Thursday, February 28, 2008

The Father’s Good Pleasure

It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32)
This verse has recently captured me and I have been meditating on it, letting it soak in over the last few days. It has taken a particular significance for me because I have been blogging quite a bit for the past couple of months about the kingdom of Heaven on Earth in Matthew’s Gospel.

One thing I notice is that it is about what pleases the Father. It pleases Him to give us His kingdom. Therefore, this must be about faith, because without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). The Father wants to give us His kingdom, but He is not going to do it apart from faith. We must believe it to receive it, then we will see it.

God is not only pleased to give us His kingdom, but it is His good pleasure to do so. The Greek word here is the same one we find when Jesus was baptized and the Father said declared, “You are My beloved Son; in you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). Our Father is well pleased to give us His kingdom. In fact, as much as God is pleased with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that is how pleased He is to give us His kingdom.

Another thing I see in this verse is inheritance because it is about what our Father is giving us. In Psalm 2, God tells Son, “Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for your inheritance” (Psalm 2:8). “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ” (Revelation 11:15). Paul tells us that as children of God we are joint-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17), which means that whatever Jesus inherits, we inherit.

It fully pleases our Father to give us His kingdom. This is not a future hope but a present reality, for the kingdom of Heaven on Earth is now present within all who belong to Him (Luke 17:21).



The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth

The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth
Keys to the Kingdom of God
in the Gospel of Matthew

by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

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