Chris Bruno - The Whole Message of the Bible in 16 Words

If you asked a room full of Christians to explain what the Bible means by the kingdom of God, you would probably get quite a few different answerseven if they were all members of the same church!

Some might say the kingdom of God is the church. Others might say it is the nation of Israel. Some could be thinking about different Christian ministries, and some might think the kingdom is wherever we can sense the presence of God. Probably quite a few would say the kingdom of God is something to look forward to at the end of history. A lot of other people (and maybe even some of the same people) might say that the kingdom of God is something we can experience here and now.

We could go on listing different ways to describe the kingdom, but the truth is, while the Bible does talk about the kingdom of God in different ways, these ways might not always be what we think they are. So we need to start by explaining a little bit about what the term kingdom of God actually means.

Gods Saving Reign

If I were to talk to you about the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, youd have a fairly good idea of what I mean. Id be talking about the nation - state of Saudi Arabia, the country that fills most of the Arabian Peninsula and is bordered by Iraq to the north and Yemen to the south. When we think about kingdoms, we tend to think in these geopolitical terms. But these terms do not quite give the whole picture when we talk about the kingdom in the Bible.

When the Bible talks about Gods kingdom, it is not talking first and foremost about a land with borders and a centralized government. Instead, it is talking first about Gods power and authority to rule. But this does not mean that we cannot ever talk about a particular place when we are talking about Gods kingdom (or any other kingdom for that matter). After all, the existence of a ruler implies a place where he rules.

Think of it this way: if Im talking about the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, then Im assuming that this kingdom has a monarch. As Im writing this, the monarch of this particular kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II, recently became the longest reigning British monarch in history.

Dont push too hard on this analogy, however, because the powers of the British monarchy arent exactly what they used to be. With the kingdom of God, we can be sure that the authority of its Ruler has not decreased in any way, shape, or form. But whether we are talking about a constitutional monarch, such as the queen of England; an absolute monarch, such as the king of Saudi Arabia; or the King of kings, we cannot separate a monarch from his or her authority as ruler. What this all means is that when we think about the kingdom of God, we need to start with Gods active authority to rule.

Your Kingdom Come?

At this point, you might be thinking about the petition in the Lords Prayer that we mentioned earlier, where Jesus teaches us to pray that Gods kingdom will come. If so, you might also be wondering how I can define the kingdom of God as Gods authority to rule. After all, Psalm 103:19 says, The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. How can we pray that Gods kingdom will come if his kingdom rules over all?

To answer this, we need to see that the Bible actually talks about the kingdom of God in two ways. Verses such as Psalm 103:19 point us to Gods sovereign rule over all things. Also, Psalm 47:78 says: God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm! God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne. It is clear that God is reigning over all things right now in some way.

To see a second way the Bible talks about the kingdom, lets think about the story of the Bible in the Lords Prayer (Matt. 6:913). Dont misunderstand meIm not saying that the Lords Prayer is a story in and of itself. But when we read it through the lens of the wider story of the Bible, we can see that the kingdom of God in the story of Scripture should shape the way we read this prayer.

Jesus begins the prayer by asking that the name of God, our heavenly Father, would be hallowed, or honored (v. 9). There is a lot of truth about God as Father and the glory of his name packed into that petition. Before we talk about the kingdom, lets not forget that the kingdom is all about the King. Remember, the universe itself exists for Gods glory. But as Jesus continues to pray, we see what it looks like for Gods name to be honored: Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (v. 10).

In short, Gods name is glorified when his kingdom comes, and his kingdom comes when his will is done on earth just as it is in heaven. This helps us understand the second way the Bible talks about the kingdom of God. If we start by thinking about how Gods will is done in heaven, the rest of the definition works itself out from there. In heaven, Gods will is done perfectly. All of the angels and the other heavenly beings are in perfect submission to him. When we get a little glimpse of the throne room of heaven in passages such as Isaiah 6 or Revelation 4, we see a place where every being recognizes the glory and supremacy of God.

Jesus is teaching that when we pray for Gods kingdom to come, we are praying that the earth and everyone in it will be in full and complete submission to him. We are praying for God to undo the results of sin and to defeat death. We are praying that the new creation will come. Then the reign of God will be plain for all to see.

But Jesus talks about the kingdom as both already present and not yet fully here. This is because God has already started bringing the earth into submission and restoring the world to its original glorybut there is much more to come.

At the beginning of creation, God installed Adam and Eve as king and queen. Remember, they were supposed to subdue the earth and have dominion over it (Gen. 1:28). If you have ever read The Chronicles of Narnia, you have seen how C. S. Lewis paints a picture of what this kind of rule looks like. Aslan is the king of Narnia, but Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy are his representative rulers. They are to rule Narnia on Aslans behalf. In the same way, Adam and Eve were to rule on Gods behalfbut they failed to do this.

Even though Adam and Eve failed, causing sin and death to enter the world, God determined to bring the whole creation back under his reign. He said that the offspring of Eve would defeat the Serpent and undo the curse (Gen.

The Gospel of the Kingdom

When Jesus came on the scene proclaiming the kingdom of God, he was announcing that the promised renewal was under way. And it began with his call for people to repent and believe the good news. As men and women turn away from their sin and cast themselves on Jesus, Gods reign advances. That is why Jesus also teaches us to pray that God will provide our daily needs and forgive our sins (Matt. 6:1112). When we pray these things, we are expressing our need for God and submission to him. He is the One who meets our needs. When we sin against him, we need his forgiveness. When others sin against us, we reflect his will by forgiving them rather than holding on to bitterness or anger. We seek his kingdom by fighting against sin when it wells up in our hearts. This defeat of our sin is rooted in the saving work of Jesus on the cross.

When we say no to sin, we are demonstrating that the saving reign of God is present among us. That is why we can say that even though Paul, Peter, John, and the rest of the New Testament writers outside the Gospels dont use kingdom language very much, the kingdom of God was never far from their minds.

The kingdom of God advances as the good news goes forward. As more and more people turn away from their sin and put their trust in Jesus alone, the will of God is being done on earth as it is in heaven. As we live in the already and not yet, we need to keep praying and working so that Gods saving reign goes forward. But we can also have confidence that our prayer will one day be answered in the greatest possible way.