The Structure of God’s Kingdom
Covenant Keepers | By Suzie Hartwright
Posted September 22, 2015
Q: Why is it important to know how God has structured His Kingdom?
A: It’s vital to know and understand if God is speaking directly to you today when you read the scriptures. We need to understand what God requires of us and who He says we are in Him. This is because He has made lots of promises to only one specific group people. Everyone can gain access to those promises; however, not everyone will have access because, although God made everyone and knows who they are; He doesn’t call everyone His children. He offers that to all people; but not all will accept that offer.
What does this have to do with God’s Everlasting Covenant and the blood of Jesus Christ?
Who are God’s people?
Is there more than one Body of Christ or just one?
Today, is there one sheep fold or are there still two that are separated?
John 10:16
“And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold:
them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice;
and there shall be one fold, and one Shepherd.”
A building has structure. Everything has some type of structure whether it is a butterfly, a blade of grass, a rock or mankind. All the cells in our bodies have an order that’s designed and structured in a certain way for a specific function and a purpose.
I’m not sure how many Christians would think of the gospel of Jesus Christ in that way, but God is a designer of structure, order, function and purpose. God the Father established and created the plan of our eternal salvation and He has called it His Everlasting Covenant, the Everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Does this covenant of salvation apply to everyone? No.
Will everyone be saved from damnation? No.
Who can enter into this covenant? Everyone.
God has partitioned the whole world of mankind into only two categories.
The sheep and the goats.
The saved and the unsaved.
The righteous and the wicked.
The children of God and the children of the devil.
This structure is very easy to see when we break it down into these two simple groups. But we Christians have lost sight of the pure simplicity of God’s word concerning this structure. We’ve added serious errors to this simple concept and it has been the derailing of our understanding of God’s covenant, the gospel of Jesus Christ. How far can a train go if it gets derailed before it leaves town? How far can a plane go if it crashes before lift off? What am I talking about???
We need to know and understand first of all that if there are only two groups of people as far as God is concerned; then there are only two groups of people.
If there is only one Body of Christ; then that means we are not many Bodies of Christ; there are many members, but only one body. Jesus only has one flock because He said He made them one by the death of His cross.
Ephesians 2:11-19
“Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;”
These scriptures are pointing out that before Jesus Christ came in the flesh, died on the cross of Calvary and resurrected into heaven; the Gentiles who were practicing unrepentant sinning were without God and didn’t have any hope because they were not part or partakers of the covenant of salvation.
In a nut shell; the Everlasting Covenant and the gospel of Jesus Christ are the same thing. Those Gentiles didn’t know about the gospel of Jesus Christ, that their sins caused them to be doomed to the death penalty that comes from committing a sin. They had no understanding of faith in a Savior (Messiah) Jesus Christ as their substitute, their intercessor, their mediator. Prior to that they also didn’t know that they had to confess, repent and ask for forgiveness of their sins or that they had to follow the Old Testament covenant in the earthly sanctuary under the Levitical priesthood. That was the mechanism and process that God chose to establish for justification and salvation until His Son would come.
Ephesians is also speaking about the abolishment of that earthly sanctuary system. Those offerings and sacrifices could never erase sin, they were only symbolic place holders and a type of credit that would be ratified at the cross of Jesus Christ and His ascension into heaven. Only the blood of Jesus Christ could/can save anyone including the Old Testament folks who were under the bondage of the first covenant in animals blood which existed from Adam to the cross.
Jesus Christ made the way for those who knew the covenant of salvation and He made a way for all those Gentiles who had no idea at all about how to access the blood of Jesus for their salvation. The Lord made that way through His death on the cross and His resurrection into heaven to be able to send the Holy Spirit. The function of the Holy Spirit is to give us life; not just phyisical life but spiritual life. The Holy Spirit is part of the many promises of the Everlasting Covenant of salvation. The Holy Spirit is only administered as part of God’s covenant. I believe very few people realize this and the importance of it.
The Holy Spirit is A Promise of God’s Covenant of Salvation:
Galatians 3:14
“That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”
Ephesians 1:13
“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in Whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,”
The Holy Spirit Gives Us Eternal Life:
John 6:63
“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing:
the words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit, and they are life.”
Romans 8:2
“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”
Romans 8:10
“And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin;
but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”
2Corinthians 3:6
“Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.”
Galatians 6:8
“For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption;
but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”