Plague Journal (62); Thinking about kingdoms

In his letter to the church at Colossae, Paul says that Christians have been "rescued from the dominion of darkness." [Col. 1:13 NIV] We have been transferred to the dominion of Jesus. Here is the J.B. Phillips rendering of this verse:

 For we must never forget that he rescued us from the power of darkness, and re-established us in the kingdom of his beloved Son, that is, in the kingdom of light. 

I think that most Christians think about their personal conversion story when they read this verse. "I once was lost but now am found." But I think that Paul had more than conversion in mind here. There has been a change of realms, a change of dominions. Perhaps we can say, a change of kings.

So he's talking about an ongoing status or condition, not a moment in time, however fondly remembered. When one is transferred from slavery to freedom, or from darkness to light, all sorts of new patterns and practices may well ensue. In a Christian sense, this "transfer" involves as a ground-reality the forgiveness of one's sins (all and forever) and the presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer, affecting a transformation into Christlikeness over time.

That's the ideal, anyhow. But the idea behind it all is that there is a new king. That, after all, is the title that the followers of Jesus gave their master very early on. "Christ" is the Hebrew term for "anointed one," a title reserved for prophets, priests, and kings.

And of course we have the Book of Revelation, where the anointed one, Jesus, is seated on a throne (though he is pictured in the form of a lamb!). The point is, "Jesus reigns," or "The King is coming into his kingdom," are significant gateways into the full-orbed Gospel. When we speak of the good news, we are speaking in part about a kingdom ruled by Jesus, and one that is in some sense here, among us, and yet in a crucial way is not yet fully-born.

So we live in a time of two kingdoms, two kingdoms that vie for our allegiance. Because when we are talking about kings and kingdoms, we are also necessarily talking about allegiance. So, getting back to Colossians 1:13, Paul names the reality that Christians have a new allegiance. They reside, you might say, in a new kingdom, under a new king, different than the world's king. They have given their fealty to this new king, and that makes them a different people. 

For me, this brings to mind not so much the story of my conversion as the ongoing question, How should we then live? I want to give myself the assignment of attempting to answer that question in a future post. Stay tuned.