The Kingdom of God Within Us
By D. J. C. BARRETT
SOMETHING MORE VALUABLE THAN MEAT AND DRINK—SPIRITUAL POWER FROM ABOVE—PEACE, JOY, AND REST BROUGHT INTO THE LIFE
“THE kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Rom. 14: 17. This text is a sublime declaration. It is an enunciation of a grand and glorious principle. It reveals clearly, definitely, positively, the perspective of the child of God. Eternal considerations are of supreme moment to the honest in heart, in contradistinction to the trifling, transitory, beggarly elements of the world which absorb the attention, the ambitions, the aims, of the unregenerate. A GRAND CONCEPTION OF CHRISTIAN INTEGRITY
“The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness . . . in the Holy Ghost.” This division of the text receives elucidation in the fortieth psalm—an elucidation of principle which gives it a fulness of meaning, a beauty of application, an enrichment of expression, that make it convincing, overpowering, to the seeker after truth: “I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, Thou knowest. I have not hid Thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation: I have not concealed Thy loving-kindness and Thy truth from the great congregation.” Ps. 40: 8-10. What a grand conception of Christian integrity! What a fulness of joy is expressed in these words! What sympathetic, kind, effective ministry we see depicted in this prophecy pointing to the life and ministry of our dear Saviour! What a volume of meaning in the first sentence, which is the foundation-stone of usefulness, acceptable service for the Master—“I delight to do Thy will, O my God: yea, Thy law is within my heart.” What a change—a sinful, wicked, diseased heart regenerated by the Spirit of God, and upon it written the law of God, the transcript of His character, the measurement of His righteousness, the fulfilling of duty! IT PROMPTS TO DEEDS OF KINDNESS
The law upon the heart prompts to deeds of kindness, gives a right focus on things spiritual. It is the motive power of the Christian. It fills one with an unspeakable longing, an irrepressible desire, to see souls saved in the kingdom of God. At conversion the Spirit of the Lord transcribes the eternal principles upon our hearts; and by word, deed, and life we exemplify these principles—imperfectly, we must admit—and as a result we “grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 3: 18. Examining these texts, we see a sequence of meaning, a marshaling of terms indicative of the fulness of the life of the one who has entered into covenant relation with the Master. The law upon his heart gives expression to effective preaching: “I have preached righteousness.” It reveals a straightforward course, an uncompromising surrender to the mandates of the divine: “I have declared Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation.” It manifests a sympathetic, a tender, a loving, a considerate ministry: “I have not concealed Thy loving-kindness and Thy truth from the great congregation.” The spiritual law makes one Christlike. It gives efficiency, effectiveness, converting power. It gives tenderness, sympathy, love. It gives the indwelling of the Spirit of God. The Shekinah of glory overshadows the law of God. Let us have this delight, this righteousness, this loving-kindness, this salvation, this truth. “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness . . . in the Holy Ghost.” Again, “the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but . . . peace . . . in the Holy Ghost,”—peace, glorious peace, the heritage of the child of God; that peace which flows unceasingly from the throne of God; that peace “which passeth all understanding”; that peace which involves absolute surrender to the divine will. “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Peace is found alone in Christ. It is the exclusive possession of the righteous. The wicked long for it, hope for it, pray for it, but without avail. When we come to Christ just as we are, sinful, childlike, humble, repentant, contrite, we have the blessed assurance: “The Lord will give strength unto His people; the Lord will bless His people with peace.” Ps. 29: 11. The psalmist rejoiced in this truth, and states the secret of the spiritual stability and permanency involved in the knowledge of it: “Great peace have they which love Thy law; and nothing shall offend them.” Ps. 119: 165. How beautiful this testimony! We see a desire to do right, a longing after righteousness, a panting after God, a burning conviction of the binding claims of God’s law, an acknowledgment of the righteousness of His precepts. We see the divine touch. We see the heart of man attuned to the heart of Omnipotence. “After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people.” Jer. 31: 33. What an exalted privilege for the heart of man to be in direct and sympathetic relation with that great heart of love, nourished, sustained, controlled, by a divine confidence! Let us experience direct and unbroken contact with heaven. Let us have Christ in us, “the hope of glory.” Let us have the constant and abiding presence of our dear Saviour, “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” IT BRINGS THE INDWELLING OF CHRIST
If we have the law upon the heart, we have the indwelling of Christ, we have His fulness, His righteousness, His peace, His joy. “He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.” John 14: 21. And again we read: “He that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And hereby we know that He abideth in us, by the Spirit which He hath given us.” 1 John 3: 24. Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost is the heritage of the one who loves and delights in the law of God. UNAGITATED AND UNMOVED UNDER ATTACK
Peace in God is the calm of the soul. Look at Jesus. The hosts of evil concentrate their attacks upon Him, but He remains unmoved, unagitated, uncontaminated. The admirable dignity of that peace which emanates from God rests securely in the arm of Omnipotence. This is our inheritance, our joy, our stability. “Peace be unto you.” Christ “saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” The intense longing of such a heart is, “Thy kingdom come.” “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but . . . peace . . . in the Holy Ghost.” “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but . . . joy in the Holy Ghost.” “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” Christ is all in all. Christ is our righteousness, our peace, our joy. The psalmist agonized for this experience. “Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation; and uphold me with Thy free Spirit.” Ps. 51: 12. Salvation is Christ enthroned in the heart, is righteousness in the Holy Spirit, is the law of God transcribed by the Spirit of God, is the freedom from the bondage of iniquity or lawlessness, is the glorious liberty found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” James 1: 25. GLORIOUS LIBERTY EXPERIENCED
Liberty, glorious liberty, is experienced in the life regulated by the “royal law”—that blessed relationship that comes about as a result of adoption into the family of heaven. “Whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is My brother, and My sister, and mother.” Mark 3: 35. When we come to God in humility, we receive the joy of His salvation. The Spirit of God writes upon our heart His holy law. Christ is enthroned, and “is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” 1 Cor. 1: 30. To have the law upon the heart is to have a heart purged, washed, cleansed. “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” should be our unceasing petition to God; and the blessedness of turning many to righteousness will be the joy of our souls. “Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.” Ps. 51: 13. A VISION OF THE SINLESS CHRIST
The messengers of Christ must be clean, pure, holy. They must be without sin, and by faith in Christ fulfil His holy law. To see our true selves, we must get a vision of231the sinless Christ. How befitting the words of Jude: “Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.” “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but . . . joy in the Holy Ghost.” Dear friends, do you have Christ? Can you behold His face, and see your life, your righteousness, your peace, your joy? Do you make Him your confidence? Can you say with Paul, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me”? Gal. 2: 20. Christ is knocking at the door of your heart for admittance. Let Him in. He is calling, tenderly pleading. He wants us to make Him our refuge. Let us accept Him. He will receive you just as you are, sinful, disheartened, discouraged, cast out, and will embrace you in His everlasting arms, in which are absolute security, absolute rest, absolute safety. A UNITED UNIVERSE ASCRIBE GLORY
“The kingdom of God is not meat and drink,” but “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Jesus, our crown of rejoicing, our Brother, our Friend, our Saviour, our Emmanuel—“God with us”! Blessed name, how exalted in the universe of God! At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, every tongue confess, every ear be attent. Angels adore Thee. The redeemed in rapturous song bespeak Thy wonderful deliverance. “And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.” Rev. 14: 3. A united universe ascribe glory to Thy name, “saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God forever and ever. Amen.” Rev. 7: 12. In Thy name the reclamation of the lost dominion! In Thy name a universe holy, pure, undefiled! In Thy name sin forever exterminated, annihilated! In Thy name joy forevermore! Paul expresses a deep concern for the true Israel—a concern which should be the embodiment of our Christian life, and which will manifest itself in “disinterested benevolence” toward our fellow men: “And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.” Phil. 1: 9-11. God grant that this prayer will be answered in our experiences, and at the revelation of His grace we will see Him as He is. “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”