07 Kingdom of Heaven and Divine Fatherhood

CHAPTER VII. THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN AND THE DIVINE FATHERHOOD. IN the preceding chapter something has been said about the Old Testament conception of holiness. I tried to trace in broad outline the steps by which the notion became purified. Starting from a bare notion of having to do with deity and with but a vague idea of the nature of Godhead itself, the conception at last became clearer as it was interpreted by prophets inspired by the Divine Spirit. They saw that the essential basis of any relation of the human to the Divine must be a moral one, and that the Character of God Himself could only be interpreted ethically.

It is necessary now to pass from the old Testament to the New, in order to see how the relation of the human to the divine was set forth by Jesus Christ, and to see how His teaching and life influenced the life and thought of those who interpreted them to the world. We shall find running through the New Testament, as through the Old, the two-fold conception of holiness as defining on the one hand relation to Deity and on the other the Character of God Himself. We shall learn, as we could not learn from the Old Testament, how God Himself can be known, and what is the hope of mankind of realising this Divine knowledge.

It would be impossible to understand Christ’s teaching without bearing in mind the two most important features of it, namely, His proclamation of the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven, and His revelation of the Fatherhood of God. These two points must be touched on here.

We have become so accustomed to the expression the ’ Kingdom of Heaven,’ that we perhaps fail to enter into the grandeur of the conception implied in it. The very simplicity of the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, " Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven," may blind us to the full extent of their meaning.

There does not seem to be any real difference between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven, and I shall use the two expressions as synonymous. The phrase "The Kingdom of God" would seem to be equivalent to the Rule or Reign of God. The idea was a Jewish one; and the announcement that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand, made both by the Baptist and Christ Himself, fell on ears which already knew the sound of the words, even though those who heard them failed to gauge the fulness of their meaning. The expectation of a kingdom which should be universal and directed from Heaven had been awakened in men’s minds by the visions of prophets. Thus in Zechariah 14:9 we have : " And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall the Lord be one, and his name one." And there was the vision of Daniel which promised the fulfilment of this Kingdom through the agency of a Son of man. " I saw in the night visions, and behold there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto the Son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and languages should serve him : his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed " (Daniel 7:13-14 [There are some interesting statements about the Kingdom of Heaven to be found in Edersheim’s Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. i., pp. 267-8. I have no acquaintance with Rabbinic literature and therefore cannot verify Edersheim’s quotations. Their accuracy and their interpretation must be left of course to experts.]).

Now, there can be no doubt that Jesus claimed to usher in the true Kingdom of God, and Himself to be the Messiah through whose mediation the Kingdom was to be realised. That He, in spite of His refusals to be made a king, yet claimed to be a king is clear, from His own words in answer to Pilate’s questioning: " Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world that I should bear witness to the truth. Every one I that is of the truth heareth my voice." [St.John 18:37.] But that His Kingdom was of no ordinary kind is shewn by His previous words to Pilate : " My kingdom is not of this world : if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now is my kingdom not from hence." To which Pilate had said in words of utter surprise and perhaps of scorn : " Art thou a king then? " (oukoun basileuj ei su). [Compare with this emphasis on the personal pronoun that in Pilate’s other question : " Am I a Jew? " (mhti egw Ioudaioj eimi)]

Nothing then could be more marked than the con- trast between the claims of Jesus to be a King, and the appearance He presented to the eyes of men in general. And that the Kingdom of the Messiah, by whose advent the Kingdom of God was to be fully manifested, was not after the kingdoms of this world was just what the disciples of Jesus found it so hard to under- stand. Such a request as that made for the two sons of Zebedee : " Command (eipe) that these my two sons may sit, one on thy right hand, and one on thy left hand in thy kingdom," [St.Matthew 20:21.] shews how earthly were their notions of the Messiah’s Kingdom. We remember too how on the eve of the passion as the disciples sat at meat with Him, there arose a contention among them which of them is accounted the greatest. And He said unto them: " The kings of the Gentiles have lord- ship over them; and they that have authority over them are called benefactors (euergetai). But ye shall not be so : but he that is the greater among you, let him become as the younger ; and he that is chief as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am in the midst of you as he that serveth. But ye are they that have continued with me in my temptations ; and I appoint unto you a kingdom, even as my Father appointed unto me... " [St.Luke 22:24ff. I do not think the wealth of meaning contained in the words of verse 25 has been appreciated by commentators. I do not think that ’ benefactors ’ should be written with a capital B as in the Revised Version. Benefaction or doing good is thought by the carnal mind to proceed from self-assertion, but to the spiritual mind it is seen as service. This seems to me to be the meaning of the Lord’s words.] The rulers of the Jews could not receive the Kingdom because they were so carnally minded. When the Pharisees asked Jesus when the Kingdom of God cometh, He answered them and said, " The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation : neither shall they say Lo here ! or There ! for lo, the Kingdom of God is in the midst of you" (entoj umin, within you)/ St. Luke 17:20; Luke 17:21. The realisation of the Kingdom of God meant to them no doubt the setting up of Messiah’s Kingdom in visible splendour, shaking off the dominion of Rome, and inviting or compelling all nations to recognise the divinely appointed king. It is when we realise this that we see the force of the temptation wherewith Jesus Christ was assailed.

Whatever expectations then the Jews had of a Rule of God and of a Kingdom of the Messiah, we can see clearly that Christ’s teaching of the Kingdom and their hopes were radically opposed. Their proud boast of descent from their father Abraham seemed to them sufficient claim for a share in the Kingdom. John the Baptist had to correct such misplaced hopes: " Think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our Father : for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham " (St. Matthew 3:9). And Jesus Himself would make clear to Nicodemus the spiritual nature of the Kingdom of God when He told him in words which sorely puzzled his hearer : " Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born anwqen (anew or from above) he cannot see the Kingdom of God." [St.John 3:5.] The Kingdom of God was not to come "with observation," but none the less it was very real. The Rule or Reign of God. The notion is of a complete; surrender of man as a subject of the Divine King. Nothing short of this is intended by the Kingdom of God the recognition of God’s right to rule and man’s duty to obey. And in speaking of man’s duty I mean what I have all along been calling moral duty, not, if I may be pardoned the expression, his prudential duty. It is not that, if he does not obey, he will be punished. But he ought (absolutely and unconditionally) to obey. But such a duty of obedience, if it is to be moral, must have its justification in the moral reason.

I do not propose here to speak of the connection between the Kingdom of God and the Church. We are not now speaking of the exact way in which the Kingdom was to be realised but rather of the general notion of the Kingdom of God.

We must now pass to the second great subject of Christ’s teaching the Fatherhood of God. This thought of the Divine Fatherhood is one with which we have become so familiar that it is not at all easy to go back in thought to the time when the teaching was new, as it was when Christ revealed God as Father. There had been nothing like this in the Old Testament. The prophet Hosea’s simile of Israel as a son whom God had brought forth out of Egypt in love and tenderness falls very far short of our Lord’s teaching of the Fatherhood of God and the sonship of men.

Bishop Westcott has said on this point : " The idea of Fatherhood in the Old Testament is determined by the conceptions of an Eastern household, and it is nowhere extended to man generally. God is the great Head of the family which looks back to Him as its Author. His ’ children ’ owe Him absolute obedience and reverence: they are ’in His hand’: and conversely He offers them wise counsel and protection. But the ruling thought throughout is that of authority and not of love. The relationship is derived from a peculiar manifestation of God’s Providence to one race (Exodus 4:22; Hosea 11:1) and not from the original connection of man as man with God. If the nobility of sonship is to be extended to Gentiles, it is by their incorporation in the chosen family (Psalm Ixxxvii.)."

" But in the gospels the idea of Sonship is spiritual and personal. God is revealed as the Giver and Sustainer (Matthew 7:9 if.) of a life like His own, to those who were created in His image, after His likeness, but who have been alienated from Him (Luke 15:11 ff.) The original capacity of man to receive God is declared, and at the same time the will of God to satisfy it. Both facts are set forth once for all in the person of Him who was both the Son of Man and the Son of God." [See Westcott’s Epixtles of St. John, Additional Note on 1:2.]

These words seem to me so exactly to express the truth of Christ’s teaching that I have ventured to quote them at length rather than use poorer words of my own. It may be questioned whether many Christian teachers of to-day have, as much as they should, entered into the depth of meaning of this truth of Divine Fatherhood, which is too often restricted to mean only the love and tender care of God for the creatures whom He has made. But that there is far more than this contained in Christ’s doctrine of the Divine Fatherhood is clear both from His own words recorded in the gospels, and from the doctrine of the Apostles preserved for us in the later books of the New Testament. With these last we are not at present concerned; it is with the words of Jesus Christ Himself we have now to do assuming always, I may here add, that the gospels give a faithful report of what He did and taught. To enter into a critical discussion on this last point is alien to our present purpose. I may observe, however, that if we will but take the recorded words and works and see what follows from them we shall perhaps be the better able to form a judgment whether Christ really said and taught and did what is reported of Him.

Now it is to be noticed that Christ did not reveal God as the Father of sentient creatures in general as He would have done if the Fatherhood of God had meant no more than the care of God for His creation. The correlative of the Divine Fatherhood in the gospels is the Sonship of Men. This comes out strikingly for example in Christ’s words as recorded in St. Matthew 6:25-26 : " Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink ; nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than the food, and the body than the raiment? Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns ; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not of much more value than they "? We must not fail to notice that Christ does not here say ’ their heavenly Father ’ but ’ your heavenly Father.’ And the force of the appeal is greatly strengthened if this point be noticed. If God care for the birds, how much more will He care for His children, who are of much more value than the birds? The same thought occurs again in St. Matthew 10:29 (|| St. Luke 12:6; Luke 12:7) : " Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father 1 [do not stop and discuss the matter, but this verse has often seemed to me to encourage the belief that the lower animals pass through death to another sphere.] but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore ; ye are of more value than many sparrows."

Christ then addressed Himself to man and spoke of ’ your Father.’ It is not as the Creator that He would reveal God nor yet as the Creator who cares for what He has created, though such thoughts are implicit in His teaching. The truth He reveals goes infinitely beyond this. He teaches men what they had not realized before, though glimmerings of the truth had already reached them through the inspiration of the Divine Spirit on a chosen few, that man is intended to have, and in part already has, a share in the Divine nature, the Divine life. The community of nature between the Divine and the human, made intelligible to us by the Incarnation of the Divine Son, will be found to be the key to unlock the deep meaning of Christ’s teaching. If for the truth of the Divine Fatherhood revealed in the Gospel, we substitute the smaller truth of the Divine love or care for the creation, we miss the very point which gives meaning to the Incarnation. And we observe .that Jesus Christ sets the Divine Father before us for our imitation as when He says : " Love your enemies and pray for them that persecute you ; that ye may be sons of your Father which is in heaven : for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust" (St. Matthew 5:44); and again " Ye therefore shall be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." I think then that we must conclude that our Lord Jesus Christ taught that man’s moral life was in some way or other based on the Divine Life. And it is the doctrine of the Divine Fatherhood which helps us to understand Christ’s teaching about the ’ Eternal Life.’ The one cannot be understood without the other. For the Eternal Life of which Christ spoke cannot be interpreted as a mere endless prolongation of life in another sphere. It is a sharing in some sense of the Divine Life. This Eternal Life Christ seems often to have spoken of. In St. John’s Gospel in particular we find the words many times on his lips. And though the synoptists do not so frequently as St. John refer to this manner of speaking, yet we can see from their writings that the Eternal Life must have been an important subject of Christ’s teaching and that it must have formed the ground of the question asked by the young man : " Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? " This question and the answer our Lord gave to it are sufficiently instructive to justify a further examination of the incident. The question asked by the young man is slightly differently given by St. Matthew and St. Mark. [See St.Matthew 19:16ff. St.Mark 10:17f. Compare St.Luke 18:18.] According to St. Matthew the question was : " Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? " According to St. Mark it was : " Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? " But according to both evangelists the Lord questioned the eager young man as to the meaning of the question he had put, but without waiting for his answer. " Why dost thou ask me about the good? One there is who is good." These are the Lord’s words as given by St. Matthew. And St. Mark has, suitably with the form in which the question was put by the young man according to this evangelist : " Why callest thou me good? None is good save one, God." Of course we do not know which was the actual question put by the young man. It may have been a combination of these two reports of it. He may have said : " Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? " It would be profitless to discuss this point. But one thing is clear. Both evangelists record how the Lord called the enquirer to an analysis of his question This word ’ good ’ how laxly you use it ! Its only true application is to God Himself.

We shall see in the next chapter that our Lord was here giving an answer to the question that philosophers have long sought to answer, and could not : What is the Good? Men have sought to know what is the highest Good for man, the suramum bonum. Christ has given an answer, as we shall presently see. This young and eager enquirer after eternal life, then, the Lord directs to the source of all life and goodness God. But what is he to do? The answer is that if he would enter into Life (eij thn zwhn) he must keep the commandments. But what command- ments? What is their nature (poiaj)? Jesus said The commandment (to) Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother ; and Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But this is just what he had all along been doing. There must be something more. What was it? " If thou wouldest be perfect (teleioj) if thou wouldest reach the fulness of thy purpose and attain the Eternal Life then go, sell that thou hast and give to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in heaven ; and come, follow me. But when the young man heard the saying, he went away sorrowful : for he was one that had great possessions."

Now this incident is deeply instructive. For it is the Lord’s instruction in Life. The first requirement Jesus Christ teaches his enquirer is obedience to the Divine commands. These commands are in the first place general they are the restrictions imposed upon and the requirements made of all alike. But then a further limitation must be laid upon this young man. What men call worldly goods were keeping him from the Good God, the very fount of the eternal Life he wished to share in. " Go sell all thou hast, give to the poor, and come follow me."

It was a tremendous demand to make, but then the young man had asked a great thing for himself. What he had asked for was nothing short of a share in the Divine Life. He wanted to attain to the highest of which he is capable. He wished to know how this Eternal Life of which Jesus spoke was to be had ; what he must do to get it. The demand made upon him was great because the prize was great. The great renunciation of self was more than he expected to be required for sharing the Divine Life.

Now this question put by the young man and our Lord’s answer thereto help us to put together the two separate yet complementary truths contained in the teaching of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Divine Fatherhood. The latter of these teaches a community of nature, possible though not actually realised, between man and God, the former the absolute dependence of man on God for the realisation of that nature. Man’s obedience to God is still the essential condition of learning what God is and of entering into the Divine Life.

Hence the great importance attaching to obedience in our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. It would of course be the very greatest mistake to say that Christianity is the Sermon on the Mount. The strictness of the morality imposed in that discourse (and it is very strict) must be coupled in thought with the revelation of the relation of the Human to the Divine as given by Christ Himself in the teaching of the Divine Fatherhood. Obedience to a divine rule is seen to be a necessity for understanding and sharing in the divine nature. Man is to learn God in the truth of his own moral life. And it should be borne in mind that Christ’s law as contained in the Sermon on the Mount is positive rather than negative. The old law consisted of a series of negatives, though there are positive injunctions even there, as for example in the fifth commandment : " Honour thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Yet we may say that on the whole the old law consisted largely of restrictions placed on human conduct. ’ Thou shalt not ’ is more common than ’ Thou shalt.’ On the other hand Christ prefaces His law with the beatitudes : Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake. It is a certain positive temper of mind that Christ commends rather than a series of restrictions that He imposes. But at the same time while restriction is not the chief and foremost part of His teaching, He is careful to assert its absolute necessity on His followers. " Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets : I came not to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the law, till all things be accomplished. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven : but whosoever shall do and teach them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." [St. Matthew 5:17-20. ] And then He proceeds to shew the absolute bindingness of the restrictive commandments upon His disciples. And these restrictions he makes more stringent than before. " Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not kill ; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment : but I say unto you (and in so speaking He makes Himself a Divine Lawgiver) that every one who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment ; and whosoever shall say to his brother Raca, shall be in danger of the council ; and whosoever shall say Thou fool, shall be in danger of the Gehenna of fire." [St. Matthew 5:21; Matthew 5:22.] So does the new Lawgiver brand as dangerous and deadly the sins of hatred, contempt and condemnation.

Again, the seventh commandment He makes more strict. " Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt not commit adultery : but I say unto you, that every- one that looketh on a woman in order that he may lust after her (proj to etiqumhsai authn) hath committed adultery with her in his heart."

Once more : " Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy : but I say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you; that ye may be sons of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. For if ye love them that love you what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the Gentiles the same? Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." [St. Matthew 5:43-48.]

These concluding words shew how much more the Sermon on the Mount is than a mere code of rules. So far as it is a code of rules at all, it is one based on the fact of a certain relationship between God and man, and a certain partly revealed character of the Father in heaven. God, who is the Father of mankind, is merciful and kind. We who are His children must be like Him. There was no such revelation of God and His character in the old law. By laws of restriction men had first to learn, and to learn gradually, the holiness of God, who now reveals Himself in holiness and love. And it was, as we have seen, emphatically declared by our Lord Jesus Christ that He came to fulfil and not to destroy the law and the prophets. In the last chapter we saw how the old dispensation took as its starting-point an already existing notion of consecration or holiness, and attached to the conditions of its maintenance certain moral laws. These moral laws were declared to be the will of Jehovah for the people whom He had favoured by a great deliverance from Egypt, and whom He proposed to hold in a certain relationship with Himself. Israel was a " holy " nation, with a definite law to obey. Now the privilege of relationship involved in the call to be " holy " was one that would naturally be clung to; but the conditions of the continuance of the privilege were irksome. It was easier to do ceremonial service, to offer sacrifice and burnt offerings to secure the divine favour. But obedience to the divine commandment in other respects was not easy, and the necessity for obedience was hardly learnt. In the last chapter we traced the gradual purification of the conception of the nation’s holiness. We saw how inspired prophets had insight to see in the divine law given to Israel not an arbitrary restriction placed on the liberties of the nation, but an expression in some sense of the divine character. The relationship of the nation to Jehovah was impossible unless His commandments were obeyed, for Jehovah was Himself holy.

Now the new dispensation starts where the old left off, and not where it began. The holiness of God as meaning His character is taken for granted, but there is a further step forward when the moral life of man is seen to be not merely pleasing to God but also an entering into the life of God Himself. The moral law is declared to be not only the expression of the divine will for man, but to be also a manifestation to man of what God is in Himself. God is seen to be Love as well as Holiness.

It would be the very shallowest reading of the New Testament to say that Christ came simply to give a law of human duty of man to man ; came, as we say in modern phraseology, to save society. There is no salvation for society save in the society of God. Christ declared in plain and unmistakable words that He came to give men life eternal. And this is life eternal, to know the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He sent.

Thus our Lord’s teaching on the Kingdom of Heaven and the Divine Fatherhood is designed to present to us two complementary truths, namely, that man’s moral life can only be regulated by obedience to the divine rule and guidance, while at the same time such rule is not only governance and external control, but is also the means whereby God imparts His own character to us, that we may know it our- selves, and present it before Him for the satisfaction of His infinite love.

Man is not like to horse and mule, which have no understanding. He is not in receipt of a rule for his obedience without a knowledge of its reason. He is not kept in check simply to prevent him from doing mischief. He is himself made to know the ’ Good,’ the end of his own being, and to become a fellow- worker with God in the fulfilment of that end.