Kingdom Perspective (2)

“…for in Him we live and move and have our being…” Acts 17.28

Too small?
Early in my walk with the Lord I came upon a book by J. B. Phillips entitled, Your God is Too Small. Phillips’ basic argument was that the God many Christians worship is not the God of the Bible, but a God they have created out of their own best ideas. I don’t recall all the different “too small” ideas of God that Phillips presented and debunked, but I believe his insights were sound, and I think it’s possible many people today have a “too small” view of God and His Kingdom.

How big is your God? How vast are His powers? How grand is the scope of His Kingdom and rule? For many believers today, God is barely big enough to meet their personal needs or satisfy their wants. Other believers would say that God is big – pretty big, anyway – but that He doesn’t interfere in everyday life or the workings, say, of science. He certainly should not be expected to have much influence in culture or social issues, or matters of public policy.

He’s just God, you know? He loves us. He saves our souls. He comforts us and meets our needs. We’re going to be with Him in heaven when we die. God is all about us, and it’s all good. Mostly.

“Too small” ideas about God are widespread among Christians whose view of God and of what it means to relate to Him is formed, not by the plain teaching of the Word of God, but by their experience in a secular culture where God is expected to mind His own business and stay out of ours.

The vastness of God
This is not, of course, what the Scriptures teach.

When the Apostle Paul explained to those Greek philosophers that he and they and everyone else and all things have their existence, movement, and continuance in God, he was merely echoing a belief Greek philosophers had understood for centuries. God is big. Really – really – big. Big enough to contain within Himself everything that is, all of time, and everything that ever will be. In Him we live and move and have our being.

Some time this week, do yourself the favor and watch the 1977 classic video, Powers of Ten, a film by Charles and Ray Eames. Powers of Ten can help you to gain a better sense of the magnitude of the cosmos – the creation that God has made – in terms of its vastness, diversity, complexity, hugeness, majesty, and mystery, as well as in its sub-particular, way-beyond-microscopic smallness and beauty.

The film begins with an overhead shot of a couple having a picnic. The narrator explains that, every ten seconds, the camera will back up by a magnitude of ten, as he explains at each stage what we are seeing. Soon enough we reach the far frontier of the vast cosmos, whereupon the camera quickly collapses back through the powers of ten images to the hand of the man, lying on his back. Then we proceed by powers of ten into the world of molecules, atoms, and particles that make up the cells of a person’s hand.

A 9-minute whirlwind tour of the cosmos, and a fun watch, to boot!

And all this, Paul insisted, exists in God. God is not part of the cosmos. He made it. He is a most pure Spirit, and all material being is separate from Him, but exists somehow within Him. He is bigger, vaster, more wonderful and mysterious and powerful than everything He has made, all of which exists in Him.

Upholding it all
Indeed, as Paul and the writer of Hebrews agree, Jesus Christ, seated at the right hand of God – and us with Him – upholds everything that exists by His powerful Word. Everything holds together in Him, by His command, according to His pleasure and will (Col. 1.17; Heb. 1.3). Nothing exists apart from God or beyond the reach of Jesus’ power. He rules everything, all the time, from the smallest sub-atomic particle to the far-flung reaches of the material cosmos. Everything exists in Him and everything obeys His will.

The rule of Jesus Christ – His Kingdom – encompasses everything, and He works all things, Paul tells us, according to the counsel of His will (Eph. 1.11). God calls us into this Kingdom, to know the power of Christ, sustaining, harmonizing, bringing into being and allowing to pass away everything that is.

So when Paul reminds us that the Kingdom of God, which all who have made the Kingdom turn have entered, does not consist in mere words, but in power (1 Cor. 4.20), he intends for us to think on this cosmic scale, to understand that the power that created and upholds the universe is now the power that is at work in and through us to do what pleases God and men, exceeding abundantly above all that we could ever ask or think (Phil. 2.13; Eph. 3.20).

In Him, and in His Kingdom, we have all the power for righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit we will ever need.

Next steps: How do you experience the power of God? How does knowing this power is at work within you affect the way you plan your week or live each day? Share your thoughts with a Christian friend. What will you dare to think or ask of God’s power, that you’ve never dared to think or ask before?

T. M. Moore
Additional Resources

This week’s study, Kingdom Perspective, is the second of an eight-part series on The Kingdom Turn, and is available as a free download. T. M. has written two books to complement this eight-part series. You can order The Kingship of Jesus by clicking here, and The Gospel of the Kingdom by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.