Righteousness, Peace, Joy in the Holy Ghost

I was going to blog about the kingdom of heaven being like a pearl of great price (Matt 13:45) but I felt the need to first of all talk about what Paul said to the Romans.

For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Romans 14:17).

First of all, it is called the kingdom of God because God is the King, and I agree entirely with what Zack says, because this is from the Bible: there are only two kingdoms, and if you are not in one, you’re in the other. There is no in-between, fence-sitting, lukewarm kingdom where one can have a little of this and a little of the other (Matt 25:33-46, Rev 3:16).

The kingdom of God is Righteousness: We need to be submitted to God in our every thought, word and deed. We must obey His every command without debate or compromise. He tells us to be holy, for He is holy (Leviticus 19:2). Of course, to attempt this in our own strength is to fool ourselves; it is impossible to try and live a holy life with our Adamic nature controlling us. The blessing in this is that God Himself became our Righteousness – when Jesus Christ died on the cross (Jer 23:6, 1 Cor 1:30). Now, for everyone covered in the Blood of Jesus Christ, all God sees when He looks at you is holiness. That’s how we have access to the throne of mercy. It is from this – the righteousness of God in us – that we draw the strength and are filled with the wisdom and temperance to obey His every command. This is not to say that we will not occasionally make mistakes (see Romans chapters 6 through 8). For as long as we are in this realm, we will have our flesh wrestling against our spirits. Living in righteousness is living in that place where sin will be abhorrent to us, so that should we stumble, we immediately recognize our error and repent, humbly and contritely.

The kingdom of God is Peace: The Bible says that the chastisement for our peace was upon Jesus Christ (Isaiah 53:5). This means that Jesus Christ took the punishment that was otherwise awaiting us, and He did it so that we could have peace. When you give your life to Christ and realize that He gave you His very own peace (John 14:27), then you will begin to walk in that peace. And when you do that, you will be walking and living in the kingdom of God; regardless of your positioning in this earth as a human being, you will spiritually be walking in the kingdom. Peace is a state of being where one is calm and unfazed, with the mind on Jesus Christ, regardless of what is going on in the immediate or distant surroundings.

The kingdom of God is Joy in the Holy Ghost: The fruit of the Spirit is joy, Galatians 5:22. It is impossible to live in the Holy Spirit and be devoid of joy. But what is joy? Joy can be said to be a prerequisite to peace. The world pursues happiness because it is lacking in joy. Joy is not an emotion; like peace, it is a state of being. It does not depend on the surroundings. There is no joy except in God, and the point in life at which one realizes this, is the point at which they begin to walk and live in the kingdom of God.

As I’m sure you can see, Kingdom things do not depend on earthly things, in order to function. Righteousness abounds despite surrounding unrighteousness as does peace despite surrounding turmoil, and joy despite surrounding heaviness. And I believe that although the kingdom of God is technically heaven, it begins here on earth – it is a gift to those in this realm who will dare to seek the LORD for their salvation. When we pass on to glory, we do not begin to live in the kingdom of God, we just continue on to a higher and absolutely perfect level of kingdom living in which the surrounding conditions are no different than internal or spiritual conditions. It is like Jesus said; faithful in little, faithful in much (Luke 16:10). If we are faithful to walk in the kingdom in this realm, then He will reward us by taking us to a higher realm in Him, to dwell with Him eternally (Matt 25:46). From glory to glory, Paul said, we will be changed into the image of Jesus (2 Cor 3:18).