Two Kingdoms

In Colossians 1:13 we read about being delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of His beloved Son. Recently I have been thinking about this transfer and what it means in this life and in the life to come after physical death. As I thought about this a picture began to form in my mind that I could use to help express my thoughts. That picture is shown below.

The circle represents the world where we live in our physical bodies, but because of sin this world is different than it was when first created by God. In the beginning God looked at it and declared it to be very good, but when mankind choose to disobey God his creation fell into disrepair and spiritual darkness filled our hearts. We should stop and back up some and introduce another picture.

Let’s begin at point “A” when conception takes place and we begin an eternal existence as a unique person of value in the womb of our mother. As time progresses from “A” to “B” our fetus continues to develop. At a particular time, labeled as “B” physical birth takes place and we are born physically into the world into the domain of darkness. This is the same as “P” in the first picture.

In this domain of darkness, life is described in Ephesians 6:12 to be a struggle that “is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (NASB). Those spiritual forces of wickedness impact the world and are shown in black in the picture and labeled as the Domain of Darkness. Each person born physically “P” into the world is born spiritually dead in this domain of darkness. If our condition does not change while physically alive, we will pass on into eternal darkness of death “D” at physical death, which is shown as “C” in the second picture.

If during our physical life we should respond to the gospel message and experience spiritual birth “S” we then become spiritual alive as new creatures in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17) and are delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred to the kingdom of His beloved Son (the area represented by the white rectangle). As the light of the gospel now shines into the darkness in our hearts we begin to understand spiritual things of God.

We are getting ahead of ourselves again and need to stop and back up to a point in the born again process I wish to call spiritual conception. After gospel presentations and the work of the Holy Spirit a person may come to the point of belief and respond by accepting the work completed by Jesus Christ on the cross. This is a person’s entry point into kingdom living in an eternal relationship with God. This new creature in Christ lives within our physical body in a sense like the fetus lives within the amniotic sac within the womb. Both live inside something as they continue to develop toward birth into another existence. At physical birth the fetus leaves the amniotic sac and comes forth from the womb as a screaming child. At physical death the new creature in Christ comes forth from the physical body as a totally excited person in the realm of heaven.

We need to back up again to the time between spiritual conception and physical death. Before physical birth the fetus was attached to its source of life by the umbilical cord. The new creature in Christ is attached to its source of life as a branch attached to the vine. As the physical body moves toward physical death the spiritual person continues to draw life from God and develops as a spiritual person preparing for entry into heaven.

Each one of these major points along the pathway of life increases our level of awareness and requires a learning process. As the spiritual person develops within the physical body there is a dual nature to deal with. There is our sinful flesh that desires to continue to live in the ways of the world and there is the new creature in Christ that desires to become more like Jesus Christ and grow in kingdom living. As we proceed toward physical death, God’s desire for us is that we would learn to daily crucify our old nature and grow in Christ-likeness. It is a time of growing in kingdom living.

When we pass point “C” and enter heaven, we have left behind our physical body but have some form of body that allows us to function in that realm and to recognize each other. The process of salvation is not yet finished. For a time we will live between points “C” and “D” gaining experience and learning much waiting for the time when we will be given our resurrected body “R”. At that point our salvation is complete and we are completely restored and are truly perfect and complete. With those resurrected bodies we will be able to live with God on the new earth enjoying a universe that is completely restored in every detail according to God’s perfect design.

What I want my reader to see and understand is how important each segment of life is in preparing for the next. We must be very careful not to stay so focused in our current segment that we fail to adequately prepare for the next.