A GENUINE INVASION

Stephen Freeman, Orthodox priest wrote:

“The great advantage to thinking about God in legal terms, is that nothing has to change. If what happens between us and God is entirely external, a matter of arranging things such as the avoidance of eternal punishment or the enjoyment of eternal reward, then the world can go on as it is. In the legal model that dominates contemporary Christian thought, the secular world of things becomes nothing more than an arena, the stage on which we act out our moral and psychological dilemmas, waiting only for our final grades to be issued when we die…

This is to say that if “accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior” only brings about a change in my eternal disposition, then it is largely meaningless in this world. Everything Christians do in this world would be but tokens of eternity. The miracles of Christ are more than moral lessons – they are genuine invasions of this world by the Kingdom of God, the in-breaking of heaven to earth. It is because He loved us that He sent His Son into the world – that we might be transformed.”

Freeman has given a clear definition of the difference in the Gospel of Salvation and the Gospel of the Kingdom. Salvation is not a legal action so ‘now we can go to heaven,’ but the entry piece to being transformed into Kingdom likeness so heaven can come to earth.

“The kingdom of God is not coming with signs that can be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst (or, within you).” Jesus