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Scripture Reading: 2 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 14:10; 1 Cor. 10:32; Zech. 13:8-9; 8:20-23; Rev. 14:6-7; Matt. 25:31-46; Rev. 21:24; 22:2-5
After having been saved, we can be assured of our eternal security. However, we must be clear concerning the matters of the kingdom. The kingdom to us today is an exercise, and the kingdom to us in the next age is a reward. Although we can be assured of our eternal security, whether we will enjoy a reward or suffer loss in the future remains to be seen.
When the Lord returns, He will set up His judgment seat in the air to judge all the resurrected and raptured believers. This judgment will not decide the saints’ eternal salvation, because their salvation has been settled once for all. This judgment will decide whether or not the believers are qualified to enjoy the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens as a reward. This judgment will also decide whether or not the believers will need some sort of chastening, some sort of punishment, to help them to ripen. Second Corinthians 5:10 and Romans 14:10 are two verses telling us about this judgment seat. This judgment is different from the eternal judgment of God carried out at the great white throne revealed in Revelation 20:11-15. The eternal judgment at the great white throne will be to judge all the unbelievers for eternal punishment in the lake of fire. The judgment seat of Christ, however, is not for salvation or eternal perdition but for reward or punishment.
The five warnings in the book of Hebrews are also related to the matter of the kingdom (2:1-4; 3:7—4:13; 5:11—6:20; 10:19-39; 12:1-29). The rest referred to in chapters 3 and 4 of Hebrews will be the kingdom rest enjoyed by the overcoming believers in the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens. In the Old Testament the children of Israel were saved by the passover and were all delivered from Egypt, but not all of them entered into the land of Canaan, which typifies Christ as our rest (Deut. 12:9; Heb. 4:8). Among those who enjoyed the exodus from Egypt, only Joshua and Caleb entered into the good land and partook of it; all the rest fell in the wilderness (Num. 14:30; 1 Cor. 10:1-11). Two Israelites who had died before the exodus from Egypt also made it into the good land — Jacob and Joseph (Gen. 50:5-6; Josh. 24:32). Caleb and Joshua represent the living saints, and Jacob and Joseph represent the dead saints, who will enjoy Christ as their reward in the kingdom. If we do not understand the kingdom truths, we can never understand the book of Hebrews in a full way.
In each of the seven epistles written to the seven churches in Asia in the book of Revelation, there is a call for some overcomers and a reward promised to the overcomers. This reward is also something related to the kingdom (2:7, 10-11, 17, 26-29; 3:4-6, 11-13, 20-22).
First Corinthians 10:32 shows us the three classes of people in the New Testament times: (1) the Jews — God’s chosen people; (2) the Greeks — the unbelieving Gentiles; and (3) the church — a composition of the believers in Christ.
The church, of course, is comprised of the regenerated persons, the true believers, who are separated from the world. In the age of the millennium some of the believers will not be fully transformed, but the overcomers will be fully transformed. They will be ready for the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate composition of all the saved, transformed ones in the New Testament and all the redeemed saints of the Old Testament. The believers who are not transformed in this age will be transformed in the next age. All of these transformed, redeemed ones will be composed together in the age of eternity to be the New Jerusalem.
Now let us consider how the Lord will deal with the Jews at His coming back. During the age of the church the Lord has temporarily given up the people of Israel and treats them like the Gentiles. They must receive the gospel to be saved and become members of the church. But at the end of this age, according to Zechariah 12 and 13 and Romans 11, the Jewish nation will be revived and will turn to the Lord. Because this will occur during the tribulation, many will suffer and die. Zechariah 13:8-9 says that at least two-thirds of the living Jews will be cut off. This does not include the millions killed by Hitler. When the Lord Jesus comes back, the remaining one-third will repent and believe in the Lord. The house of Israel will be saved at that time.
After they are regenerated and saved, they will be translated into the millennial kingdom on the earth to be the priests teaching the nations how to serve God (Zech. 8; Isa. 2). The overcomers among the Christians will be the kings, the ruling ones, during the millennial kingdom, and the saved ones of Israel will be the priests.
Now we must consider how the Lord will deal with the nations. When the Lord comes back, He will send His angels to bring all the Gentiles unto Him, and He will judge them. This will be the judgment on the living Gentiles. In the New Testament we are told that the Lord Jesus will be the judge of the living and the dead (2 Tim. 4:1). As the righteous Judge, He will judge the living on His throne of glory at His second appearing (Matt. 25:31-46), and He will judge the dead on the great white throne after the millennium (Rev. 20:11-15). In Matthew 25:32 the Lord gathers all the nations before Him. “All the nations” are all the Gentiles who will be left at Christ’s coming back to the earth after He destroys those Gentiles who follow the Antichrist at Armageddon (Rev. 16:14, 16; 19:11-15, 19-21). Before the Lord comes back, there will be the three and a half years of the great tribulation, during which the Christians will suffer immensely. Revelation 14:6-7 tells us that during the great tribulation God will send an angel to preach an eternal gospel to the people on earth. The basic contents of this gospel are to fear God and to worship God. If the nations fear God during the great tribulation, they will not persecute any of God’s people. Neither will they worship the image set up by Antichrist.
During the great tribulation the Christians who are not ripe or ready to be raptured will be left on the earth to ripen, and they will suffer. These Christians are referred to as “the least of My brothers” in Matthew 25:40. They are the least brothers of the Lord. According to Matthew 25:32-46 the Lord’s judgment of the nations depends upon how they treat His brothers during the great tribulation. This corresponds to the parable told by the Lord in Matthew 13:47-50. In this parable the kingdom of the heavens is likened to a net cast into the sea and gathering from every species. The sea signifies the Gentile world. Every species (v. 47) signifies all the nations, all the Gentiles (25:32). The good are put into vessels, and the foul are cast out. This corresponds to the good sheep and the corrupt goats in Matthew 25:32. Remember that Matthew 25:32 says, “All the nations will be gathered before Him.” The word nations in Greek is the same as the word for Gentiles. All the Gentiles will be gathered unto the Lord, and the Lord will judge them based on the way they treated His little brothers, the Christians, during the great tribulation. So many of the Lord’s little brothers during the great tribulation will be hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and in prison (vv. 35-36). If by fearing and worshipping God the nations have well-treated the Christians, the Lord’s brothers suffering poverty and imprisonment under Antichrist’s persecution during the great tribulation, they will be justified by the Lord so that they may enter into the earthly part of the millennium to partake of the kingdom prepared by God for them from the foundation of the world (v. 34). If they have ill-treated them by following Antichrist and worshipping his image, they will be condemned and be cast into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (vv. 41, 46; 13:49-50).
Thus far, we have seen that in the millennium the overcoming Christians are the kings, the saved Israelites are the priests, and the nations are the people who obeyed the eternal gospel during the great tribulation. The overcoming Christians in the millennium are saved, regenerated, and fully transformed. They are the kings as well as the priests. They are the kingly priests, the royal priesthood, according to the order of Melchizedek (1 Pet. 2:9; Heb. 7:1-2). The saved and regenerated Jews who are the priests to the nations are not fully transformed yet. They are still in the old creation. They live on the earth to be the priests to teach the nations how to know and how to serve God. Later on, these Jews will be fully transformed and changed in body when the New Jerusalem is ushered in. Again, the New Jerusalem is a composition of all the saved, regenerated, redeemed, and transformed people. The nations in the millennial kingdom are not regenerated, as shown by the parable of the net in Matthew 13:47-50. The net in this parable gathers all the nations from the sea, which signifies the Gentile world.
At the end of the thousand years of the millennium, all the overcoming saints will be translated into the New Jerusalem. All the saints who were not ripened and yet became ripened during the millennium will be translated into the New Jerusalem also. The saved Israelites of the millennium and the redeemed Israelites of the Old Testament will also be changed and translated into the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem will be a composition of all God’s redeemed from eternity to eternity. At the end of the millennium some of the nations will rebel against God again. This is referred to in Revelation 20:8-10. Satan will induce the nations to rebel against the Lord, and all these rebellious ones will be destroyed. The rest of the nations will be translated into the new heaven and the new earth to be the peoples on the new earth.
Revelation 21:24 says that the nations will walk in the light of the New Jerusalem. All the saints in the New Jerusalem will enjoy the fruit of the tree of life as their food, and the leaves of this tree will be for the healing of the nations so that they can exist (22:2). The saints, who are the composition of the New Jerusalem, will also be the kings and the priests (vv. 3-5). They live by the fruit of the tree of life, and the nations exist by the leaves of the tree of life.
In conclusion, we must remember the crucial point concerning the kingdom. The kingdom is the requirement of the gospel, and this requirement can be met only by the life of Christ within us. After we have been regenerated, we must grow, mature in life, run the race, and pay the price to attain the goal of the uttermost enjoyment of Christ in the millennial kingdom as a reward to the overcomers.
When we as Christians are really under the rule, the exercise of the reality of the kingdom, we will be a group of people who will hasten the coming of the Lord (2 Pet. 3:12). This means that our living will hasten the coming of the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens. The Lord taught the disciples to pray for the coming of the kingdom (Matt. 6:10). We must pray for the kingdom to come and must live in the reality of the kingdom until the earth is fully recovered for God’s will in the coming kingdom age.
