God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
Our opponents say, 'Salvation belongs to the free will of man; if not to man's merit, yet at least to man's will;' but we hold and teach that salvation from first to last, in every iota of it, belongs to the Most High God. It is God that chooses His people. He calls them by His grace; He quickens them by His Spirit, and keeps them by His power.
We should understand "kingdom" as meaning "rule" rather than "realm"; that is to say, the expression is dynamic: It points us to God as doing something, as actively ruling, rather than to an area or group of people over whom He is sovereign. The kingdom is something that happens rather than something that exists.
