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DEVOTION//Christ's 3-fold Kingdom

DEVOTION//Christ's 3-fold Kingdom

Devotions, Blog

Three kingdoms

The universal realm of Christ may be divided into a threefold kingdom…

  • In the Kingdom of Power, Christ rules [all] by his omnipotence…
  • In the Kingdom of Grace, which embraces the believers … He rules in grace through the revealed Word…
  • [T]he Kingdom of Glory extends the Kingdom of Grace into eternity. …

One purpose

Scripture teaches that these realms form a unit inasmuch as they are under one and the same Lord; Christ’s uniform will and purpose directs, and his divine power and majesty controls, all affairs. That is clearly brought out in passages such as Ephesians 1: 21– 23: “Far above all principality … and hath put all things under his feet and gave him … to be the head over all things to the Church.”

  • It is of great practical importance to keep this unity in mind.
  • It is very comforting to know that the sun, moon, and stars, the air, fire and water, the devils and all our enemies obey the will of Christ no less than the Church and the holy angels.
  • It is very comforting to know that Christ rules the universe in the interest of the Kingdom of Grace, or the Church. In other words: everything in heaven and earth must serve the purpose of gathering and preserving the Church. The kingdoms of this world are “the scaffolding used in the building of the Church.”

 

Source: The Threefold Kingdom of Christ by Francis Pieper.  Franz August Otto Pieper was born at Karwitz, Pomerania (85 miles (137 km) west of Danzig) and died in St. Louis, Missouri. After studying at the gymnasium of Kolberg, Pomerania, he emigrated to the United States in 1870. He graduated from Northwestern College in Watertown, Wisconsin in 1872 and from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis in 1875. He was a Lutheran pastor from 1875 to 1878, serving first at Centerville, Wisconsin and then at Manitowoc, Wisconsin. He became a professor of theology at Concordia Seminary in 1878, and in 1887 he became president of the same institution. He also served as editor of Lehre und Wehre, the faculty journal of Concordia Seminary.