The Kingdom: March 2007
Table of Contents
Phases of the Kingdom
A kingdom is a circle of country and people who own a king as their head of government, such as Great Britain and Italy. The kingdom of Israel in David’s day was the people of Israel, who submitted themselves to David’s rule. He was their king. The kingdom of the heavens signifies a circle of people on earth who own heaven’s rule; the kingdom of God, God’s rule. The former is more objective, the latter subjective — that is, the one is rather connected with the King, who is in heaven, and the latter with the presence of God on the earth. These are the two general titles given to the kingdom in the Gospels.
When the throne of the Lord was moved away from Jerusalem, owing to the departure of Israel from Jehovah into idolatry, the government of the earth was handed over to Gentile rule, of which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, was the first and best type. To him the God of heaven gave power, rule and authority, but not His presence, like He did by the Shechinah glory cloud in Jerusalem. He calls Himself the God of heaven, not the God of the earth, like He did when Joshua’s triumphant hosts were crossing the Jordan. But the Gentile rulers perverted the authority God gave them; they have often acted like the wild beasts without conscience toward God. When Christ comes again, then they will know that the heavens rule.
Three Forms of the Kingdom
We have three forms the kingdom took in Old Testament Scripture, as seen in the books of Kings and Chronicles and Daniel: first, the kingdom of the Lord in the hands of David, Solomon and their successors till the Babylonish captivity; second, the kingdom as handed over to Gentile rule and carried on by four successive empires, the Babylonish, Medo-Persian, Grecian and Roman empires; third, the God of heaven at the end setting up a kingdom that never should be destroyed, that is, the millennial kingdom, over which Christ, the Son of Man, will reign in power and glory.
Before God’s King could come to reign, He had to come as Jehovah-Saviour to suffer, as Matthew’s Gospel clearly brings out. He came in due time, according to prophecy, the true Son of David and Son of Abraham, the heir of the throne of Jerusalem and of the promises made to Israel as a nation, but He was rejected by Israel. The kingdom was, therefore, put off and took a new shape after His rejection; the keys were committed to Peter as the great administrator of it; it took a mysterious form on account of the rejected King’s being in heaven and away from it, and it was to go out to all nations. Jews, Samaritans and Gentiles, who submitted to the claims [rule] of the King in baptism, became its subjects.
The Coming Kingdom
The kingdom has grown up to what Christendom is now. But after the church is gathered out, which is going on at this same time, there will be a purging process, all wickedness will be purged out, judgment will be poured out, Israel will be restored, and the King will come again and set up the kingdom in power and reign with His bride for a thousand years. “The seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever” (Rev. 11:15).
After this, when all power, authority and rule that are contrary to Christ are put down, the wicked dead will be raised and judged and put into the lake of fire, and the Son will then deliver up His kingdom to God and the Father, that God may be all in all.
A. P. Cecil
The Kingdom of Heaven
The kingdom of heaven we have as a state of things during the period when the Son is sitting on the Father’s throne. During this period the children are in the Son’s kingdom, but heirs of the Father’s kingdom — a period during which the world is not ordered according to the righteous, judicial power of the Son of Man’s kingdom — the interval between the rejection of the Son of Man upon earth and His reigning upon earth.
J. N. Darby
The Kingdom and the Church
The Book of Acts gives us the establishment of the kingdom of heaven and of the church among the Jew and the Gentile, after the rejection of the King by the Jews. The Lord, in answer to the question put to Him by His disciples as to whether this was the time when He would restore the kingdom of Israel, answered that it was not for them to know the times and the seasons, which the Father had put in His own power. But they should receive power after that the Holy Spirit should come upon them and they should be witnesses unto Christ, both in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth. He thus intimated that the presence of the Holy Spirit on earth was for an interval to replace Judaism and that it would not be until after that interval that the kingdom would be restored to Israel and set up in power. The Lord then ascended to heaven, and the disciples return to Jerusalem to await the promise of the Father. Acts 2 gives us the account of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and the formation of the church of God.
Peter the Administrator
Peter, as the administrator of the kingdom, is prominent in the testimony. He preaches on the three names, Jesus, Christ and the Lord, as setting forth the glories of the Person of whom he was speaking. In charging the Jews with the sin of having rejected Jesus, He declares that God had made Him, whom the Jews rejected, both Lord and Christ. He was the same person David thus spoke of, raised from the dead to sit on David’s throne, and He was sitting at the right hand of God till His enemies were made His footstool. Three thousand received the word and were baptized unto the name of God’s rejected King, thus owning likewise His lordship. By His death and resurrection they were brought on new ground, having thus saved themselves from the Jewish nation as a whole.
All who in baptism bowed to the claims of Him whom God had made Lord and Christ become the professed subjects of the rejected King. In Acts 3, Peter adds to the testimony — that if the Jewish nation repented, God would send Jesus again and set up the kingdom in power over Israel. This testimony was rejected and ended with Stephen’s martyrdom.
After Stephen’s death, all the assembly at Jerusalem was scattered except the apostles. Philip went down to Samaria and preached the Anointed to them. His testimony, no doubt, was to Him as God’s King rejected by the world, but exalted in heaven and coming again to reign. He preached the Christ unto them.
The people gave heed, among them Simon Magus the sorcerer. And when they believed Philip preaching the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Simon Magus was brought into the kingdom and into the circle of Christian profession (today called Christendom), but not into the true church. Here we have an outer circle of privilege and responsibility, where Jesus was owned as the Anointed and Lord. Peter, having the keys to the kingdom, comes to Samaria. He opens the door to them and they receive the Holy Spirit.
Baptism
Baptism is an initiatory ordinance that places the baptized in a new position. It is always connected with a status upon earth, and not with heavenly privileges. With Peter, Christian baptism seems more connected with the kingdom of heaven (see Matthew 16:19; Acts 2:38; 10:48); with Paul it is connected rather with the house of God when he did use it. Paul had a new commission. He is not found, like Peter, ministering in the midst of a known people who had promises, calling souls out of it to repentance, that they should receive remission and be separated from the untoward generation.
Paul was raised up as God’s special messenger, and he, not neglecting to preach the rejected King, as we see in his discourses at Thessalonica and Corinth, and seeing that the converts were brought into the kingdom by baptism, at the same time was made the great minister of the church in its double aspect of the house of God and the body of Christ. With him it was not only that the Gentiles were admitted by baptism into the kingdom of heaven on earth, but that they had common privileges and a common part with Jewish believers, as fellow-heirs, members of Christ’s body and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel. He was the great administrator of the church, the body of Christ. This is developed in the Epistle to the Ephesians.
Differences Between Kingdom and Church
It is important to distinguish between the kingdom of heaven, set up and administered through Peter’s ministry, and the church composed only of those whom Christ built in, living stones, those indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of heaven embraces, during its present aspect, all those who professedly subject themselves to Christ, the Anointed, during the time of His rejection. Peter was the administrator of it, and the twelve were to disciple all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He opened the door to the Jews who repented and to Cornelius the Gentile afterwards, and they were admitted by baptism. Philip did the same thing to the Samaritan, and Paul recognized it at Thessalonica and Corinth and other places, though he was not the minister of it.
The church, as the sphere of Paul’s ministry, was a circle inside the kingdom at present, but before the Lord comes again, it is to be taken out of it. Jew and Gentile believers were fellow-heirs, members of one body, partakers of God’s promise in Christ by the gospel. There is an outer sphere of the church, now called the great house, composed of all who are baptized and profess to be followers of Christ. This great house is full of vessels, some to honor and some to dishonor. The word to every true Christian now is, “Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Tim. 2:19). While, therefore, evil in the kingdom is not now to be taken out but to be left until the time when the Son of Man is to gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, the saints are responsible to depart from iniquity, to gather on the true ground of the church, to the name of Christ alone, recognizing the presence of the Holy Spirit in the assembly. They are to exercise discipline, to put away evil from their midst if it comes in, to express communion with Christ and with one another, as members of His one body at the Lord’s table, and to break bread in remembrance of Him.
A. P. Cecil, adapted from The Kingdom and the
Church, and from the Concise Bible Dictionary
The Kingdom and Patience
The Jews having refused their king, the kingdom was not set up in manifestation at that time. In the meanwhile, it is “the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:9). Christ is represented as having gone to receive a kingdom and to return (Luke 19:12). In the meantime, the kingdom has been produced and goes on in its mysterious form (Matt. 13:11). There are multitudes who profess obedience to God and to the Lord Jesus and who look to heaven as the throne from whence come all their blessings. From the Concise Bible Dictionary
Worthy Is the Lamb to Reign
Lamb of God! Thou now art seated
High upon Thy Father’s throne;
All Thy gracious work completed,
All Thy mighty victory won;
Every knee in heaven is bending
To the Lamb for sinners slain;
Every voice and heart is swelling,
“Worthy is the Lamb to reign.”
Lord, in all Thy power and glory
Still Thy thoughts and eyes are here;
Watching o’er Thy ransomed people
To Thy gracious heart so dear;
Thou for us art interceding,
Everlasting is Thy love;
And a blessed rest preparing
In our Father’s house above.
Lamb of God! when Thou in glory
Shalt to this sad earth return,
All Thy foes shall quake before Thee,
All who now despise Thee mourn;
Then shall we at Thine appearing
With Thee in Thy kingdom reign;
Thine the praise and Thine the glory,
Lamb of God, for sinners slain.
J. G. Deck, Little Flock Hymnbook, #28
The Kingdom of the Father
In this aspect the Lord Jesus presents the kingdom especially to His disciples as the Father’s, for it ever is God the Father’s kingdom, over which Christ has been appointed by the Father as its King and Administrator, in its future establishment on the earth. And in the few passages (Matt. 6:910; Luke 11:2; Matt. 13:43; Matt. 26:29; Luke 12:32) in which this aspect is given, all plainly relating to the millennium, our blessed Lord’s particular purpose in uttering these gracious and comforting words to His disciples appears to be to point them to the marvelous assurance that they should be partakers with Him in the coming glory of the kingdom, in the same relationship to the Father as Himself, and as helpers in the administration of His and their Father’s Kingdom—a millennial verification of the memorable words in John 20:17, “I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God.”
J. A. Savage from The Kingdom
of God and of Heaven
The Kingdom
We look forward to joining the great crowd who triumphantly cry, “Hallelujah, for the Lord our God the Almighty has taken to Himself kingly power” (Rev. 19:6 JND), and to proclaim, “Let us rejoice and exult, and give Him glory; for the marriage of the Lamb is come.” This is our future joy and privilege.
While we look forward to such future events, Paul’s life as recorded in the Acts would remind us of our present privilege and responsibility concerning the kingdom. In Paul’s last visit with the Ephesian elders he said to them, “I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more,” and the last words in the Acts concerning Paul are of his “preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ.”
We live on earth today in the kingdom of God. We are part of it. Like Paul, we have a present responsibility to preach the things concerning that kingdom and to live righteously under God’s rule. We trust the focus of this issue will help us to understand and fulfill our present responsibilities as we await the soon-coming day when the Son of Man will reign over the earth in power and glory.
The Kingdom in Word and Deed
A well-taught Christian is not necessarily one who has acquired an extensive knowledge of Scripture, though such knowledge may be a means to the end of becoming a well-taught Christian. The Bible is like a map, in that it shows us the way to be brought into, and to maintain, a walk with God. I may have an excellent acquaintance with the map of a certain country or continent, yet be a very poor explorer. In the same way, people may possess a great deal of Bible knowledge and be able to talk beautifully about the deeper things and the higher life, when all the while their experience may be shallow and their life dishonoring to God. “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them” (John 13:17).
The teachings of our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount, for example, are not hints to those who want to enter the kingdom, that we may take or leave. Christ Himself acts on these principles. His Word must dwell in us, steadily controlling our lives. Then, and not until then, are we abiding in Him.
It is so important in reading the Bible to remember that we must aim at more than clear views of truth. I may perceive a great deal of inward significance in Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, but in my life I have a Mount Moriah too. That is for me the really important matter. Similarly, I may understand the progression in Jacob’s experience, in that Bethel marked one stage and Peniel quite another, and that much lay between the two. But then I also must travel that same road.
The Word of God must be before us all the time, not to copy, but to reproduce the truth. We must not be encouraged merely to pile up Bible knowledge and to think that because we know a great deal, we are able to teach others who may have studied less.
Yes, that delusion is common, and not only among a few. But mere teaching does not nourish the soul; the truth must have full play in our lives. God will always be putting us into circumstances in which His Word will test us. The path that our Lord Jesus followed led to the cross, and the question all along will be, “Are we willing to take that road with Him?” It means death to self, daily. Are we willing to let Him live it out in us? There is no other way of bringing blessing to others.
Adapted from the book Pastor Hsi
Seizing the Kingdom by Force
“From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matt. 11:12).
This expression is found in that chapter in Matthew which specially declares the rejection of the blessed Lord in His mission to Israel: “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:11). The Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 57) followed the display of the powers of the kingdom as seen in Him and detailed in a few striking verses at the close of chapter 4, verses 2325. The fame of Jesus had spread throughout all the land. This “sermon,” as it has been called, enunciated the character of the kingdom, so different from what the carnal multitude expected and sought for; it supposes His rejection, and His followers a spectacle to the world and governed by heavenly principles, and that they should look for a heavenly reward.
Chapter 10 of Matthew then details the mission of the “twelve” to Israel and its rejection. They would go forth as lambs in the midst of wolves. Then follows chapter 11, in which is found the passage in question. The kingdom of heaven had suffered “violence” from the days of John the Baptist; he had preached it (ch. 3:2) and had been cast into prison (ch. 4:12). Nationally, then, from that moment, the kingdom had been refused. Thenceforth, as it was only received individually, the individual had to struggle against everything in order to enter it; he thus became, in point of fact, “the violent.” He had to undergo the disruption of national, religious and family ties. If he loved father or mother more than Jesus, he was not worthy of Him. Instead, then, of an entry into the kingdom, established under divine auspices, which brought the person blessed into the blessing with gentle steps and apart from difficulties or hindrances to be overcome, it suffered “violence,” to use the Lord’s words, and “the violent” (as He terms those who entered it) “take it by force,” that is, they were obliged to force their way through every barrier and count all things but loss that the goal might thus, at any cost, be won.
Christian Truth, Vol. 7, p. 136
Covenant Theology Today
The system of thinking that is currently termed “covenant theology” began at the time of the Reformation with men like Calvin and Zwingli, although some would trace its roots all the way back to Augustine and others of the early church fathers. Later on it influenced the thinking of those known as the Puritans, as evidenced in the Westminster confession of 1647. The movement was particularly strong in Scotland and eventually in the New England area of the U.S.A. There have always been those who held these principles, but in the last fifty years there has been increasing interest in its tenets. This has provoked many controversies between covenant theologians and those who have been referred to as dispensationalists.
The Basics
What are the basics of covenant theology? This can best be summarized in a quotation from one of its strongest advocates:
“The backbone of the Bible . . . is the unfolding in space and time of God’s unchanging intention of having a people on earth to whom He would relate covenantally for His and their joy.”
“The gospel promises, offering Christ and His benefits to sinners, are therefore invitations to enter and enjoy a covenant relationship with God.”
Basically, they believe that there is and always has been only one people of God. They believe that Israel was the church in the Old Testament and that the church is the Israel of the New Testament. They believe that everything in Scripture centers around two covenants, the covenant of law and the covenant of grace. However, these are not viewed as being different, but rather as different aspects of the same covenant.
Emphasis on Works
Covenant theologians strongly emphasize works as being necessary for salvation, and they do not believe that the covenant of grace rendered the covenant of works obsolete. However, they see the works of believers as having been done by Christ on their behalf, because all under Adam had failed to keep the law. They believe in the work of Christ for salvation, but emphasize His obedience to God’s will as being the main basis for our “imputed righteousness.” Another modern-day advocate of this thinking puts it this way:
“We know that Christ atoned for Adam’s and our disobedience on the cross, but we often forget that Christ’s work was not merely negative or ‘passive’ (enduring the curse). Our Lord was also ‘actively’ obedient, fulfilling the law on our behalf. Those united to Christ stand not only neutral or guilt-free before the Father, but actually as those reckoned positively righteous, as if we ourselves have clothed the naked, fed the hungry, and kept the whole law. Like the criminal on the cross, we have done these things ‘in Christ.’ ”
Christian Reconstructionists
As a result of this thinking, covenant theology emphasizes the need for believers to become involved in the betterment of this world, for covenant theologians sometimes call themselves “Christian Reconstructionists.” Although there is some variation in their thinking, most do not believe that the Lord will come until after the millennium is over, and some do not even believe in a literal 1000-year millennium. Most covenant theologians believe that what Scripture calls “the great tribulation” actually took place about 69-70 A.D., when the Roman general Titus destroyed Jerusalem, and that we are already in the millennium, working toward the perfecting of God’s kingdom in this world. Another of their adherents has said, “The kingship of Christ is not a futuristic event but one that He has fulfilled and maintains even now.” Their strong emphasis is on the extension of God’s kingdom to encompass the whole world, through the preaching of the gospel. They do not expect the Lord to come back for some time — not until the whole world has been brought to the point where the character of His kingdom is displayed everywhere.
The Salt Lost Its Savor
The Christian testimony at large must take some responsibility for the errors of covenant theology and for the revival of interest in it. The church has not walked in the light that God has given it. All too often grace has been emphasized in a wrong way, resulting in what Jude calls “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness [unrestrained lust]” (Jude 4). Believers have rested in the certainty of the finished work of Christ, while neglecting the importance of discipleship. They have gloried in the gospel of the grace of God and forgotten that Paul also preached the kingdom of God — a moral state consistent with those who own the Lord Jesus as the rightful King. Instead of being ambassadors for Christ in the right way, and thus being the “salt of the earth,” the salt has “lost his savor” (Matt. 5:13) and thus has often been cast out by the world. Moral uprightness has been replaced by carelessness in our Christian lives, while devotedness to Christ has been replaced by self-seeking and ease.
What does Scripture have to say to all this? At first glance, those who support covenant theology might seem to have some scriptures on their side. It is true that Scripture revolves around the history of two men, Adam and Christ, as heads, respectively, of a fallen and a new race. It is true that God will have His Son given His rightful place in this world and that there will be a visible kingdom that exhibits God’s character. It is true that God expects to see in the lives of believers the fruit of that new life He has given them and that God wants to “purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14). However, covenant theology falls short of the whole truth of God in a number of important points, and if embraced, tends to drag the believer down spiritually, and lower him to the level of Old Testament revelation.
The Heavenly and Earthly Kingdoms
First of all, such a system ignores the truth of Ephesians: “According to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself for the administration of the fullness of times; to head up all things in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth” (ch. 1:9-10 JND). God is not only going to have a kingdom on earth, but He has in His purposes the blessing of the church in heaven. The church is not an earthly company, and for this reason she is not in covenant relation with God. It is true that she comes into the good of the new covenant, in that her blessings are based on the work of Christ on the cross, but she is not in a covenant relationship with God. A covenant is always to do with the earth and an earthly people, and the church is a heavenly company. “Our commonwealth has its existence in the heavens” (Phil. 3:20 JND). Covenant theology denies the heavenly calling of the church.
The Hope of the Lord’s Coming
Second, and connected with this, covenant theology practically destroys the Lord’s coming as a present, living hope for the believer. They do not expect the Lord to come at any moment, but rather look for God’s kingdom in power to be established before the Lord will come. Their hope is not the Lord’s coming for us, but rather to be used in furthering God’s kingdom in this world. Scripture teaches us that those who are saved today are saved “to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven” (1 Thess. 1:9-10).
Righteousness Through Christ’s Obedience
Third, covenant theology wrongly says that Christ’s righteousness in keeping the law is imputed to us and that our righteousness is because He was perfectly obedient to God the Father. It is true that as the perfect, sinless Man, Christ kept the law, but nowhere in Scripture does it say that Christ’s righteousness in keeping the law is imputed to us. Rather, righteousness is imputed because Christ has fully satisfied the righteous claims of a holy God on the cross and because “He [God] hath made Him [the Lord Jesus] to be sin for us,” we are made “the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).
Israel and the Church
Fourth, covenant theology denies the fundamental difference between Israel and the church. It is true that God will bring Israel back into earthly blessing in the millennium, but, as we have seen, the church is destined for heavenly blessing. Covenant theology practically disregards the unique position of the church as the body and bride of Christ. The church was a mystery or secret hidden in God, a secret that was not revealed until Paul was given the special revelations concerning it. In seeking to merge the church with Israel, these special privileges of the church are ignored. Unless we see that the church is not the subject of prophecy, properly speaking, we will never be able to understand prophecy, nor see how everything in the Word of God fits into His purposes.
World Improvement
Fifth, covenant theology expects the world gradually to become better, as the Spirit of God (supposedly) works to bring souls into His kingdom. A leading covenant theologian makes this statement: “Modern Christians . . . prefer to minimize their responsibility, calling men out of the world, rather than calling them to rule over the world under the authority of Jesus Christ.” On the contrary, Paul and others such as Peter and Jude predicted that this present age would end with failure on the part of the church as a public testimony and unprecedented wickedness as to the world. Paul also chided the Corinthians, telling them, “Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us” (1 Cor. 4:8). Today is a time for the believer to follow a rejected Saviour, not take a place in reigning, for he is, in fact, called out of this world. As to coming blessing for this world, covenant theology postulates that a hypothetical “grace covenant” will bring in a transformed social order by the preaching of the gospel. God’s Word says, “When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness” (Isa. 26:9). Only by judgment will this world be cleansed and the kingdom established.
The Gospel of Grace and of the Kingdom
Sixth, covenant theology confuses the gospel of the grace of God and the gospel of the kingdom. In making them the same, great confusion is brought in. Men (such as John the Baptist and the disciples) preached the gospel of the kingdom when they did not expect Christ to suffer and die. The gospel of the grace of God is based on Christ’s death, blood and resurrection. It is true that all blessing, whether under the gospel of the kingdom or the gospel of the grace of God, must be founded on Christ’s finished work, but to equate the two messages is to introduce great confusion into Scripture. The gospel of the kingdom is for the earth and preaches earthly blessing, while the gospel of the grace of God preaches heavenly blessings and calls men out of this world.
Law and Grace
Finally, covenant theology, carried to its logical conclusion, puts the believer back under law. Instead of viewing the Mosaic law as “our tutor up to Christ” (Gal. 3:24 JND), covenant theology insists that we must continue to keep it. Romans 7:4 tells us that we have “become dead to the law by the body of Christ.” The righteousness of the law ought to be fulfilled in us, but it is not by being under law. Rather, it is by walking in the Spirit and allowing that new life that Christ has given us to display itself in our lives.
More could be said, but perhaps this gives enough of a picture to show us the fallacy of the covenant system of belief. To be under it is to glorify man and ultimately to be in bondage. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Gal. 5:1).
W. J. Prost
Various Aspects of the Kingdom
Various aspects of the kingdom are mentioned in the Word of God, and it is good to understand the difference between them. We have the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of the Father, the kingdom of the Son of Man, the kingdom of the Son of His love, and the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
The Kingdom of God
We are introduced to the first in connection with the Lord Jesus on earth, when the Pharisees demanded, “When the kingdom of God should come” (Luke 17:20). He told them, “The kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Luke 17:21). The kingdom of God might be described as the manifestation of the ruling power of God under any circumstances. It is a moral state that characterizes God’s kingdom. In the person of His Son, God was showing His ruling power at that time — God was there in Him.
The kingdom of God is also spoken of as existing at the present time. We read, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom. 14:17), and again, “The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20). Here the ruling power of God is again exhibited, not in the Son, but by the Spirit, who, through His presence on earth, produces practical righteousness in those who believe and gives His servants power to correct evil where needed. The kingdom was seen in Christ while He was on earth, but now it is seen by the Spirit. Until He had ascended, none but He could be in it. After His ascension, the Holy Spirit came down and opened the door for others to enter. Thus the ruling power of God is now manifested in those who have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
However, the term “the kingdom of God” is also applied in Scripture to what man has made of that which God gave at the beginning — what we know as Christendom. The “tree” and the “leaven” of Luke 13:18-21 give us its outward dimensions and internal condition. What was but a grain outwardly, at Pentecost, has become a great tree that shelters even the devil’s emissaries, while internal evil and corrupt doctrine have permeated that which was intended for the believers’ food. What a description of Christendom — a vast system, but rotten within!
Thus Romans 14:17 and 1 Corinthians 4:20 describe the divine aspect of the kingdom of God, while Luke 13:18-21 describes its external condition.
The Kingdom of Heaven
The term “the kingdom of heaven” is used only in Matthew, for here the truth is commended to Jewish consciences. In essence it is the rule of the heavens owned on earth. The Jews were familiar with this thought from the Old Testament scriptures. For example, it was prophesied to Nebuchadnezzar that his power would continue after he had known “that the heavens do rule” (Dan. 4:26). The Lord taught His disciples to pray that God’s will might be “done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). Thus, when John the Baptist came to introduce the Messiah, he announced that “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2). So also Jesus Himself makes the same statement (Matt. 4:17) and later the twelve (Matt. 10:7). However, the rightful king was rejected, and consequently the kingdom of the heavens assumes a mysterious form — that of a kingdom with an absent king. The Lord becomes a sower, and the kingdom of the heavens takes on a new character which the prophets did not contemplate — a sphere overrun with evil and with a mingled crop. Some are true subjects, while others accept the authority of Christ only nominally, as professors.
John the Baptist was not in the kingdom of heaven, for the door was not thrown open until Peter unlocked it on the day of Pentecost. Then “the violent” (Matt. 11:12) — those really in earnest — reached the goal they had been seeking since the days of John the Baptist. As to the inward and outward forms, some similitudes are applied to both the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God — the mustard seed becoming the great tree, and the measures of meal becoming leavened.
Outwardly, then, the kingdom of heaven is like a field of tares, a tree and leaven — a mixture of the Lord’s people with those of Satan. It is the sphere of Christian profession on earth — a wide-spreading system, outwardly powerful, but internally corrupt. But to faith there is an inner or divine form, and this is seen in the “treasure” and the “pearl” (Matt. 13:44-46). These latter are the kingdom of heaven from God’s side. Thus the kingdom of heaven is properly the rule of the heavens upon the earth. It was refused by man and thus exists today in a mysterious way. This form of the kingdom will go on until the millennium commences, when it will take its proper form. At that time it will be known partly as the kingdom of the Father and partly as the kingdom of the Son of Man.
The Kingdom of the Father and
the Kingdom of the Son of Man
These both commence simultaneously. The kingdom of the Father relates to things above, and the kingdom of the Son of Man to things below.
The heavenly saints, including those of the godly Jewish remnant, will then “shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13:43). Likewise the Lord, in speaking to the disciples when He instituted the remembrance of Himself, could say, “I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom” (Matt. 26:29). The kingdom of the Father is for the heavenly people.
On the other hand, the kingdom of the Son of Man is for the earthly people, as He takes the headship of everything below, the place that Adam lost. As Son of Man He executes judgment, and as Son of Man He welcomes into His kingdom the blessed of His Father — the sheep (Matt. 25:32-34) who have been faithful to Him in His absence.
Thus the millennial kingdom “of our Lord and of His Christ” (Rev. 11:15) has a heavenly and an earthly aspect. The one is the sphere of the Father’s glory; the other, the scene of the rule of the Son of Man.
The Kingdom of the Son of His Love
Finally, we must notice the expressions “the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Col. 1:13 JND) and “the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:11). These are distinct from those we have already mentioned and give us the thought of position rather than display. They are each mentioned only once in Scripture and are more to be felt than described. Christ has a present kingdom, one which the Father’s love bestowed on Him, the Son of His affections, and into this we who have believed have already been translated. It is the region of blessing of which Christ is the center.
The other, the “everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,” is before us and is a blessed contrast to the things that are fading away around us. It is everlasting, and we shall share it with Him. His desire is that we should enter it, as we may say, “full sail.” May it be ours to add to our faith all these things that 2 Peter 1:57 contains, so that an abundant entrance into that kingdom may be ministered unto us.
D. T. Grimston, adapted from Words of Truth