THE TEACHING OF JESUS CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND THE CHURCH By Geerhardu.; Vo.;, Ph. D., D. D. AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 150 NASSAU STREET NEW YORK ~ THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS Edited by JOHN H. KERR, D. D. THE TEACHING OF JESUS CONCERNING THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND THE CHURCH GEERHARDUS VOS. PH. D., D. D. ~ACHINGS THE OF JESUS CONCERNING HIS OWN MISSION. Frank H. Foster. Ready. THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND THE CHURCH. Geerhardus Vos. R£ady. HIS OWN PERSON ......•........ I1t preparatiolz. GOD THE FATHER .... , ... ~.. ... u THE SCRIPTURES ....•.......... CHRISTIAN CONDUCT * •• * •••••• u THE HOLY SPIRIT. .............• THE FUTURE LIFE. ...... " •.... THE FAMILy. ................... . THE CHRISTIAN LIFE ......... . A Series of volumes on the .. Teachings of Jesus" by eminent writers and divines. Cloth bound. r 2mo. Price 75 cts each postpaid. A1\IERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. Copyright, IlJ03. by AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY CONTENTS PAGE I. INTRODUCTORY. I II. THE KINGDOM AND THE OLD TESTAMENT. II III. KINGDOM AND KINGSHIP. THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. IV. THE PRESE~T AND THE FUTURE KINGDOM. V. CURRENT MISCONCEPTIONS RE- GARDING THE PRESENT AND Fu- TURE KINGDOMS. 66 VI. THE ESSENCE OF THE KINGDOM: THE KINGDOM AS THE SUPREM- ACY OF GOD IN THE SPHERE OF 80 SAVING POWER. VII. THE ESSENCE OF THE KINGDOM CONTINUED: THE KINGDOM IN THE SPHERE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 103 v VI Conte/zts PAGE VIII. THE ESSENCE OF THE KINGDOM CONTINUED: THE KINGDOM AS A STATE OF BLESSEDNESS. 125 IX. THE KINGDOM AND THE CHURCH. 140 X. THE ENTRANCE INTO THE KING DOM: REPENTANCE AND FAITH. 169 XI. RECAPITULATION. INDICES. CHAPTER I Introductory I N the body of our Lord's teaching as recorded in the Gospels the ref erences to the kingdom of God oc cupy a prominent place. According to the common testimony of the Synoptical Gospels Jesus opened his public ministry in Galilee with the announcement, that the kingdom was at hand, Matt. iv. 17; Mk. i. 15; Lk. iv. 43. In the last men tioned passage he even declares that the main purpose of his mission consists in the preaching of the good tidings of the kingdom of God. And not only does A I Tlte Kingdom and lite Clturclt 2 the conception thus stand significantly at the beginning of our Lord's work, it reappears at the culminating points of his teaching, as in the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount and in the king dom-parables. Its importance will best be felt by considering that the coming of the kingdom is the great event which Jesus connects with his appearance and activity, and that consequently in his teaching, which was so closely dependent on his working, this event must also have a corresponding prominence. If this be true from Jesus' own stand point, it is no less true from the stand point of his disciples. In their life likewise the kingdom of God forms the supreme object of pursuit, and there fore of necessity the theme about which before all other things they need care ful instruction. Again, the work of those whom Jesus trained as his special helpers in preaching related chiefly to this same subject, for he speaks of Introductory 3 them as scribes made disciples to the kingdom of heaven, Matt. xiii. 52. Better than by mere statistics showing the explicit references to the kingdom in our Lord's discourses can we along the above lines be led to appreciate how large a place the subject of our investigation must have had in his thought. It might be objected to all this, that in the version which the Fourth Gospel gives of Jesus' teaching, the idea of the kingdom plays a very subordinate role, indeed occurs only twice altogether, viz., J no. iii. 3, 5; xviii. 36. But this is a feature explain able from the peculiarity of John's Gos pel in general. Here the person of Jesus as the Son of God stands in the foreground, and the whole compass of his work is represented as given in and resulting from his person. Salvation according to the discourses preserved in this Gospel is made up of those primal elements into which the being of