«　WEEK 6　DAY 2　»

　　Acts 26:18 To open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God...

　　Col. 1:13 Who delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.

　　Have you ever realized how much the universe was affected by the fall of the angels and man and how big a problem this made for God? God desired that His creatures would accept His authority; however, both kinds of creatures rejected His authority. God was unable to establish His authority over the creatures. Nevertheless, God did not call back His authority. God can call back His presence, but He will never call back His system of authority. Wherever God's authority is, God is given a position of prominence. On the one hand, God maintains His system of authority, and on the other hand, He establishes His kingdom. Although Satan rebelled against God's authority, and although man daily violates His authority by rebelling against Him, God will not let this rebellion continue. He will establish His own kingdom. The Bible calls the kingdom of God the kingdom of the heavens because rebellion is not limited to just the world (Matt. 4:17; Mark 1:15). The angels in the heavens rebelled as well.

　　How did the Lord establish God's kingdom? He did it through submission. Whatever the Lord did on earth was entirely based on submission. He did nothing that opposed God's authority. Everything was in submission, in perfect cooperation with the authority of God. In this realm the Lord set up the kingdom of God and executed His authority. The church today must also allow God's authority to have a free way and manifest His kingdom through submission. (CWWN, vol. 47, “Authority and Submission,” pp. 147-148)

　　God determined to become a man; He became a man in the Son. This is a great matter. God became a man in the Son and entrusted all His authority to the Son. Therefore, all of God's glory is in the Son. We can say that the Son is the embodiment of God's authority. When the Lord Jesus stood as a man among the Jews and was questioned by some of them as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered, “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Luke 17:20-21).

　　When the Lord Jesus spoke this word, He meant that He Himself was the kingdom of God—His being in the midst of the Jews was God's kingdom being in their midst. He did not want the Jews to think that the kingdom of God was “here” or “there”; actually, the kingdom of God was in their midst (v. 21). He Himself was the kingdom of God. All of God's authority was with Him, and God's throne also was with Him.

　　When we believed in the Lord, we received the Lord Jesus as our Savior and prayed, “Lord, I receive You into my being.” However, we did not know that the Lord whom we received is not only the Savior and the One who is life but also the King. He is the kingdom, and He is the authority....Today God's kingdom is not only outside of us but also within us. This kingdom is Christ, our Savior, who is the authority in us, having set up His throne in us and been enthroned in us.

　　As the Lord's disciples, we...must be clear that the Lord's primary focus is not that we would do good but that by being saved we would be brought under His authority and ruling. In the past our doing evil was rebellion toward Him, but our doing good also was rebellion toward Him, because we did not acknowledge His authority. Now because we repent and submit to Him, we should not take good or evil or morality as our standard. Instead, we should live under His ruling and government. If He forbids us, we should refrain from doing not only evil things but even good things. We must be restricted by Him and accept His ruling. (CWWL, 1957, vol. 2, “What the Kingdom Is to the Believers,” pp. 427-428, 470-471)

　　Further Reading: CWWN, vol. 47, “Authority and Submission,” ch. 6; CWWL, 1957, vol. 2, “What the Kingdom Is to the Believers,” chs. 3, 6-7