Search
The kingdom of the heavens should be an incentive to our Christian life and an exercise to our church life. If the kingdom of the heavens is our incentive and exercise today, then in the coming age it will be a reward to us. Therefore, the kingdom of the heavens is an exercise in this age and a reward in the coming age.
This truth is very much lacking among today’s Christians. Hardly anyone is willing to pay the price to take up this truth and to teach it to others. For this reason, we should be burdened to take care of this matter, first being exercised by the kingdom of the heavens in this age so that we may receive it as a reward in the future and then carrying out the burden to preach the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth according to Matthew 24:14. In order to help us realize the kingdom of the heavens as an incentive and exercise, we need to see further aspects of the kingdom, all of which are related to the kingdom of the heavens.
Paul tells us that the Father has “delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Col. 1:13). The authority of darkness denotes the authority of Satan. God is light, and Satan is darkness. God has delivered us out of Satan’s authority of darkness into God’s marvelous light. Darkness is Satan as death, but light is God as life. To be delivered out of the authority of darkness is to be delivered from the Devil, who has the might of death (Heb. 2:14; John 17:15). We have been delivered from the Devil, Satan, by the death of Christ (Col. 2:14-15) and by the life of Christ in resurrection (John 5:24).
We have not only been delivered out of the authority of darkness but also transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. The kingdom of the Son is the authority of Christ (Rev. 11:15; 12:10).
According to the New Testament, the Son of God is the expression of the divine life and its embodiment. This means that the kingdom of the Son is a realm of life. The fact that the kingdom into which we have been transferred is the kingdom of the Son of God’s love indicates that this realm of life is in love, not in fear. The kingdom in which we find ourselves today is a realm full of life, light, and love.
The Son of the Father is the expression of the Father as the source of life (4, John 1:18; 1 John 1:2). The Father as the source of life is expressed in the Son. The Son of the Father’s love is the object of the Father’s love to be the embodiment of life to us in the divine love with the authority in resurrection. The Son, as the embodiment of the divine life, is the object of the Father’s love. The divine life embodied in the Son is given to us in the divine love. Therefore, the object of the divine love becomes to us the embodiment of life in the divine love with the authority in resurrection. This is the kingdom of the Son of His love.
To be transferred into the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love is to be transferred into the Son who is life to us (1 John 5:12). The Son in resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 6:4-5) is now the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). He rules us in His resurrection life with love. This is the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love. When we live by the Son as our life in resurrection, we are living in His kingdom, enjoying Him in the Father’s love.
We have been transferred into a realm where we are ruled in love with life. Here, under the heavenly ruling and restriction, we have genuine freedom, the proper freedom in love, with life, and under light. This is what it means to be delivered out of the authority of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love. Here in this kingdom we enjoy Christ and have the church life.
The kingdom of the Son of God’s love comprises three ages: the present age, in which the church is; the coming age, in which the millennial kingdom will be; and the eternal age with the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth. These three aspects of the kingdom are considered by Paul in Colossians 1:13 as the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.
The words “the Son of God” are a delight to the Father’s ears. When the Lord Jesus was baptized, the Father declared, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I delight” (Matt. 3:17). When the Lord was transfigured, the Father made the same declaration (Matt. 17:5). Because the Father delights in His Son, the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love is a pleasant thing, a matter of delight. This is the reason it comprises only three sections — the section of the church life, the section of the heavenly part of the kingdom of the heavens in the millennium, and the new heaven and the new earth with the New Jerusalem as the consummation of the church and the kingdom. In each of these three sections the kingdom of the Son of God’s love is a matter of delight. The Father, by His mercy and grace, has transferred us out of the darkness of Satan into this pleasant part of the kingdom.
The stress in Colossians 1:13 is the kingdom of the Son of God’s love in this age, which is the reality of the church. The church life today is the kingdom of the Son of God’s love which is as delightful to God the Father as the Son of God is. We, the believers, all have been transferred into this delightful kingdom of the Son of God’s love. God the Father loves the delightful part of the kingdom just as He loves His delightful Son as His own. So, the church, as the delightful part of the divine kingdom, is considered a great blessing to God’s redeemed people by the Apostle Paul in the book of Colossians, a book which is on Christ as the all-inclusive portion of God’s people (Col. 1:12).
John 3:5 indicates that it is through regeneration that all the believers have been transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. Through regeneration we have been brought out of the darkness of Satan into this delightful aspect of the kingdom. God loved the Son, so He gave this part of the kingdom to Him. Through God’s salvation and regeneration, all the believers of His Son have been transferred into this section of the kingdom.
Ephesians 5:5 speaks of the kingdom of Christ and of God. The kingdom of Christ is the millennium (Rev. 20:4, 6; Matt. 16:28); it is also the kingdom of God (Matt. 13:41, 43). The believers have been regenerated into the kingdom of God (John 3:5) and are, in the church life, living in the kingdom of God today (Rom. 14:17). Not all believers will participate in the millennium; only the overcoming ones will. The unclean, defeated ones will have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God in the coming age.
In the aspect of the kingdom as the kingdom of Christ and of God, Christ reigns with God. We may also say that Christ reigns as God. Hence, it is the kingdom of Christ and at the same time also the kingdom of God.
Revelation 11:15 says, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.” The kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of Christ at His coming back after His judgment upon the nations (Dan. 7:13-14; 2:44-45). That the Lord “shall reign forever and ever” refers to the Lord’s reign for eternity in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 22:5).
Second Peter 1:11 speaks of “the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” The eternal kingdom here refers to the kingdom of God given to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Dan. 7:13-14), which will be manifested at His coming back (Luke 19:11-12). It will be a reward to His faithful believers, who pursue the growth in His life unto maturity and the development of the virtues of His nature so that they may participate, in the millennium, in His kingship in God’s glory (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:4, 6). To enter thus into the eternal kingdom of the Lord is related to the entrance into God’s eternal glory, to which He has called us in Christ (1 Pet. 5:10; 1 Thes. 2:12).
The kingdom of Christ and of God, the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ — all three are the same one aspect of the kingdom, the aspect which concerns Christ’s relationship with the kingdom of God. Christ has redeemed the church with His blood through His death that it may become the kingdom of God in the church (Rom. 14:17) and the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ in the millennium (Rev. 11:15). This kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ will become the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in which He shall reign forever and ever (Rev. 11:15).
The kingdom of Christ and of God, the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ comprise the millennium in the coming age and the new heaven and new earth in eternity; they do not comprise the church age. For this reason, this aspect of the kingdom is not as much a delight to God as the kingdom of the Son of His love, because this aspect of the kingdom refers mainly to God’s authority.
The kingdom of Christ and of God, the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the kingdom received by Christ from God and brought back by Christ’s coming (Luke 19:12, 15a; Dan. 7:13-14; 2:34-35, 44; Heb. 1:8). In the parable recorded in Luke 19:11-27, the Lord Jesus speaks of a “certain man of noble birth” who “went to a distant country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.” The man of noble birth here signifies the Savior with the highest status, the status of the God-man. The word “went” signifies the Savior’s going to heaven after His death and resurrection (Luke 24:51; 1 Pet. 3:22), and “return” signifies the Savior’s coming back with the kingdom (Rev. 11:15; 2 Tim. 4:1). Daniel 7:13-14 and 2:34-35, 44 refer to the same kingdom. Furthermore, Hebrews 1:8 says that Christ’s kingdom is forever. The kingdom referred to in all these verses is the kingdom where Christ will exercise the authority given to Him by the Father. Hence, it is the kingdom of Christ. However, it is also the kingdom of God because Christ receives the kingdom from God to be exercised on earth for God’s authority.
In Matthew 26:29 the Lord Jesus refers to the kingdom of the Father. “I will by no means drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of My Father.” The Father’s kingdom is the heavenly part of the millennium, the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens, in which the Lord will drink with us after His coming back.
The Father’s kingdom is the most pleasant, the most delightful, and the most lovable section of the kingdom. This most pleasant, delightful, and lovable section the Father keeps for Himself. For this reason, this part of the kingdom is called the kingdom of the Father.
In Matthew 13:43a the Lord says, “Then the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” This verse indicates that the kingdom of the Father will be the heavenly part of the millennium, the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens as a reward to the overcomers. In the millennium the overcomers in the heavenly part of the kingdom will reign with Christ over the earthly part.
The overcomers as the righteous, the sons of the kingdom (Matt. 13:38), will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. We are sons of God the Father, and God is light (1 John 1:5; 1 Tim. 6:16). The divine light, which is God Himself, is, of course, much greater than the light of the sun. When in the millennium the overcoming believers enjoy the Father as light, they will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
The Father’s kingdom will be the manifestation of the reality of the kingdom of the heavens. The reality is here today. In the coming age this reality will be manifested, and that manifestation will be the Father’s kingdom as the heavenly section of the millennial kingdom. This is not a matter of power or authority but a matter of the full expression of the Father’s life.
The requirements of the kingdom of the heavens are the highest requirements, requirements that need the highest life, the life of the Father. Because only the Father’s life can fulfill the requirements of the kingdom of the heavens, the reality of the kingdom of the heavens can be brought in and realized only by the Father’s life. Eventually, the reality of the kingdom of the heavens will be manifested. That manifestation will be the Father’s kingdom, that section of the kingdom which is most pleasant to the Father.
The kingdom of the Son of Man is the earthly section of the millennial kingdom. It is the restored nation of Israel (Acts 1:6), the kingdom of David (Mark 11:10; Luke 1:32-33; 2 Sam. 7:12-13), for the saved Jews.
It is significant that in Matthew 13 the Lord reveals the Father’s kingdom in verse 43 and His kingdom, the kingdom of the Son of Man, in verse 41. In the latter verse the Lord says, “The Son of Man shall send His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all stumblingblocks and those who do lawlessness.” If we compare verses 41 and 43, we shall see that the part of the kingdom reserved by the Son to Himself is not as pleasant as the part reserved for the Father. In the Father’s kingdom the righteous will shine as the sun. This shining, the expression of the Father’s life, is a very pleasant thing. But the “stumblingblocks” and “those who do lawlessness” are not pleasant matters. This indicates that the Son keeps the unpleasant part of the kingdom for Himself, sending His angels to clear away all evil things so that the Father may have the pleasant part of the kingdom. Whereas the shining of the righteous is pleasant, the clearing away of the negative things is unpleasant. The Son, therefore, reserves to Himself the unpleasant part and gives the most pleasant part to the Father. Because the Son of Man comes to clear away all the negative things for the Father, His kingdom, the earthly part of the millennial kingdom, is called the kingdom of the Son of Man.
As the earthly section of the millennial kingdom, the kingdom of the Son of Man will be the restored nation of Israel (Acts 1:6), the kingdom of David (Mark 11:10; Luke 1:32-33; 2 Sam. 7:12-13), for the saved Jews. The saved Jews will be the priests, and the restored nations will be the people. This is the kingdom of the Son of Man, who will manage, rule over, this part of the millennium. This earthly part of the millennium will be under the heavenly part, the royal part. The manifestation of the reality of the kingdom of the heavens will include the royalty, the co-kings, reigning over the earth, on which there will be the saved Jews as the priests and the restored nations as the people. This earthly part of the millennium, including the restored nation of Israel and the restored nations, will be the kingdom of the Son of Man.
