The antithesis is marked by the fact that the totally depraved unbeliever, capable as he is to do mighty deeds with the powers of God’s world, uses everything he discovers and invents to promote the wicked kingdom of Antichrist. He sins in everything he does, for his works are not out of faith, but are in opposition to God and in the service of Satan.

The elect and regenerate child of God lives also in the world, the same world as that in which the wicked live. But he lives in the world as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. He thus uses God’s world insofar as he has any control over a part of it to seek the kingdom of heaven. He seeks that kingdom, as it is manifested here in the world, in his church, in his covenant schools, in his walk as a faithful citizen who serves the Lord Christ, and as one who witnesses by word and life to the truth of the gospel. He seeks that kingdom by condemning all wickedness in the world about him and testifying of the certain judgment of God upon evil. And he seeks that kingdom by pursuing his earthly pilgrimage faithfully as it leads him ever nearer his eternal destination, the house of many mansions.