God’s desire and goal is to obtain a corporate dwelling place in man, a building of God with man and man with God that will express Him and represent Him in the universe. For this, He first gains a kingdom: a group of people who are one with Him and who allow Him to rule and exercise His authority so that He may accomplish His purpose through them.
In the Old Testament, He called Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and many others to be His people, but toward the end of the Old Testament we see that the people of Israel as a whole has failed God.
In the New Testament, the Lord Jesus came as God incarnated in the flesh to proclaim the gospel for men to repent and enter into the kingdom of God. The Lord Jesus came as the kingdom of God to sow Himself into those who receive Him by believing into Him; He sows Himself as the seed of the kingdom into us, then He grows and develops in us to bring us fully into God’s kingdom.
On the one hand, the gospel preached by the Lord Jesus was the gospel of grace and of salvation: whoever believes into Him shall be saved and enjoy God as his portion. On the other hand, the gospel preached by the Lord Jesus was the gospel of the kingdom: by believing into Him we enter into the kingdom of God to become the realm where God can rule and have the building up of His dwelling place.
Actually, the kingdom of God is the gospel, and what we preach today to the whole inhabited earth is the gospel of the kingdom for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come (Matt. 24:14). The gospel of the kingdom is proclaimed so that rebellious sinners might be saved, qualified, and equipped to enter into the kingdom of God (see Matt. 4:17).
After entering the kingdom of God through repentance and believing into the Lord, we as redeemed sinners are partakers of the divine life and are under the divine rule so that we may participate in the blessings of the divine life in the divine kingdom (1 Thes. 2:12).
Hallelujah, we are now citizens in the kingdom of God, those who believed into the Lord Jesus and were saved, qualified, and equipped to enter into the kingdom of God to be under the rule of the divine life and enjoy the blessings of the divine life!
The Gospel of the Kingdom Brings People under God’s Rule to become His Kingdom
In order for God to gain a corporate expression in humanity through the church, the building of God, He first needs to obtain a realm where He can exercise His authority and manifest His life with all its riches; this realm is the kingdom of God. The Lord Jesus came to preach the gospel of the kingdom, announcing the kingdom of God as the gospel and bringing sinners into the kingdom of God.
Through believing in the gospel we become believers in Christ (those joined to Him to enjoy all His riches) and disciples of Christ (those who are trained, ruled, discipled, and dealt with by the Lord’s authority).
Through the fall of man, we all are born in the kingdom of Satan; by human birth, we belong to the kingdom of darkness, and we grow up in a world that is under the constant usurpation of Satan. But when we hear the gospel, repent, and believe into the Lord, we are transferred out of the kingdom of Satan and into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, the kingdom of God, where we can enjoy God as our portion and we’re under the rule of God’s authority.
All those who believe into the Lord are both Christ’s believers and the Lord’s disciples, and our commission is to go and preach the gospel of the kingdom to the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come (Matt. 24:14).
The gospel we preach today is the gospel of the kingdom; this gospel has the aspect of life (the gospel of life), grace (the gospel of grace), and salvation (the gospel of salvation), but the “hub” and centre is the gospel of the kingdom, and all the other aspects are the “spokes” centered on the hub.
The kingdom of God is the gospel, and when we preach the gospel we cooperate with the Lord to help sinners be transferred out of the authority of darkness and into the kingdom of God.
For us to know the gospel, we need to know the kingdom of God; we need to realize that, as believers, we are in the kingdom of God, and the church today is the practicality of the kingdom in which we live the kingdom life so that the church would be built up to bring in the manifestation of the kingdom.
The preaching of the gospel of the kingdom brings forth the church composed of the regenerated believers in Christ, the disciples of the Lord; through the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom God has a way to bring people under the ruling of the heavenly authority so that they may become His kingdom (Col. 1:13).
Lord Jesus, may the gospel of the kingdom be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations for the kingdom of God to be brought in among men. We want to cooperate with You to know the kingdom of God as the gospel, live the church life as the reality of the kingdom of God, and preach the gospel of the kingdom of God for sinners to be brought under God’s authority in the kingdom of God! Lord, thank You for making us both believers in Christ and disciples of the Lord, those who both enjoy Christ in the organic union with Him and are under the rule of the divine life in the kingdom of God!
The Gospel of the Kingdom brings Believers into Participation of the Blessings of the Divine Life in the Divine Kingdom
When one is in darkness, he doesn’t see anything; he doesn’t realize there’s such a thing as light, and he doesn’t enjoy the riches and blessings brought in by the light. Similarly, it is impossible for sinners to realize the riches of the divine life unless they receive the gospel and believe into the Lord to be transferred into the kingdom of God.
When we believed into the Lord Jesus we were transferred OUT of darkness and INTO the kingdom of God where we participate in the blessings of the divine life in the divine kingdom (1 Thes. 2:12).
We were worshipping idols – of which we didn’t even know they were idols – and we were in the kingdom of Satan, but through Christ’s salvation we were called, we believed into the Lord, and we were transferred into the kingdom of God, which is a sphere where we can worship God and enjoy God under the divine ruling with the view of entering into God’s glory (see 1 Thes. 2:12 footnote 2 on, kingdom, Recovery Version Bible). Hallelujah!
The gospel was planned, promised, and accomplished by God (Eph. 1:8-9; Acts 2:23; Rom. 1:2; 2 Cor. 5:21; Acts 3:15), and it is the power of God unto salvation to all believers (Rom. 1:16), that they may be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:19) and regenerated by Him (1 Pet. 1:3) to be His children (John 1:12-13; Rom. 8:16) and enjoy all His riches and blessings as their inheritance (Eph. 1:14). Hence, it is the gospel of God. It brings the believers into the realm of the divine ruling that they may participate in the blessings of the divine life in the divine kingdom (1 Thes. 2:12). Hence, it is also the gospel of the kingdom of God. Therefore, its full contents are the same as that of the New Testament with all its bequests. When we believe in this gospel, we inherit the Triune God with His redemption, His salvation, and His divine life with its riches for our eternal portion. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Mark, p. 50)
Wow! Now we as believers in Christ, those who received the Lord Jesus as the kingdom of God into us and thus entered into the kingdom of God, are qualified and equipped to participate into all the blessings of the divine life in the divine kingdom. Here we can enjoy God as life, light, holiness, righteousness, peace, joy, salvation, comfort, and much more.
And it is so amazing to realize that we can be those who usher others into the kingdom of God by preaching the gospel of the kingdom to them. If we are in the reality of the kingdom of God today – the proper church life – allowing God to rule in us and enjoying the riches and blessings of the divine life then our preaching of the gospel will have an impact on others and will transfer them out of the authority of Satan and into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.
Thank You Lord for transferring us out of the authority of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. Thank You for bringing us into this realm of love, life, and light – the kingdom of God. Lord, we allow You to rule and reign within us and we want to enjoy all the riches and blessings of the divine life in the divine kingdom! As Your disciples, Lord, we want to preach the gospel of the kingdom so that many others would enter the kingdom of God and participate in the blessings of the divine life in the divine kingdom!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 157-159, 240-242, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (1), week 11 / msg 11, A Portrait of the Kingdom of God.
- Hymns to strengthen the burden in this article:
# Jesus came proclaiming: God’s kingdom has drawn near! / For this your way of thinking must be fresh and clear. / Repent and change your view! Consider Him anew. / Jesus came proclaiming and He says this to you. (Song on, Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom)
# What a happy day / When I no more could turn away, / When Jesus took my heart from the black of night / Into the kingdom of His light. (Hymns #1333)
# 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. / O let Him grow, O let Him grow; / His kingdom life be all we know. (Hymns #1301)
As those who are under the divine dispensing of the Divine Trinity, we need to live in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens today. We need to live a kingdom life in the church, developing ourselves in the divine life until we reach maturity. Then we shall have a rich entrance into the coming kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (Witness Lee, The Conclusion of the New Testament, p. 1737)