WHAT IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD?

Dr. Robert Brayton

Dr. Robert Brayton is a Doctor of Christian Counseling through United Graduate College and Seminary.

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The Kingdom of God is all that encompasses who God is. God is sovereign, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, and the Ruler over all of His creation. A kingdom is a place where a king rules and reigns over the lives of his subjects. The Kingdom of God is the rule of an eternal sovereign God over all creatures and things (NKJV, Psalm 103.19).

            The Kingdom of God is not visible because God is not visible. It is a spiritual Kingdom, not a visible one. Jesus Christ said, “The Kingdom of God is within you”(NKJV, Luke 17.21). The Kingdom of God embraces all created intelligence, both in Heaven and Earth that is willingly subject to the Lord and is in fellowship with Him. The Kingdom of God is, therefore, universal in that it includes created angels and man. It is eternal, as God is eternal, and it is spiritually found within all born again believers.

            The Kingdom of God is also the designation for the sphere of salvation entered into at the new birth (NKJV, John 3.5-7) and is synonymous with the Kingdom of Heaven. God’s Kingdom is filled with love because God is the essence of love, and He is loving. He is also a righteous judge, totally fair and just. These qualities are so great, and He loves us so much that Jesus died on the cross to take our place and pay the penalty for our sins. Now we are justified, sanctified and made righteous in His sight. We enter the Kingdom of God when we are born again, and we are then part of that Kingdom for eternity. It is a relationship “born of the spirit” (NKJV, John 3.5), and we have confident assurance that it is so because the Spirit bears witness with our spirits (NKJV, Romans 8.16). That is why Jesus gave us, in the Lord’s Prayer, a petition to God: “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (NKJV, Matthew 6.10). This prayer shows the priority Jesus gave to the Kingdom of God.

            When the will of God is as respected here on Earth as it is in Heaven and when the visible world totally reflects the invisible world, then we will witness the Kingdom of God fully come to the Earth. Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (NKJV). So, when man imitates and acts like God would here on the earth – as Jesus did and then died to bring us back to our original place of dominion on Earth (see Genesis 1:26) – then the Kingdom of God will be here on the earth. Everything is subject to God’s power, instantly and without question.

            Right now in the visible world there is a resistance to God’s will. However, the resistance to God’s will is in the process of change because wherever there are those who honor Jesus Christ, the King, and wherever the Spirit of the King is, there is the Kingdom of God. For it says in Acts 2:17, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh” (NKJV). This is why God, in His great love for His children, is pouring out His Spirit over the earth, to bring about His Kingdom here on the earth. We will see more of His Kingdom on the earth than ever before.

THE THEOLOGY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Christine Lan

Christine Lan understands her role as an ambassador in God’s Kingdom. In her writing, she clearly communicates the Kingdom message and God’s original design for man. A proud graduate of United Graduate College and Seminary, she strongly supports education that inculcates a divine mind that transforms the world we live in.

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Last Friday, I attended a Christian concert/worship roadshow performed by a number of prominent artistes such as Mercy Me and Jeremy Camp. Bart Millard of Mercy Me spoke a very convincing message and I was thrilled that he was disseminating the message of righteousness through his sharing. He mentioned that he grew up in the Baptist church where as a youth leader, he would bash the people who attended church and when they left worse off than before, he and the church leaders would “high-five” one another and thought they had done a great service to Christendom. God’s revelatory grace through a renewed mind caused his songs and messages to point people to His love, righteousness and worth in Him.

“The cross is not the revealing of sin but the unveiling of your worth,” someone wrote anonymously on the first page of a prayer journal at a University chapel. I just had spent sometime playing on the chapel piano and was about to leave when the Holy Spirit spoke to me to write something on the journal, too. So, I wrote this,

“Father, I thank you that I can come boldly before the throne of grace. I am righteous

because you have redeemed me from the curse of the law. Thank you that once I have   embraced you as my Creator and Almighty Father, God and King, I am no longer a sinner but your son/daughter whom you are well-pleased. Amen.”

Throughout church history, men and women of God had to fight the supposed sacred truths upheld by the church of the day. Martin Luther through the revelation of the Holy Spirit opposed the holy church rites and propagandized the Scriptural Truth of Romans 1:17 which says, ‘For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith”’ (NIV).

Righteousness is the foundational theology or doctrine of God’s Kingdom. Simply stated, righteousness is synonymous with justification which most people understand is “just as if you have never sinned.”

Righteousness Consciousness

According to Funk & Wagnall’s New Standard Dictionary of the English Language, righteousness means “conformity to law or to right and justice; the state of acceptance and of harmony with God; specifically, the state of being justified and blessed because of the atonement of Christ and the faith that renders it available and effectual” or “the active and passive obedience of Christ regarded as the ground of the sinner’s justification.” The Greek word for “righteousness” is dikaiosune which means “equity (of character or act), specifically, justification, usually translated “righteousness” (Strong 1343).

In his book, The Two Kinds of Life, E. W. Kenyon noted that when Luther had limited revelation of one truth, justification by faith, he brought civilization to Germany. There was no “clear conception of a New Birth, of righteousness, of God as a Father, or of our place as sons and daughters of God.” (Kenyon 31). The church has been guilty of disseminating a gospel that is a blend of human philosophies and religions passed down from the Middle Ages. Galatians 4:4-7 specifically emphasizes our identity as God’s sons, ‘But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.’ (NKJV).

Noah and Abraham (the Father of Faith), were reckoned as righteous by God. They led morally virtuous lives powered from the realm of Heaven and were chosen by God to fulfill specific purposes. Noah helped save the remnant humankind from extinction. Abraham was reckoned righteous as he believed God and was made righteous by faith. “He believed the promise regarding the Heir (Christ) who was to come out of his bowels via Isaac who was as yet unborn; he believed that through this Heir, his (spiritual) seed would be in number like the stars of heaven” (Lenski 289).

When a person is born of the Spirit of God from above or Heaven, he is a new creation. He has the indwelt Holy Spirit of God and the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues empowers him to walk in His will as God’s son. Jesus, the Perfect God-Man is sinless and spotless but He became sin on our behalf “that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (NKJV, 2 Corinthians 5.21). There is a powerful exchange transacted at calvary. Observing a set of rules to do good is subjecting one to the bondage of legalism and works mentality. Jesus has already fulfilled the law. There is no necessity to sacrifice animals, burn candles and incense to make one righteous. Paul says it aptly, “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (NKJV, Romans 6.14).

If you know your identity as righteous sons of God in His Kingdom, you will fulfill God’s purpose on Earth. You will proclaim His Name unashamedly everywhere you go. You know you bear God’s image and represent Him boldly. Righteousness, peace and joy, the fruit of the Holy Spirit will invariably be evident in your life. You will walk with integrity and purity before all man. You will display His glory as shining examples of supernatural creative kings, priests and sons.

“Works Cited”

Funk, Isaac K. Funk & Wagnall’s New Standard Dictionary of the English Language. New York:

       Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1952.

Kenyon, E. W. The Two Kinds of Life. Lynwood, Washington: Kenyon’s Gospel Publishing Society,

      2002.

Lenski, R. C. H. Interpretation of Romans. Minneapolis, Minnesota, Ausburg Publishing House,

      1936.

Maxwell, John C., Elmore, Tim. The Maxwell Leadership Bible. Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas

      Nelson, Inc., 2007.

Strong, James. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. McLean, Virginia: MacDonald Publishing

      Company, n.d.