Kingdom Truths
For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ 2 Peter 1:11
Peter has already written that we are ‘to make very effort’ as Christians (1:5). To give as strong an emphasis as he can, he has added in the preceding verse to the one above ‘be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure’ (1:10) His emphatic concern is that we take responsibility to continue to the end of our lives being more deeply grounded in the same hope that we began our Christian journey with.
Although Peter has put a lot of emphasis on the need for personal growth and perseverance in the Christian faith, he now makes it abundantly clear that final salvation is not our achievement but the result of God’s lavish generosity.
Peter has three things to say about the kingdom. First, the kingdom is ‘eternal.’ The word literally means ‘of the age’ and in Jewish thought meant belonging to the coming age (or the age to come). The same word is used throughout the New Testament in the term ‘eternal life’ where it always meant the ‘life of the age’ or the ‘life of the age to come.’ Particularly through times of difficulty and persecution in the centuries leading up to Jesus’ time on earth, faithful Jews became increasingly disillusioned with ‘this age’ and longed for the time when God would break in and vindicate Himself and His people in the coming age. In Christ God did invade this age with ‘the age to come’ but not the way the Jews expected. The life of the age to come, literally, eternal life, is available now in Christ. God’s eternal kingdom, literally the kingdom of the age to come is here now but not in its fullness. It is often called the ‘already but not yet’ kingdom.
The second thing Peter says about the kingdom is that entry into its fullness is still future. Like Abraham we are called to faith and obedience. This world was not his home and it isn’t ours either. He pressed on looking ‘for the city … whose architect and builder is God’ (Hebrews 11:10). We do the same. We can ‘participate in the divine nature’ (1:4) but can’t yet enter the full ‘eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.’ This again is the ‘already but not yet’ kingdom. Some things are ‘realised’ now but the final outworking is still future.
The third thing Peter says about the kingdom is that it is the ‘kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.’ It is His kingdom. The kingdom is entered exclusively through relationship with Christ. In the conversation with the rich young ruler, Jesus first tells the man ‘Follow me’ (Mark 10:21) and then we read a series of equivalent expressions: ‘inherit the kingdom of God’ (10:17); ‘enter the kingdom of God’ (10:24) and ‘be saved’ (10:26). Jesus told the rich young ruler that following Him was the key to inheriting and entering the kingdom of God. Salvation was in Him alone. The kingdom is Christ’s kingdom, entered by faith in Him and continued in by yielded and faithful obedience to His command.
If you make your ‘calling and election sure’ (1:10) Peter says ‘you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’ (1:11). The picture is of a hero returning to his or her home city and being lavished with honours. That’s what Christ will do for us.
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