Kingdom of God
The kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven is found many times
in the New Testament, but it is not defined because any Israeli would know its
meaning from the Old Testament. However, if you check you will not find the actual
phrase “kingdom of God” used there, but the theme is. There God is presented as
king over all of creation. He is also portrayed as king over Israel in a
special way. To rule with him, God has appointed human kings a key role to play
in his kingdom. This began with Adam when God established him as a king to rule
the whole world under God as the true king over all creation. However, Adam
fails and God initiates plan B.
God next turns to the nation of Israel that developed from
the seed of Abraham. God’s plan was to
establish Israel as a great nation with a succession of kings who would rule over
the entire world through his chosen means. Because of sin, if dominion over the
earth was to be possible it would have to be a gift from God, which was to be
given in the context of God’s saving redemption of a sinful people, which is
why the sacrificial system became so central in Israel’s national life. Israel
is saved through the Exodus in order to become a kingdom of priest and a holy
nation, assigned the task of spreading the glory of God to everyone on earth
and showing them the way of salvation. However, they failed to carry out their
assignment and God had to turn to plan C, which comes out of a promise made to
David that God would establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
With Israel in exile, God uses prophetic teaching to
establish hope concerning the Kingdom of God. This teaching made it clear that
the only hope for establishing an enduring and faithful kingdom would require a
future work of God’s redemption. To accomplish this, God brings his people back
from exile and sets up Israel again as a nation and makes a promise of a coming
king in the role of Messiah. The Jews saw this as another earthly kingdom with Messiah
as king. What they did not understand was that this was not a mere deliverance
from their enemies, but an exodus of chosen people through spiritual birth who
would establish the kingdom of God to inhabit God’s new creation. This coming Messiah
that God was going to use to establish this Kingdom of God was his only Son who
he sent and sacrificed as the person of Jesus.
What then is the Kingdom of God? It is a body of believers who
have been born spiritually and have subjected themselves under the loving rule
of Jesus Christ as their king. Together they will have dominion over the new
creation.
An excellent source of information on the Kingdom of God is
found at this location.
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