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The Gospel of God Taking the Kingdom as its Central Goal
Regrettably, the gospel preached in Christianity today rarely mentions the kingdom of God. When it does mention the kingdom of God, it mentions only the name without explaining what the kingdom of God actually is. For this reason many people know the kingdom of God in name but not in its reality.
A careful reading of the New Testament from the first book to the last will reveal not even a single verse that says that the goal of the gospel is for people to go to heaven. Rather, almost every book in the New Testament speaks of the kingdom of God and says clearly that the central goal of the gospel is the kingdom of God. God’s intention with the gospel is not to save people into heaven but to save them into the kingdom.
The gospel is not a matter of a heavenly mansion but a matter of the kingdom. Moreover, the Bible does not speak of a heavenly mansion but of the New Jerusalem.
Revelation 21:2 says, “I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”
I must say emphatically that what the Bible shows regarding the gospel and salvation is absolutely not aimed at a heavenly mansion but at the kingdom. The goal of the gospel of God is not to save people into a mansion but into a kingdom. There is a great difference between a kingdom and a mansion. A mansion is merely a comfortable place; however, a kingdom involves not only a place but also the King, His Law and His Rule.
I hope that this opening word will give you a deep impression that the aim of the gospel of God is to save us into His kingdom. Perhaps you have never heard such a word or had such an impression. Although you may have heard the gospel, been saved, become a believer, and even met with believers for a number of years, you may have never had the impression that the goal of God’s gospel is to save you into a kingdom. You may know that through the gospel of God you have obtained forgiveness of sins, peace through the forgiveness of sins, and reconciliation to God. You may also know that through the gospel of God you have received God’s life to become God’s child and a member of God’s household. Perhaps you know that through the gospel of God you have received the Holy Spirit of God and all kinds of spiritual gifts and blessings. I believe that all the brothers and sisters know these contents of the gospel. However, in addition to all these good things, the central matter revealed in the Bible concerning the gospel of God is that its goal is to save us into the kingdom of God.
The Divine Image and The Divine Authority
Genesis 1 says that God created man in His own image and that He gave man the authority to rule all the created things (v. 26). In the creation of man the two vital things are the divine image and the divine authority. If we are to have the full image of God to express God and to realize the full authority to represent God, to subdue His enemy, to subdue this earth, God Himself must be our life. In the first two chapters of Genesis we see the image and the dominion, the authority, and the life of God, which is signified by the tree of life (Gen. 2:9). To express God and to represent God in a full way we must take God as our life. We must have God living within us and through us. Then we will have the real image of God to express God, and we will realize the divine authority to represent God on this earth to subdue His enemy.
The divine life to be received by man is for two things:
- to express God on the positive side and
- to deal with God’s enemy on the negative side.
To express God, man needs the image of God. To deal with the enemy of God, man needs the authority of God. The divine authority, which is something of the kingdom, is revealed throughout the Scriptures.
The Kingdom and The Chosen Race
After man became fallen, God chose the race of Abraham. The first race, the race of Adam, failed God. But after the great flood, God began again with a second race of mankind, the race of Noah. This second race also failed God. Then God chose the third race, the race of Abraham, after the time of Babel.
The purpose of God’s choosing of Abraham is revealed in Genesis 12:1-2. These two verses tell us that God chose Abraham with the intention of having a kingdom. The Lord told Abraham that He would make of him “a great nation” (v. 2). This great nation is a kingdom. The kingdom is a sphere, a realm, to exercise authority. Without the kingdom God can never exercise His authority. For God to accomplish His purpose, He must have a realm, a sphere, as a kingdom for Him to exercise His authority.
This is why the Lord Jesus mentioned the kingdom when He taught the disciples to pray in Matthew 6. At the beginning of the Lord’s prayer and at the end of it the kingdom is mentioned. The beginning of the Lord’s prayer says, “Your kingdom come” (v. 10). The end of this prayer says, “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” (v. 13).
The Kingdom in The New Testament
In the New Testament the first preacher was John the Baptist. The first word preached by him was, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (Matt. 3:2).
When the Lord Jesus began to preach the gospel, He said the same thing as John the Baptist: “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (4:17). When the Lord sent the disciples to preach the gospel, He charged them to say, “The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (10:7).
The book of Revelation tells us that at the Lord’s coming back after His judgment upon the nations, the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of Christ (11:15). Eventually, in the millennium the Lord will rule as a king with all His victorious saints (Rev. 20:4, 6). Revelation shows that in the accomplishment of His eternal purpose God eventually will have a kingdom in which He can exercise His authority to the fullest extent. The Scriptures clearly reveal this line of the kingdom of God in which or through which God can exercise His authority to accomplish His eternal purpose.
The Kingdom of God
A kingdom is not a simple matter. For example, the United States as a nation, a kingdom, is not a simple matter. The kingdom of God includes many things that need to be understood.
In the Old Testament there is the kingdom of Israel. In the New Testament there is the kingdom of the heavens. Then after the church age there will be a period of a thousand years known as the millennium. The millennium is a kingdom of a thousand years (Rev. 20:4, 6).
If we read the Scriptures carefully, we will see that even in the millennium there are some further divisions. The kingdom of Israel in the Old Testament, the kingdom of the heavens in the New Testament, and the millennial kingdom after the church age are parts of the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God runs from eternity to eternity. It is a realm, a sphere, in which God can rule and exercise His authority. From eternity past to eternity future there is such a thing called the kingdom of God. In this kingdom, God exercises His authority to rule over all things.
The Kingdom of Israel
Concerning the kingdom of Israel is a part of the kingdom of God in the Old Testament times, Matthew 21:43 says, “Therefore I say to you that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and shall be given to a nation producing its fruit.”
The kingdom of God was already there with the Israelites, but because they did not bring forth fruit, the Lord told them that the kingdom of God would be taken from them. That it could be taken from them means that the kingdom of God was among them already. The Lord took the kingdom from them and gave this kingdom to another people, which is the church.
The Crucial Point Concerning The Kingdom
In conclusion, we must remember the crucial point concerning the kingdom. The kingdom is the requirement of the gospel, and this requirement can be met only by the life of Christ within us. After we have been regenerated, we must grow, mature in life, run the race, and pay the price to attain the goal of the uttermost enjoyment of Christ in Kingdom of God.
When we as Christians are truly under the rule, the exercise, of the reality of the kingdom, we will be a group of people who will hasten the coming of the Lord (2 Pet. 3:12). This means that our living will hasten the coming of the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens. The Lord taught the disciples to pray for the coming of the kingdom (Matt. 6:10). We must pray for the kingdom to come and must live in the reality of the kingdom until the earth is fully recovered for God’s will in the coming kingdom age.
