1. “It is time for the judgment to begin from the house of God” (1 Pet. 4:17).
God’s purpose for the kingdom of the heavens is not only to encourage the believers but also to manifest His righteousness. God is absolutely righteous. He is righteous toward all people and in all matters. As the Judge of all the earth, He cannot be unrighteous (Gen. 18:25). He must be righteous to the worldly people, and He must be righteous to the believers. Moreover, He must be righteous with the believers before He can be righteous with the worldly people. If God is not righteous with His children, how can He be righteous with the worldly people? If His children sin, and He loosely passes over these sins, how can He judge the world according to righteousness? If He does not condemn the sins committed by His children, how can He condemn the sins of the worldly people? How can He stop the mouths of the worldly people and cause them to submit to Him with all their hearts? In order to do this, God must first judge His children. When judgment begins from His household, He can righteously judge the world. God must manifest His righteousness with respect to His children before He can righteously condemn the worldly people.
2. “There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, with which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will recompense me in that day” (2 Tim. 4:8).
God uses the environment to judge and even discipline His children today (1 Cor. 11:31-32), but this is only a partial judgment. God’s full and complete judgment of His children will occur when the Lord returns, which is referred to in the phrase that day. He will use the reward and punishment of the kingdom of the heavens to righteously judge His children. During the kingdom of the heavens, some believers will receive a reward and some will be disciplined; in this way God will manifest His righteousness and prove that He is righteous. If all believers, whether overcoming or defeated, faithful or unfaithful, righteous or sinful, were allowed to enter into the kingdom of heavens in the future and were allowed to reign in the enjoyment of glory, how would God be righteous with respect to the believers? How would this manifest His righteousness? If the brother who committed fornication in Corinth (1 Cor. 5:1-5) were allowed to enter into the kingdom of the heavens along with Paul who served faithfully unto his death, how could the righteousness of God be upheld? How could God’s righteousness be manifested with respect to them? If believers who love themselves, care for their own enjoyment, seek their own profit, indulge their flesh, and live according to human feelings were to obtain the same reward of the kingdom in the future that brothers and sisters who love the Lord, care for God’s glory, seek God’s pleasure, reject the flesh, and live according to the Spirit will obtain, how could God’s righteousness be maintained among His children? If lazy, slothful believers who did not use their gifts were able to enter into the joy of the kingdom of the heavens along with diligent, faithful believers who used their gifts, how could the righteousness of God be manifested among them? Therefore, in the future there must be a distinction between the believers who are rewarded and those who are punished in order for God’s righteousness to be upheld and manifested among His children. This is another purpose of God in His provision for the kingdom of the heavens as a reward.
For the sake of manifesting His righteousness in His children, God must have a particular time for His children to be either rewarded or chastised. This time is the kingdom of heavens, which He set apart from the rest of His eternal kingdom. During the kingdom of the heavens, God will manifest His righteousness with respect to His children by means of both reward and discipline. Although His heart is full of love toward His children, He cannot ignore His righteousness with respect to them. If He ignored His righteousness with respect to His children, how could He maintain His righteousness with respect to the worldly people? Therefore, He has set apart the kingdom of the heavens for the purpose of manifesting His righteousness among His children. Our God is very wise. He ordained the cross, the new heavens and new earth, and the kingdom of the heavens. The cross expresses His love for us, eternity expresses His grace to us, and the kingdom of the heavens expresses His righteousness toward us. The cross and eternity make us thankful to Him, but the kingdom of the heavens warns and encourages us. The cross releases us from sin, but the kingdom of the heavens binds us to righteousness.
After the end of this present age of grace and before the beginning of the coming age of eternity, God has set apart the age of the kingdom for the purpose of warning and encouraging His children and for manifesting His righteousness with respect to them. If there were no kingdom age or if the kingdom of the heavens had not been set apart, God would not have anything that would serve to warn and encourage His children today in this age or to manifest His righteousness with regard to His children in the coming age. If there were only the new heaven and new earth in which God expressed His grace, how could He perfect His children with respect to His righteousness? This is the reason that God made provision for the kingdom of the heavens. His purpose for the kingdom of the heavens is wise and deep; it is all for our perfecting.