazy. The slothful, fat and lazy pursue and persist at nothing. They look at all the work of God in a second coming. They wait for the Lord to come save them as though the saving of the Cross is insufficient. The constant confessions of sin is no different from the old Covenant, and keeps them battling with Satan and fearing death and the cross died them no good. And if God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him? What is His response and reward to those who don’t? If his promises are just promissory notes of things in the future like at a second coming, what are we pressing into? How are we victorious? “We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
His promises and words to us are not left to be fulfilled later because “all things have been fulfilled” and “all things are now already.
He is a rewarder because he gives us something tangible. But not physically tangible, oh no something much greater. Eternally tangible. He is a rewarder to those who diligently seek him? But they who have their affections on planet Earth as though God will do something here, have departed from the Heavenly calling to follow him where he is that we may be also. For if he left us here rotting for 2000 years waiting for a promise to be fulfilled, then his life death and Resurrection was useless and in vain. If it brought us no closer to the kingdom of heaven then what the Jews presented, His journey here on earth was for nought. But as the writer of Hebrews said “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. 2 For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, 3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord.” You see He offered something different than the law and the prophets. The law and the prophets expectation culminated with these words from John the baptizer “are you the coming one or do we seek another?” The prophets leave you looking without for that which must be within. (Luke 17. 22) And so John the Baptist was the greatest and last prophet was beheaded. We must cut off the mindset of a future coming messiah/ savior to fulfill the scriptures “for all things have been fulfilled”.
The concept of a future coming messiah/savior to save the world denies the testimony God gave of His Son. John 3.17 “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him would be saved18 “He who believes this is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil”. Yes tearfully speaking, they reject the saving that is in process to those who are growing in this knowledge of God.
If we persist in knowing “end times” or a “second coming” or another Jewish kingdom on earth we pervert the gospel. He is the “Lo the volume of the book is written of Me”. We trade the good news for the bad news. My Lord delays not His coming because His comings and knocking at my door are many. The “Lo I am with you always” needs not to appear again in carnal form. We once knew Christ in the flesh but henceforth know we Him that way no more”.
Persist in this. Press into this. The other ways? Leave you thirsty.
Yes, even now “The Kingdom of God is at hand”.