Exclusion From The Kingdom

BY D.M. Panton

 

I. — Godly servants of Christ have understood the Scriptures to teach the possibility of a
believer’s exclusion.
 
So Mr. Robert Chapman: “Has any child of God any warrant of Scripture to expect that he will reign with the Lord during the period of Rev. xx.? But, on the contrary, has not every child of God a promise of reigning with Christ in the perfect and final state?”*
 
So Mr. G. H. Pember: “To those who believe on Him, but go no further, the Lord does, indeed, give eternal life; but the fruition of it will not begin until the Last Day, until the thousand years of the Millennial reign are ended. Such persons will not, therefore, be permitted to enter the Kingdom of the Heavens."
 
So Dr, A. T. Pierson: “The greatest of all the revelations about the future condition of the saints is, that they are to be identified with Jesus Christ in His reign, — that is, those who ‘overcome.’ Not all saints are to be elevated to this position; this is for victorious saints.”
 
So Mr. Robert Govett: “The native magnitude of this truth must speedily redeem it from all obscurity. Those who have the single eye will perceive its amplitude of evidence, and embrace it, in spite of the solemn awe of God which it produces, and the depth of our own responsibility which it discloses.”
 
2. — It is certain that all crowns are conditional on works done after faith. 2 Tim. ii. 5.
 
(1) The crown of incorruption. “In a race all run, but one receiveth the prize. Even so run, that ye may attain. And every man that striveth in the games is temperate in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible”(I Cor. ix. 24, 25). Can that racer be crowned who failed in
the running? Paul dreaded the loss of the crown for himself: “lest by any means, after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.”
 
(2) The crown of rejoicing. “What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye, before our Lord Jesus at His coming?” (I Thess. ii. 19). Dan xii. 3. Can he be crowned for turning many to righteousness who never turned one?
 
(3) The crown of glory. “The elders therefore among you I exhort, Tend the flock of God, . . . and when the chief Shepherd shall be manifested, ye shall receive the crown of glory” (I Pet. v. 1-4). Can a disciple be rewarded for shepherding the flock of God who never did it?
 
(4) The crown of righteousness. “I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, . . . and not only to me, but also to all them that have loved His appearing”(2 Tim. iv.7, 8). Can the crown for watchfulness be given to one who never watched?
 
(5) The crown of life. “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life” (Jas. i. 12). Rev. ii. 10. Can he be crowned for resisting temptation who succumbed to it? That a crown may be lost to a believer is as certain as any truth in Holy Scripture. “Hold fast that which thou hast, that no one take thy crown”(Rev. iii. 11). Matt. vii. 21.
 
3. — Scripture states that the Kingdom is offered to all believers as the master-prize for service and suffering.
 
“He that overcometh, and he that keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations” (Rev. ii. 26). 2 Tim. ii. 12. It was a supreme desire of Paul. He abandoned all, he says, and suffered all, “if by any means I may attain unto the [select] resurrection from the dead. Not that I have
already obtained, . . . but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded” (Phil. iii. 11-15). For the fall of
Israel in the wilderness is a designed type of the present peril of the Church on earth. Hebr. iii., iv. “Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, that no man fall after the same example of disobedience.” Hebr. iv.

4. — Scripture also explicitly asserts the exclusion of certain believers.

Proud (Matt. xviii. 3, v. 3); unfaithful (Matt. xxiv. 48-51); disobedient (Luke xii. 47, 48); covetous (Eph. v. 5); effeminate (I Cor. vi. 9); slothful (Matt. xi. 12); strife-loving (Gal. v. 20); unbaptised (John iii. 5); erroneous (I Cor. iii. 15); or luxurious (Luke vi. 24) disciples are unripe for the duties and harmony of Messiah’s Reign. Most rigorously also will all unclean disciples be excluded. Eph. v. 3-8; I Thess. iv. 3-7. The Holy Ghost has given a summary of exclusion. “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, envyings, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they which practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God”(Gal. v. 19-21). I Cor. vi. 9, 10. For it is the Kingdom of the holy, who are holy, not by imputation only, but also by active righteousness. Heb. xii. 14. 2 Thess. i. 5. “BLESSED AND HOLY IS HE THAT HATH PART IN THE FIRST RESURRECTION: THEY SHALL BE PRIESTS OF GOD AND OF CHRIST, AND SHALL REIGN WITH HIM A THOUSAND YEARS” (Rev. xx. 6).

“O God, I have lost this world: grant that I lose not that which is to come!” (Carson).