Dallas Willard on Living in the Reign and Rule (Kingdom) of God

Back on February 19, I started a series reviewing the thoughts of Dallas Willard in his classic, The Divine Conspiracy.  I was interrupted by our trial with Caelan, but I wanted to continue that series with a look at some ideas from Chapter 1, "Entering the Eternal Kind of Life Now."  In this opening chapter, Willard considers what it means for the Kingdom of God to have come in the person of Jesus Christ and for Jesus to live inside of us. He declares that God's Kingdom is where He effectively reigns and rules. "Now God's own 'kingdom,' or 'rule,' is the range of his effective will, where what he wants done is done. The person of God himself and the action of his will are the organizing principles of his kingdom, but everything that obeys those principles, whether by nature or by choice, is within his kingdom" (p. 25).

Regarding humans and their relationship to God's Kingdom, Willard says,

The human job description (the "creation covenant," we might call it) found in chapter 1 of Genesis indicates that God assigned to us collectively the rule over all living things on earth, animal and plant. We are responsible before God for life on the earth (vv. 28-30).

However unlikely it may seem from our current viewpoint, God equipped us for this task by framing our nature to function in a conscious, personal relationship of interactive responsibility with him. We are menat to exercise our "rule" only in union with God, as he acts with us. He intended to be our constant companion of co-worker in the creative enterprise of life on earth. That is what his love for us means in practical terms.

Of course, we know that this arrangement went south when sin entered the world. Willard says,

Lamentably, we fell away from our intended divine context and from the task for which we are by nature fitted. We mistrusted and distanced ourselves from God and then, very naturally, from one another. In our arrogance and fear we flounder through our existence on our own. The earth itself is "subjected to futility" because of this (Rom. 8:20) . . . . But at the same time, our fundamental makeup is unchanged. The deepest longings of our heart confirm our original calling. Our very being still assigns us to "rule" in our life circumstances, whatever they may be. If animals are in trouble anywhere, for example, people generally feel they should do something about it - or at least that someone should. And we still experience ourselves as creative will, as someone who accomplishes things, constantly desiring to generate value, or what is good, from ourselves and from our environment. We are perhaps all too ready, given our distorted vision and will, to take charge of the earth.

Apart from harmony under God, our nature-imposed objectives go awry. The social and individual chaos of human desires sees to it. Much of our time and energy is spent trying to dominate others or escape domination by them, from "office politics" to tribal warfare to international relations on a global scale (ME: might I also add conflict between families and even with the church or religious structures to that?) p. 23.

Basically, we seek to have dominion over our own world and over others, in part because of God's creative impulse within us - but that impulse has become abusive because of the presence of sin.  God intended that impulse to have dominion to be something that we did in cooperation with Him for His glory, but because of sin, it has now become very destructive. He never intended us to dominate others. We seek to run our own lives, make our own decisions, and oppress others under our will. This is why pride, on some level or another, is the root sin. We think that we can do what only God can do. We set up our own dominions and we live for ourselves. We need another influence upon us, the Person of Jesus Christ, to crucify that nature and transform our lives into what God originally intended. Willard goes on to say,

Jesus came among us to show and teach the life for which we were made. He came very gently, opened access to the governance of God with him, and set afoot a conspiracy of freedom in truth among human beings. Having overcome death he remains among us. By relying upon his word and presence we are enabled to reintegrate the little realm that makes up our life into the infinite rule of God. And that is the eternal kind of life. Caught up in this active rule, our deeds become an element in God's eternal history. They are what God and we do together, making us part of his life and him a part of ours . . . . he inducts us into the eternal kind of life that flows through himself. He does this by bringing that life to bear upon our needs, and then by diffusing it throughout our deeds - deeds done with expectation that he and his Father will act with and in our actions.

In essence, what Willard is saying is that God wants us to reign and rule with Him. He wants His Kingdom to come through the work and lives of His people. He has prepared good works in advance for us to do (Eph. 2:10).  The commands of God are not just a list of "do's" and "don'ts", but rather, they are a means for God to extend His benevolent reign and rule throughout Creation - and, we are to be a part of that. God wants more than for us to just be forgiven of sin so we can go to Heaven. He wants to live in us and through us now so that our lives would reflect His glory and so that we would be instruments that usher in His Kingdom amongst rebellious mankind. We have segmented the spiritual life into Sunday worship and the expansion of God's Kingdom into evangelism programs. But, it is much more than that. The spiritual life is to transform all of our existence until the presence of God radiates throughout all of our domains. God is to be glorified in everything. This means that it matters how we live. It matters how we treat others. It matters if injustice is left unchecked in our culture and we do nothing about it. That is not God's will in heaven. There is no longer a private faith that should not affect all of life. Rather, the life of God within us should be unleashed into all we do. For some reason, God has set it up so that the expansion of His reign and rule (Kingdom) would happen through the influence of His children here on earth (the Church). Salvation is much more than just getting a ticket to heaven because our sins have been forgiven. It is about bringing God's Rule to earth now.

After all, He did tell us to pray that His Kingdom would come and His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven, didn't He?