As human beings we were born in the human kingdom to be men, and as believers in Christ we have been re-born into the divine kingdom to be citizens of the kingdom of God.
We are not merely men part of the human kingdom, the highest created form of life, but we are also God-men, men born of God with God’s life inside of them to live in the kingdom of God by the divine life, the highest form of life in the universe.
As kingdom people we need to live in the kingdom of God under the rule of God enjoying all the blessings of the divine life, so that God can accomplish what He desires. This is what we are meant for: we are born and have the human life so that we may receive the divine life and enter into God’s kingdom, and we are in God’s kingdom so that we may be one with God for His purpose and cooperate with Him for the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom so that God’s kingdom would be enlarged.
When the Lord Jesus came, He preached the gospel of the kingdom, telling people to repent for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near. The Lord Jesus was the first God-man, the first ever man who lived not by His human life but by the divine life to be in the kingdom of God, and He brought the kingdom of God to us – actually, He Himself is the kingdom of God.
We need to know the Lord Jesus, enjoy Him, and live because of Him so that we may live in reality in the kingdom of God, under God’s rule and enjoying the riches of His divine life, so that we may also preach the gospel of the kingdom as the Lord has commissioned us.
Thank the Lord that He has commissioned us to preach the gospel of the kingdom, promising that He was given all the authority and that He will be with us until the consummation of the age! Now we as the Body of Christ need to go in the Lord’s name and with His authority and speak the good news, the gospel of the kingdom, so that people would repent for the kingdom and enter into the kingdom of God!
Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom to Put People into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19)
In Matthew 28:19 the Lord Jesus commissioned His disciples to go and disciple all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them all that He has commanded them.
The goal of preaching the gospel is not “bringing people into heaven” or “saving them from hell”; in Matthew the goal of the gospel of the kingdom is to set up the kingdom of the heavens by putting people into the Triune God, making them citizens of the kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 28:19; Rom. 14:17).
When we preach the gospel of the kingdom, announcing Jesus Christ (the kingdom of God) as the gospel, the result is that we bring people into the Triune God!
Because all authority on earth and in heaven was given to the Lord as the Heavenly King and as the Head of the Body, we as the members of the Body of Christ need to go with His authority to disciple all the nations, making heathen people the kingdom people for the establishing of the kingdom of God, which is the church today.
After people repent and believe into the Lord as a result of the preaching of the gospel, they need to be baptized – they don’t need to wait until they are ready but immediately they need to be put into the Triune God!
Through believing into Christ, sinners who were rebellious against God are brought back to God, joined to Christ, and put into the Triune God to be organically united with God and intimately joined to the other members of the Body of Christ, so that they may live a kingdom life in a spiritual and mystical union with the Lord.
We need to have such an uplifted view of our preaching of the gospel: we don’t merely want to save sinners and find the lost sheep but bring people into the Triune God so that they may organically joined to Him and live a kingdom life in the church life today!
Lord Jesus, thank You for commanding us and commissioning us to go and preach the gospel of the kingdom so that we may disciple all the nations and put people into the Triune God! Amen! Uplift our view of our preaching of the gospel and keep us in an organic union with You as we open our mouth to speak the truth. Lord, have a way through us wherever we are: at home, on the street, while shopping, at work, at school, and everywhere we go! Flow through us as the gospel to bring others into the Triune God!
God Charges Everyone to Repent for the Kingdom; We Repent to Live in the Kingdom!
In His New Testament economy, God requires that all men repent and believe into the Lord. Everyone should repent and turn to God (Acts 26:20), and God charges all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). Repentance is a crucial item in God’s plan.
What does it mean to repent? To repent means that originally we were rebellious and against God, but now we turn back to the Lord in submission (Matt. 3:2; 4:17).
It’s not about being a good man and not a bad man but realizing that in ourselves we are rebellious against God, and turning to the Lord completely from our previous life.
We need to repent, change our mind, and turn in our life-pursuit. Before we heard the gospel, the goal of our pursuing has been many other things, and now, our pursuing must turn toward God and His kingdom.
The Greek word means have a change of mind. To repent is to have a change of mind with regret for the past and a turn for the future. On the negative side, to repent before God is not only to repent of sins and wrongdoings but also to repent of the world and its corruption, which usurp and corrupt people whom God created for Himself, and to repent of our God-forsaking life in the past. On the positive side, it is to turn to God in every way and in everything for the fulfillment of His purpose in creating man. It is a “repentance unto God,” and is to “repent and turn to God” (Acts 20:21; 26:20). (Mark 1:15, footnote 2, Recovery Version Bible)
When we receive the Lord as our Savior, He comes into us with the kingdom of God; the One whom we receive when we are born again is the King of Kings, the King on the throne, the LORD Jesus. When we receive the Lord with His kingdom in us through repentance, we receive the King with His throne, and from rebellious sinners we become believing ones who submit to His throne.
Before we believed into the Lord we acted loosely and recklessly because the heavenly authority was not ruling us, but once we get saved by repenting and believing into the Lord, we have a change of mind: we accept the Lord’s rule in us, over us, and in all our life.
When we repent, our mind changes: we think differently, we reject our God-forsaking life in the past and turn to God in every way and in everything for the fulfilling of His purpose. To repent is to have a change of mind issuing in regret for the past and having a turn in purpose (see Luke 3:3, 8; 5:32; 17:3; Acts 17:30-31).
God charges all men to repent for the kingdom: we need to repent not only of our sins but for the kingdom of God, having a change in our concept, philosophy, and logic. Unless we repent – that is, unless we have a change of concept – we cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Furthermore, unless we daily repent by having a change of mind through turning to the Lord moment-by-moment, we do not live in the kingdom of God. The only way we can live the life of the kingdom is by daily repenting, turning to the Lord, and accepting His ruling in our being.
When we repent, the Lord forgives our sins and we are joined to the Lord organically; the believers’ sins are forgiven by their repentance and faith in Christ (see Acts 2:38; 10:43).
How much we need to daily turn to the Lord, contact Him, and repent to have a change of mind and turn to Him in every way and in everything for the fulfilling of His purpose in making man!
Lord Jesus, we repent for the kingdom. We repent from living a God-forsaking life, a life in which we didn’t accept Your ruling and Your purpose. We turn our heart to You. Lord, we come to contact You and turn to You from anything of ourselves! We repent of our sins, our wrongdoings, of the world and its corruption that usurps us, and of our God-forsaking life. Lord, we turn to You in every way and in everything for the fulfilling of Your purpose in creating man! Grant us to have a change of mind and live in the kingdom of God daily!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, bro. Minoru C’ sharing in the message for this week, and The Economy of God and the Mystery of the Transmission of the Divine Trinity, ch. 3 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Gospel (2016 International Chinese-speaking Conference), week 1 / msg. 1, The Gospel of the Kingdom.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# We must repent for the kingdom’s at hand; / All that we do, think, or feel, or have planned / Must be abandoned and changed in our mind; / Leave all the world and self-seeking behind. (Hymns #1301)
# ”Repent, the Kingdom has come near,” / This is the Kingdom’s first demand; / A change of mind we all must have / And on God’s side must firmly stand. (Hymns #943)
# Seeking of this age to taste, / And of it have a part. / If we only knew, dear Lord, / The ways we grieve Your heart. / We would come and turn to You / With a repenting heart, / And would give ourselves to be / With you, O Lord, inside the Ark. (Song on repenting)
About aGodMan
The believers’ sins are forgiven by their repentance and faith in Christ. God forgives through the blood of Christ, and He forgives by our repentance and faith. Acts 2:38 speaks of repentance, and Acts 10:43 says, “To this One all the prophets testify that through His name everyone who believes into Him will receive forgiveness of sins.” In order to be forgiven, we need to repent. To repent is to have a change of mind issuing in regret, to have a turn in purpose. Literally, the Greek word for repent means to think differently afterward, that is, to have a change of mind. On the negative side, to repent before God is to repent not only of sins and wrongdoings but also of the world and its corruption that usurp the people whom God made for Himself, and also to repent of our God-forsaking life in the past. On the positive side, to repent is to turn to God in every way and in everything for the fulfilling of His purpose in making man. Therefore, it is a repentance unto God (Acts 20:21). (Witness Lee, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 1373-1374)