The Gospel of the Kingdom 1, "What is the Kingdom?"

We live in a wonderful and yet fearful day. It's a wonderful day because of the amazing accomplishments of our modern scientific skills which have provided us with a measure of comfort and prosperity I've dreamed of a century ago.

Great metal birds soar through the air, swallowing up thousands of miles in a few hours. Floating palaces bring to the ocean voyager all the luxuries of the most elegant hotel. The automobile has freed man to explore for himself scenes and sights which to its grandparents were contained only in storybooks.

Electrical power has brought a score of slaves to serve the humblest housewife. Medical science has conquered the plague, smallpox, and other scourges of physical well-being and is on the threshold of other amazing conquests.

A marvelous age indeed yet happiness and security seem further removed than ever for we face dangers and hazards of unparalleled dimensions. We have come victoriously through a war in which the foundations of human liberty were threatened yet the columns of our newspapers are stained with unbelievable stories of the suppression of human freedom and the fight for freedom goes on.

New discoveries in the structure of matter have opened unimaginable vistas of blessing for man's physical well-being yet these very discoveries hold the potential in the hands of evil men of blasting society from the face of the earth.

In a day like this, wonderful yet fearful, men are asking questions. What does it all mean? Where are we going? What is the meaning and the goal of human history? Men are concerned today not only about the individual and the destiny of a soul but also about the meaning of history itself.

Does mankind have a destiny? Do we just jerk across the stage of time like wooden puppets only to have the stage, the actors, and the theater itself destroyed by fire leaving only a pile of ashes and the smell of smoke?

In ancient times, poets and seers longed for an ideal society. Hesiod dreamed of a lost golden age in the distant past but saw no brightness in the present, constant care for the morrow, and no hope for the future.

Plato pictured an ideal state organized on philosophical principles but he himself realized that his plan was too idealistic to be realized. Virgil sang of one who would deliver the world from its sufferings and by whom the great line of the ages begins anew.

The Biblical Hope of the Kingdom of God

The Hebrew Christian faith expresses his hope in terms of the kingdom of God. This biblical hope is not in the same category as the dreams of the Greek poets but it is at the very heart of revealed religion.

The biblical idea of the kingdom of God is deeply rooted in the Old Testament and is grounded in the confidence that there is one eternal living God who has revealed himself to men and who has a purpose for the human race which he has chosen to accomplish through Israel.

The biblical hope is therefore a religious hope. It is an essential element in the revealed will and redemptive plan of the living God. Thus the prophets announced a day when men would live together in peace.

God shall then judge between the nations and shall decide for many peoples and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

In Isaiah chapter 2 verse 4, not only shall the problems of human society be solved but the evils of man's physical environment shall no more. The wolf shall lie down with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the kid and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together.

A little child shall lead them. In Isaiah chapter 11 verse 6, peace, safety, security, all this was promised for the happy future. Then came Jesus of Nazareth with the announcement, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

In Matthew chapter 4 verse 17, the theme of the coming of the kingdom of God was central to his mission. His teaching was designed to show men how they might enter the kingdom of God. His mighty works were intended to prove that the kingdom of God had come upon them.

His parables illustrated to his disciples the truth about the kingdom of God and when he taught his followers to pray, at the heart of their petition were the words, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

On the eve of his death, he assured his that he would yet share with them the happiness and the fellowship of the kingdom in Luke chapter 22 verses 22 to 30 and he promised that he would appear again on earth in glory to bring the blessedness of the kingdom to those to whom it was prepared.

Divergent Christian Views of the Kingdom

When we ask the Christian church, what is the kingdom of God? When and how will it come? We receive a bewildering diversity of explanations. There are few themes so prominent in the Bible that we have received such radically diversion interpretations as that of the kingdom of God.

Since the days of Augustine, the kingdom has been identified with the church. As the church grows, the kingdom grows and is extended in the world. Many Protestant theologians have taught a modified form of this interpretation, holding that the kingdom of God may be identified with the true church which is embodied in the visible professing church.

As the church takes the gospel into all the world, it extends the kingdom of God. An optimistic version holds that it is the mission of the church to win the entire world to Christ and thus transform the world into the kingdom of God.

The gospel is the supernatural redeeming gospel of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God is to be established by the church's proclamation of the gospel. The gospel must not only offer a personal salvation in the future life to those who believe, it must also transform all the relationships of life here and now and thus cause the kingdom of God to prevail in all the world.

The gospel of redeeming grace has the power to save the social, economic, and political orders as well as the souls of individual believers. The kingdom of God is a little bit of leaven placed in a bowl of dough which slowly but steadily permeates the dough until the entire lump is leavened.

So is the kingdom of God to transform the world by a slow and gradual permeation. Still others have understood the kingdom of God to be essentially an ideal pattern for human society. The kingdom is not primarily concerned with individual salvation or with the future but with the social problems of the present.

Men build the kingdom of God as they work for the ideal social order and endeavor to solve problems of poverty, sickness, labor, relations, and social inequalities, and race relationships. The primary task of the church, according to this view, is to build the kingdom of God.

In the face of such diversity of interpretation in the history of Christian theology, many readers will react by saying, let us be done with all human interpretations. Let us be guided directly by the word of God and find what it has to say about the kingdom of God.

The Kingdom as Present Reality and Future Inheritance

The perplexing fact is that when we turn to the scriptures, we find an almost equally bewildering diversity of statements about the kingdom of God. If you will take a concordance of the Bible, look up every reference in the New Testament alone where the word kingdom occurs, write down a brief summary of each verse on a piece of paper, you will probably find yourself at a loss to know what to do with the complexity of teaching.

The word of God does say that the kingdom of God is a present spiritual reality. Quote, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. In Romans chapter 14 verse 17, righteousness and peace and joy are fruits of the Spirit of God that he bestows now upon those who yield their lives to the rule of the Spirit.

They have to do with the deepest springs of the spiritual life, and this, says the inspired apostle, is the kingdom of God. At the same time, the kingdom is an inheritance which God will bestow upon his people when Christ comes in glory.

Then the king will say to those at his right hand, come, O blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. How can the kingdom of God be a present spiritual reality and yet be an inheritance bestowed upon God's people at the second coming of Christ?

Another facet of the kingdom truth reflects the fact that the kingdom is a realm into which the followers of Jesus Christ have entered. Paul writes that God has, quote, delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son.

In Colossians chapter 1 verse 13, this verse makes it clear, very clear, that the redeemed are already in the kingdom of Christ. It may, of course, be objected that we must distinguish between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Christ, but this seems impossible, for the kingdom of God is also the kingdom of Christ.

You see that in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 5 and Revelation chapter 11 verse 15. Furthermore, our Lord describes those who will receive his message and mission as those who now enter into the kingdom of God.

In Luke chapter 16 verse 16, at the same time, the kingdom of God is a future realm which we must enter when Christ returns. Peter looks to a future day when there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 11, our Lord himself frequently referred to this future event, quote, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.

In Matthew chapter 8 verse 11, this future coming of the kingdom will be attended with great glory. Jesus told of the day when the angels will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.

In Matthew chapter 13 verse 41 -43, on the other hand, when asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, he answered, the kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, lo, here it is or there, for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.

In Luke chapter 17 verses 20 and 21, the kingdom is already present in the midst of men and Jesus flatly discouraged the Pharisees from looking for a future kingdom, which would come with an outward display of glory.

The parables of the kingdom make it clear that, in some sense, the kingdom is present and at work in the world. The kingdom of God is like a tiny seed which becomes a great tree. It is like leaven, which will one day have permeated the entire bowl of dough.

Yet, on the other hand, when Pilate examined Jesus about his teaching, Jesus replied, my kingdom is not of this world. The very complexity of the biblical teaching about the kingdom of God is one of the reasons why such diversity of interpretations have arisen in the history of theology.

Isolated verses can be quoted for most of the interpretations which can be found in our theological literature. The kingdom is a present reality and yet it is a future blessing. It is an inner spiritual redemptive blessing which can be experienced only by way of the new birth and yet it will have to do with the government of the nations of the world.

The kingdom is a realm into which men enter now and yet it is a realm into which they will enter tomorrow. It is at the same time a gift of God which will be bestowed by God in the future and yet which must be received in the present.

The Meaning of Kingdom as Kingship and Reign

Obviously, no simple explanation can do justice to such a rich but diverse variety of teaching. There is, however, a basic solution to this complex problem which will provide a key to a meaning open the door into the treasures of understanding and blessing.

The key provides the simplest approach into this involved and diverse body of scriptural truth. It is a key which is often overlooked because of the difference between modern and ancient idiom. We must ask the most fundamental question, what is the meaning of kingdom?

The modern answer to this question loses the key of meaning to this ancient biblical truth. In our western idiom a kingdom is primarily a realm over which a king exercises his authority, not meaning kingdoms remain in our modern world with its democratic interests but we think of the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland as the original group of countries which recognize the queen as their sovereign.

The dictionary follows this line of thought by giving as its first modern definition a state or monarchy the head of which is a king, dominion, realm. The second meaning of a kingdom is the people belonging to a given realm.

The kingdom of Great Britain may be thought of as the citizens over whom the queen exercises her rule, the subjects of her kingdom. The exclusive application of either of these two ideas to the biblical teaching of the kingdom leads us astray from a correct understanding of the biblical truth.

The English dictionary itself makes this mistake when it gives us the theological definition of the kingdom, the spiritual realm having God as its head. This definition cannot do justice to the verses which speaks of the kingdom of God in outward glory and power when Christ returns.

On the other hand, those who begin with the idea of a future realm inaugurated by the return of Christ cannot do justice to the sayings about the kingdom as a present spiritual reality. Furthermore, those who begin with the idea of the kingdom as a people base their definition upon the identity of the kingdom with the church and for this there is very little scriptural warrant.

We must set aside our modern idiom if we are to understand biblical terminology. At this point, Webster's dictionary provides us with a clue when it gives us its first definition. Quote, the rank, quality, state, or attributes of a king, royal authority, dominion, monarchy, kingship.

Archaic. From the viewpoint of modern linguistic uses, this definition may be archaic but it is precisely this archaism that is necessary to understand the ancient biblical teaching. The primary meaning of both the Hebrew word malkoth in the Old Testament and the Greek word basilea in the New Testament is the rank, authority, and sovereignty exercised by a king.

A basilea may indeed be a realm over which a sovereign exercises authority and it may be the people who belong to that realm over whom authority is exercised but these are secondary and derived meanings.

First of all, a kingdom is the authority to rule the sovereignty of the king. This primary meaning of the word kingdom may be seen in Old Testament uses to describe a king's rule. Ezra chapter 8 verse 1 speaks of the return from Babylon in the kingdom of Artaxerxes, his reign.

2 Chronicles chapter 12 verse 1 speaks of the establishment of Rehoboam's kingdom or rule. Daniel chapter 8 verse 23 refers to the latter end of their kingdom or rule. This usage of kingdom as a human reign may be found in such passages as Jeremiah chapter 49 verse 34, 2 Chronicles chapter 11 verse 17, chapter 12 verse 1, chapter 12 chapter 26 verse 30, Ezra chapter 4 verse 5, Nehemiah chapter 12 verse 22, and so on.

When the word refers to God's kingdom, it always refers to his reign, his rule, his sovereignty, and not to the realm in which it is exercised. Psalm 103 verse 19, the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all.

God's kingdom, his malchuth, is his universal rule, his sovereignty over all the earth. Psalm 145 verse 11, they shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and tell of thy power. In the parallelism of Hebrew poetry, the two lines express the same truth.

God's kingdom is his power. Psalm 145 verse 13, thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and thy dominion endures throughout all the generations. The realm of God's rule is the heaven and the earth, but this verse has no reference to the permanence of this realm.

It is God's rule which is everlasting. Daniel chapter 2 verse 37, you, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the glory, and the might. Notice the synonyms for kingdom, power, might, glory, all expressions of authority.

These terms identified the kingdom as the rule which God has given to the king. Of Belshazzar, it is written, quote, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end. Daniel chapter 5 verse 26, it is clear that the realm over which Belshazzar ruled was not destroyed.

The Babylonian realm and people were not brought to an end. They were transferred to another ruler. It was the rule of the king which was terminated and it was the rule which was given to Darius the Mede.

Daniel chapter 5 verse 31. One reference in our Gospels makes this meaning very clear. We read in Luke chapter 19 verses 11 and 12, as they heard these things, he proceeded to tell them a parable because he was near to Jerusalem.

They supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. He said, therefore, a nobleman went into a far country to receive a basilia, kingdom, and then return. The nobleman did not go away to get a realm, an area over which to rule.

The realm over which he wanted to reign was at hand. The territory over which he was to rule was this place he left. The problem was that he was no king. He needed authority, the right to rule. He went off to get a kingdom, kingship, authority.

A Revised Standard Version has therefore translated the word kingly power. This very thing had happened some years before the days of our Lord. In the year 40 BC, political conditions in Palestine had become chaotic.

The Romans had subdued the country in 63 BC, but stability had been slow in coming. Herod the Great finally went to Rome, obtained from the Roman Senate the kingdom, and was declared to be king. He literally went into a far country to receive a kingship, the authority to be king in Judea over the Jews.

It may well be that our Lord had this incident in mind in this parable. In any case, it illustrates the fundamental meaning of kingdom. The kingdom of God is his kingship, his rule, his authority. When this is once realized, we can go through the New Testament and find passage after passage where this meaning is evident, where the kingdom is not a realm or a people, but God's reign.

Jesus said we must receive the kingdom of God as little children. What is received? The church? Heaven? What is received is God's rule. In order to enter the fundamental realm of the kingdom, one must submit himself in perfect trust to God's rule here and now.

We must also seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. In Matthew chapter 6, verse 33, what's the object of our quest? The church? Heaven? No. We are to seek God's righteousness, his sway, his rule, his reign in our lives.

When we pray, thy kingdom come, are we praying for heaven to come to earth? In a sense, we are praying for this, but heaven is an object of desire only because the reign of God is to be more perfectly realized then than it is now.

Apart from the reign of God, heaven is meaningless. Therefore, what we pray for is thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This prayer is a petition for God to reign, to manifest his kingly sovereignty and power, to put to flight every enemy of righteousness and of his divine rule, that God alone may be king over all the world.

However, a reign without a realm in which it is exercised is meaningless. Thus, we find the kingdom of God is also the realm in which God's reign may be experienced. But again, the biblical facts are not simple.

Sometimes the Bible speaks of the kingdom as the realm into which we enter as present, sometimes as though it were future. It is future in such verses as Mark chapter 9, verse 47. Quote, it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell.

In such passages, the kingdom of God is equivalent to that aspect of eternal life, which will be experienced only after the second coming of Christ. In other passages, the kingdom is present and may be entered here and now.

In Luke chapter 16, verse 16, quote, the law and the prophets were until John. Since then, the good news of the kingdom of God is preached and everyone enters it violently. Matthew chapter 21, verse 31, the tax collectors of the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

Luke chapter 11, verse 52, woe to you lawyers for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourself and you hindered those who were entering. Our problem then is found in this threefold fact.

Some passages of scripture refer to the kingdom of God as God's reign. That's number one. Number two, some passages refer to God's kingdom as the realm into which we may now enter to experience the blessings of his reign.

And third, still other passages refer to a future realm which will come only with the return of our Lord Jesus Christ into which we shall then enter and experience the fullness of his reign. Thus, the kingdom of God means three different things in three different verses.

One has to study all the references in the light of their context and then try to fit them together in an overall interpretation. Fundamentally, we have seen the kingdom of God is God's sovereign reign, but God's reign expresses itself in different stages throughout redemptive history.

Therefore, men may enter into the realm of God's reign in its several stages of manifestation and experience the blessings of this reign in differing degrees. God's kingdom is the realm of the age to come, popularly called heaven, and then we shall realize the blessings of his kingdom reign in his perfection of their fullness.

But the kingdom of God is here now. There is a realm of spiritual blessings into which we may enter today and enjoy in part. But in reality, the blessings of God's kingdom reign still await fullness in the future.

We pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. The confidence of this prayer is to be answered when God brings human history to the divinely ordered consummation enables the Christian to retain his balance and sanity of mind in this mad world in which we live.

Our hearts go out to those who have no such hope. Thank God his kingdom is coming and it will fill all the earth. But when we pray, thy kingdom come. We also ask that God's will be done here and now, today.

This is the primary concern of these expositions, that the reader might meet the kingdom of God, or rather that the kingdom of God might meet him. We should also pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in my church as it is in heaven.

The life and fellowship of a Christian church ought to be a fellowship of people among whom God's will is done. A bit of heaven on earth. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in my life as it is in heaven.

This is included in our prayer for the coming of the kingdom. This is part of the gospel of the kingdom of God.