Discipleship

Christ’s Victory and Reign

/ David R Maas / Leave a comment

Jesus triumphed on the Cross and began implementing his kingdom following his resurrection. He is not waiting for any future event to begin his messianic reign.

Did Jesus conquer his enemies on Calvary as Scripture declares or not? Most of us would respond to this question in the affirmative. “Yes! Of course, he did!” Yet popular preaching often denies this by teaching that his reign will not start until his future return, and thus, denying his past victory on the Cross, intentionally or not.

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The Way of the Cross

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To follow Jesus requires a lifetime of self-denial and sacrificial service for others and a willingness to lose everything for the Gospel.

When Jesus dispatched his disciples to announce the “Good News” to the “lost sheep of Israel,” he warned that they would find themselves as “sheep among wolves.” Hostile men would haul them before “councils and whip them in their synagogues,” and they would be hated “by all men for my sake.” That was the harsh reality Christ’s disciples discovered when they proclaimed his message to the world.

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Golgotha or Rome

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Jesus refused the political power of Rome when Satan offered it. So, why do we insist on seeking the very thing our Master rejected?

The teachings of Jesus and his Apostles in multiple ways summon Christians not to be “unequally yoked together” with this world and its values. What humanity needs is the Good News of the Kingdom of God and the salvation provided by Jesus Christ. Since the “forms” of this present age are in the process of “passing away,” the Church should not waste its efforts on “working for the meat that perishes”?

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Excusing Sin

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Why do church leaders excuse lying, adultery, extortion, and other serious sins when committed by their political allies?

Early in my Christian life, I was taught to strive for holiness in every area of life whether private or public, and as a disciple of Jesus, I must be separate from the ways of this fallen world, not physically, but spiritually and morally. As the Apostle Paul warned the Church of Ephesus, “But fornication, and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you!”

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Kingdom Power

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True greatness in Christ’s Kingdom is found in self-sacrificial service for others, not in exercising political power over them.

Too many Christians have exchanged the proclamation of the Gospel for the pursuit of one political agenda or another, especially in North America. Rather than calling men and women to repent and believe the same Gospel preached by Jesus and his Apostles, they prefer imposing their views and visions via the corrupt political systems of this fallen age. However, this is not the way of discipleship exemplified in the words and deeds of Jesus.

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