Liveblogging: R.C. Sproul, Jr. - The Glory of the Kingdom


My liveblog of our final session of the conference

R.C. Sproul, Jr:

Ken Myers gave us one of the best things of this conference when he told us last night that ee must not separate our understanding of creation from the story of creation. The dominion mandate, the call to bring all things under subjection, is no different than the call to crush the head of the serpent.

One of the reasons that the Western American church has embraced pessimistic eschatology, is that we've seen nothing but decline in the West. We live at a time when the broader culture we live in is slipping deeper and deeper into unbelief. We hear Christians all the time bemoaning how bad "our" schools have gotten. But every time he hears the new bad thing that public schools are doing, he rejoices because Christians will stop calling them "our" schools. Every time the culture slips further from us, its easier for us to say "that's not us"

One of the big challenges, however, is that it is difficult to be optimistic when we see this rapid decline around us. But God says "Be of good cheer, for I have already overcome the world." We seem to ask "is the battle gonna get worse and worse or is the battle gonna get better and better" but Christ's answer is "I've already won!" We have to realize that we are in a mop up operation, not the actual war. We are going out and squashing the last little pockets of gorilla warfare after the nation has already fallen. The Kingdom is here, and it is now.

But it gets better. There is an even greater promise. As we move from the inauguration of the Kingdom of God to the consummation of the Kingdom, the two always stay together. We have this promise from God - all that we do today for His Kingdom, will not merely move us closer to the fullness of the Kingdom. Our labors now will not just simply be remembered and noted when the Kingdom is consummated. The promise of God is this, that all we do as the Second Eve, the Bride of Christ, will be a part of the consummated Kingdom. Everything we do now in faith, will be a part of that Kingdom and will last always. Or to quote a wise theologian, "Right Now Counts Forever."

This is what Paul tells us: 1 Cor 3:10-23

That means every single time that you, husbands, wash your wife with the water of the Word, you are making an investment in eternity. You are not simply making your life or your wife better, you are making eternity what it will be. Every time you instruct your children in the nurture of the Lord, you are investing in eternity.

Jesus tells us to store up treasure in Heaven. This makes some of us nervous and we wonder if it means some sort of Papist thing of storing up some amount of work currency for ourselves so we can buy our way out of purgatory. No, he is telling us that everything we do for His Kingdom here will ascend and be a part of the New Heavens and the New Earth. We are the very tools in His hands with which He is building that city that Abraham looked for - the one who's builder and maker is God. This is where we are going, and this is where our work is building. And so we labor, now and forever. This is the light we're called to shine, this is the culture we're called to build.

Posted: Sat - May 5, 2007 at 04:00 PM | | | | | | |

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