The Kingdom of God
The kingdom of God.
This is the central message of Jesus from beginning to end. Jesus begins his ministry
with this message: “Change your life. The
kingdom of God is here!” (Matt 4:17, MSG) He travels to town after town,
village to village, preaching the Good News about the kingdom of God (Luke 8:1). Then he sends his twelve disciples
to proclaim the kingdom of God and to
heal (9:2). After his death, he appears to his disciples during forty days and talks
to them about the kingdom of God (Acts
1:3). The expression “the kingdom of God” is used at least 68 times in the New
Testament. Apparently, the kingdom of God was a central part of Jesus Christ’s
message. He came to tell us about the good news of the kingdom of God.
What Is the Kingdom of God?
So
the question we must first ask is: what is the kingdom of God? By definition the kingdom of God means the reign of God.
It means the spiritual state that God reigns. It means that evil is controlled
and defeated. It means the coming of righteousness, peace and joy (Rom 14:17). It
means that we are set free from our slavery to sin and become children and
heirs of God with a hope of everlasting bliss. During the Old Testament times
the kingdom of God had been spoken of and promised, but it had not come. But when the time had fully come, God sent
his Son, Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of God’s promise (Gal 4:4). And Jesus
said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near” (Mark 1:15
NRSV). Here Jesus does not mean that it is about to come. He says the kingdom of God has come! It has arrived
among you! In his early ministry Jesus went as usual to the synagogue on
the Sabbath day and stoop up to read the Scriptures. He read Isaiah 61, the
coming of the kingdom of God: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he
has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the
year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he began to say to people there, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing!” (Luke
4:21) Here Jesus is saying, “The kingdom
of God has come, and now it is accessible to everyone!”
Living in the kingdom of God
Now
we know the kingdom of God has already
come and among us by the first coming of Jesus Christ. And it is accessible to
everyone. Then, our next question to ask ourselves is: “Has the kingdom of God
come in me? How can God’s kingdom come in
me?” One of the important Bible verses to answer this question is Mark
10:15. Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little
child will never enter it.” I want to
draw your attention to the two verves used in this verse: receiving the kingdom and entering
the kingdom. One is passive and the other is active. One is God’s part, and
the other is our part.
First,
we receive the kingdom of God as God’s
gift. What does it mean to receive the kingdom? Negatively, it means that
we cannot create or make the kingdom of God. It is not just an addition to something
we already have. It is not a little bit of improvement on what we were before. Self-effort,
self-help, self-improvement does not work. Positively, it means that the
kingdom of God must come from outside. It has to be given to us. Before we can
enter the kingdom, it must first enter into us. Martin Luther wanted to be a good
man, he wanted to be a Christian. He didn’t want to go to hell. He thought he
had to do it himself, trying hard, giving up, denying, fasting, giving alms, studying
the Bible, confessing everyday, finally going to Rome and kissing the steps of
Saint Peter’s Church. But no joy, no freedom, no peace, no happiness! Instead,
he was hopeless and even angry with God. But as he was reading Romans, the
words “the righteousness of God” stood out. He realized all he had been doing
was man’s righteousness – just filthy rags. Then, he realized there is another
kind of righteousness, completely apart from, different from man’s
righteousness. It is “passive” righteousness from outside, from God, that is
given to all who believe. Romans 3:22 says, “We are made right with God by
placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes,
no matter who we are” (NLT). The righteousness
of God through faith in Jesus Christ alone! Luther believed this good news.
He received the kingdom of God as God’s
gift. And all the burdens in his soul were removed. Unspeakable joy and peace
just flooded his soul. “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and
drinking but of righteousness and peace
and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17). Have you received the kingdom of
God?
Second,
we enter the kingdom of God by faith.
What does mean to enter the kingdom? From God’s side, he makes his kingdom
accessible to everyone. From our side, we must enter it by faith. Entering the kingdom
is our response to God’s grace. Entering the kingdom means coming into full possession,
full enjoyment of it. We Christians, who received Jesus, may know about the
kingdom, we may taste some of its powers, we may work for it and occasionally
rejoice in it. But God wants us to enter in fully and entirely, not just
partially and occasionally. There are many Christians who are content with a
heaven after death. Their understanding of salvation is mere forgiveness of
sins, leading to heaven beyond this life. A ticket to heaven. Their
understanding of God’s kingdom is to live with him in heaven after death. But
Jesus died for our sins not just for us to get to heaven after death, but that
we might live in his kingdom here and now! Colossians 1:13 says, “For he has
rescued us from the kingdom of darkness
and transferred us into the Kingdom of
his dear Son” (NLT). We are saved, so that we may live in a different world,
different kingdom now. Salvation is not just forgiveness of sins, but it is a
life, new life, new way of life, new order of life now.
So
how do we enter the kingdom? How can we live in God’s kingdom now? 2000 years
ago there was a man named Nicodemus, a good man and religious leader of Israel.
Although he was a teacher of Israel, he felt something was missing. Then, he
saw Jesus who was something different. So Nicodemus came to see Jesus and said
something like this, “Teacher, I have admired you. You are in a class above us
What is it? I want to have what you have. Tell me what do to!” Jesus said to
him, “You must be born again!” Here
Jesus is saying, “You need to tear down completely what you are and what you
have. Demolition! Then, erection! You need an entirely new start. You need a
new foundation. You need an absolutely new nature. It is like a birth.” What we
need to live in God’s kingdom today is life, a new nature. Martin Lloyd-Jones
said, “God does not renovate us. He does not improve us or make a little bit
better. Instead, he puts new life into us. He infuses a principle of life, a
new disposition.”[1] 2
Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the
new has come!” (NIV) To enter the kingdom we need to die with Christ first. We
need to crucify our sinful nature – self-will, self-effort, self-confidence,
self-righteousness, our old self (cf. Gal 5:24). And with men this is
impossible. But with God all things are possible!
A Parable of the Twins
I
want to share the story of the twins to help our understanding of the mystery
of “born again.” One day a mother conceived twins. One child was a girl; the
other a boy. Months passed, and they developed. As they grew they sang for joy:
“Isn’t it great to be alive!” Together they explored their mother’s womb. When
they found their mother’s life cord, They shouted for joy: “How great is our
mother’s love, That she shares her life with us!” Soon the twins began to
change drastically. “What does this mean?: asked the boy. “It means that our
life in the womb Is coming to an end,” said the girl. “But I don’t want to
leave the womb,” said the boy. “I want to stay here forever.” “We have no
choice,” said the girl. “But maybe there is life after birth.” “How can there
be?” asked the boy. “We will shed our mother’s cord, and how is life possible
without it? Besides, there’s evidence in the womb that others were here before
us, and none of them ever came back to tell us that there is life after birth.
No, this is the end.” And so the boy fell into despair, saying, “If life in the
womb ends in death, What’s its purpose? What’s its meaning? Maybe we don’t even
have a mother. Maybe we made her up just to feel good.” “But we must have a
mother,” said the girl. “How else did we get here? How else do we stay alive?”
And so the last days in the womb were filled with deep questioning and fear.
Finally, the moment of birth arrived. When the twins opened their eyes, They
cried for joy. What they saw exceeded their wildest dreams.
Here and Now
We
don’t need to wait to experience this unspeakable joy until we get to heaven. The
kingdom of God has come and now is accessible to everyone. How do we live in
his kingdom now? There is only one
way. The Son of Man must come down and must be lifted up as the serpent was
lifted up in the wilderness (John 3:14). There is nothing we can add. There is
nothing we can do. All we can do is to look
to Jesus, the originator and perfecter of our faith. Every morning, receive God’s kingdom as his gift. Every
morning, enter his kingdom by faith. Repent and believe the good news of the kingdom of God. “For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not
perish but have eternal life now and
forever. Amen.
[1]
Martin Lloyd-Jones, “Born Again,” The
Kingdom of God (Crossway Books: Wheaton, Illinois, 2010), 194.
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