For the King and His Kingdom Are One

Don’t you think we just need more of an imagination?  Don’t you think too, after reading this, we need more of an imagination to speak these words to our children in ways that they can relate to, assimilate, and live in the reality of?

This from RC Sproul Jr, who lost both his wife and a daughter this past year:

“It is a good and glorious thing to remember what our union with Christ means in terms of our glorification.  His work did not merely acquire for us a verdict of not guilty.  Rather, because we are in union with Him, we are joint heirs with Him.  The glory that is His in His resurrection is ours.  The glory that is His in His ascension is ours.  We are even now, because we are in union with Him, seated with Him in the heavenly places.  We are kings and queens even now because we are one with Him—the One who reigns over all.

“There is, however, more still.  Remember that Jesus, when He met Saul on the road to Damascus, did not ask, “Why are you persecuting My bride?” but “Why are you persecuting Me?”  He, in union with us, so identifies with us, that what we suffer, He suffers.  Because we are one flesh, what one half suffers the other half does as well.  Because of our union with Him, Jesus suffered from acute myeloid leukemia.  Because of our union with Him, Jesus went into remission after a successful bone marrow transplant.  Because of our union with Him, Jesus relapsed.  Because of our union with Him, Jesus’ clinical trial was unable to slow the deadly progression of the disease.   Because of our union with Him, He was unable to try more chemotherapy because his kidneys began to fail.  Because of our union with Jesus, Jesus went into hospice, said goodbye to His friends, to His parents, His sister and brother, and to His little children.  Because of our union with Jesus, Jesus said goodbye to the man who loved her forever and always.  And because of our union with Jesus, Jesus, one with me, sat helpless while His bride waltzed into eternity.

"Jesus, however, was raised from the dead.  With Him was raised my beloved and with Him was raised my hope.  Because she is in union with Him, she has found the fullness of the kingdom, and His righteousness is now all her own.  Furthermore, because I am in union with Him, though I see through a glass darkly, I am there to dance with her.  Because I am in union with Him, I got to be there when Jesus and Denise welcomed our little girl Shannon to heavenly rest.

"We are called to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.  By His grace, we know that in His grace, His kingdom and His righteousness has been seeking us.  But even that is not the utmost glory of the kingdom.  The great glory of the kingdom is the glory of the King.  For the King and His kingdom are one, even as we and the King are one.  Rest and rejoice.  Give thanks and give praise."