Kingdom Principles — Part 2: What is the Kingdom of God?
In spite of all of His teaching on the Kingdom, Jesus never explicitly defined it. So, what is the Kingdom of God?
The Kingdom of God is the dynamic rule and reign of God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit across time and space to redeem and restore the world by defeating the power of Satan, bringing to people the divine blessings of His reign. It is both a present and future reality.
More simply, the Kingdom of God is the rule and reign of God in Christ in your heart. I can make it even simpler: the Kingdom of God is Jesus.
The Kingdom of God is also the sphere of Christ’s reign and the realm of His blessings. It is the place where we come into the Presence of the King. It is a place of Holiness. How can sinful man enter into the Holy Presence of God? Only through the cross! We can never earn entrance. I believe that imputed righteousness or justification (to use theological terms) means that Christ has atoned for our sins, so that we have the right, the privilege, and the ‘justification’ to enter into His Kingdom, live in intimacy with Him, and place ourselves under His rule. Hallelujah! But that does not mean we do nothing to enter the Kingdom: we can’t earn kingdom life, but we must choose and receive it.
Dallas Willard defines the Kingdom of God as a dynamic system of reality in the midst of which humanity moves and in which believers are interactively connected to each other and to God.
George Eldon Ladd in ‘A Theology of the New Testament’ says it this way: “The Kingdom of God is the redemptive reign of God dynamically active to establish His rule among human beings, and that this Kingdom, which will appear as an apocalyptic act at the end of the age, has already come into human history in the person and mission of Jesus to overcome evil, to deliver people from its power, and to bring them into the blessing of God’s reign” (pgs 89, 90, ‘The Gospel of the Kingdom of God’). Phew – that’s a mouthful.
The Kingdom of God is the:
reign and rule of God through Jesus – not a people or a physical realm.
activity of God to defeat the power of Satan
way God is bringing His divine blessings – like freedom, hope, and life – to His people culminating in the New Heaven and New Earth.
We enter the Kingdom of God when we submit to God’s rule over our lives in complete and perfect trust and confidence. The Kingdom of God in our lives is His control, His rule, and His reign.
The Kingdom of God is not a people, it is not the Church, and not a particular place like a nation. We are apt to think of a Kingdom like ‘Lord of the Rings” – a territory with specific geographic boundaries over which a King rules. Or we might think of a Kingdom as the people over whom the King reigns. But that is not the meaning of the Kingdom of God. It is the rule, the reign, the sovereignty, the authority, the power of the King over all creation, including our lives, as we surrender and submit to His rule and reign.
We cannot build or extend the Kingdom. That is God’s work. Our work is to release the Kingdom of God into the kingdom of the world – to proclaim the Kingdom; in other words, to proclaim the Gospel. There is much about the Kingdom that we cannot understand.
“The Kingdom of God is a miracle. It is the act of God. It is supernatural. Men cannot build the Kingdom, they cannot erect it. The Kingdom is the Kingdom of God; it is God’s reign, God’s rule. God has entrusted the Gospel of the Kingdom to men. It is our responsibility to proclaim the Good News about the Kingdom. But the actual working of the Kingdom is God’s working” (Ladd, “The Gospel of the Kingdom’, pg. 64).
The Kingdom of God is within us, according to Jesus (Luke 17: 21 NIV). It is within our heart and our mind – it is a spiritual realm. Paul tells us that we are God’s temple and God’s Spirit lives within us. (1 Corinthians 3: 16 NIV). This is another way of saying that the Kingdom of God is in our hearts. It is also around us and it is released into the world through us. It does have a tangible manifestation – it is present wherever King Jesus is carried in our hearts into a house, a meeting, the workplace, a worship service, the living room, and the bedroom. As we speak and act, and even pray in these places, the Kingdom can be released. It can move and work, changing the atmosphere in these places and the hearts of those with whom we are sitting and meeting. We can even proclaim the Kingdom over people and circumstances at a distance.
It is living in our relationships with others and our relationship with God. The Kingdom of God is released through the prayers of Kingdom people. In the Kingdom there is power to transform hearts, change the course of history, heal the sick, and deliver people from the enemy. To be in the Kingdom of God essentially has the same meaning as being ‘in the Spirit’ or being ‘in Christ’. Wherever the Kingdom is released, there we will find the Holy Spirit at work.
The Kingdom of God is synonymous with heaven, salvation, and the Garden of Eden, but here, now, on Earth. It is Eden, but better because we live in Christ and He lives in us in the Kingdom of God. But, as I wrote in a previous post, it is not here in its fullness. We have to wait for that – but it is coming. Still, we can live in heaven now. We don’t have to wait until we die.
Unfortunately, many believe the Kingdom is heaven – the future ‘place’ we will go when we die. Others believe the Kingdom’s reign on Earth is a future promise, not a present reality. These two beliefs tend to minimize the importance of the Kingdom of God for believers today and weaken our primary function: to join Jesus in accomplishing His ultimate purpose of establishing His Kingdom over all creation.
The truth is the Kingdom of God is the ‘now and not yet’ life. We must live in this tension and mystery. To deny the reality of the Kingdom today or to believe that the Kingdom has fully broken out in our world now are both equally false. The Kingdom of God is here, believers are invited to enter based solely on the merit of Jesus. We cannot in any way earn the Kingdom life. But we must receive it. We can live that life now, although not perfectly or completely. We still live in a fallen world. But, our hope is in the Kingdom now and in the promise of the perfect Kingdom in the future.
In fact, like the resurrection – which is the sign and proof that we too will be resurrected – the present Kingdom is the first fruits of what will come, a deposit guaranteeing the future. This is what Paul says: “ Now it is God who makes both of us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Corinthians 1: 21, 22 NIV). These are Kingdom words.
“He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4: 18, 19 NIV) is not a mission statement for tomorrow; it is a promise for each believer today. One of the reasons Jesus healed disease, gave sight to the blind, healed the lame, and cast out demons throughout His ministry was to demonstrate the present Kingdom. He was telling and showing us “The freedom of the Kingdom of God is for you now. And this is what freedom looks like – healed and made whole”.
To deny His Kingdom is here now, to believe that it only refers to heaven when we die, as the Gospel of Salvation means for many, strips away the power of the Gospel and leaves believers in darkness. This is because, while the death of Jesus does atone for our sins and makes us righteous, without repenting of the self-life and receiving the Kingdom life, we cannot be Kingdom men and women. The idea that the Kingdom is only a future life also gives the enemy a victory and prevents the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross from producing His life in us today. Until we choose Kingdom life now, we do not have the indwelling Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s power. Do you think Jesus will make His home in the heart of a person who still most fundamentally finds his life in the things of the world, even though they call themselves Christians?
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God is the truth that God is now acting in human history to deliver mankind from bondage to Satan, setting us free from the prison of despair and hopelessness – God is attacking the kingdom of Satan and destroying the power of evil. This is the Good News that we are empowered to share with the world. God has begun to accomplish His ultimate purpose – in Jesus the final restoration of the earth has begun.
The Kingdom of God is not attacking human institutions of power and wealth. It is not directly attacking social or political systems. Its purpose is to dismantle the evil spiritual order of our world. And if the kingdom of Satan is destroyed, evils around us will be destroyed as well. The power of the Kingdom of God is primarily directed at the root of societies ills, although Jesus tells us to deal with the symptoms as well.
The Kingdom of God “is not now destroying human rule; it is not now abolishing sin from the earth; it is not now bringing the baptism of fire John announced. It has come quietly, unobtrusively, secretly . . . In the Spiritual realm the Kingdom now offers to men the blessing of God’s rule, delivering them from the power of Satan and sin. The Kingdom of God is an offer, a gift which may be accepted or rejected. The Kingdom is now here with persuasion rather than power” (Ladd, ‘The Gospel of the Kingdom’, pg 55).
The Kingdom of God is the rule and reign of God and His divine blessings for His people. In the Kingdom of God we see fruit of the Spirit in our lives, such as peace, joy, and hope; we see spiritual, emotional, and physical healing, including demonic deliverance. Healing and deliverances indicate that people are being set free from the grip of the enemy; the indication that the kingdom of darkness is being dismantled, one person at a time. As people are set free, the door is open for us to share the Gospel with them, inviting them to receive the Kingdom of God.
“Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given you as well” (John 6: 33 NIV).
All what things? The in-dwelling Holy Spirit, a transformed life, power and authority to do “even greater things than Jesus did”, gifts of the Spirit, fruit of the Spirit, salvation, and the opportunity to partner with God in sharing all of this with the world.
This is the Kingdom of God! It is about us, but it is not about us – most fundamentally it is about the mission of Jesus, continuing the work of God begun in Abraham: total defeat of God’s enemies culminating in the New Heaven and the New Earth – a restored Kingdom. But we are called to be partners in this mission and we cannot partner effectively until we too are Kingdom men and women. How we live our lives today is critical!
Hallelujah!
I believe a well-watered garden is a powerful metaphor for the Kingdom of God. I’ll write about this in the next post ‘Kingdom Principles – Part 3.