More than faith, love, and salvation
Jesus taught more about the kingdom of God than any other subject, if what is recorded in the gospels is any indication. The word “kingdom” appears 125 times in the gospels—more than the words “faith,” “love,” and “salvation” combined.
It’s easy to miss because much of the teaching today is in inverse proportion to Jesus’ emphasis. Pastors teach on faith. Pastors teach on love. Pastors teach on salvation. But few teach on the kingdom.
The emphasis on salvation is understandable. Conversion is the doorway to reconciliation to and a relationship with God. It is the pre-condition for spending eternity in heaven. Without it, we remain dead in our sins. Pastors should teach about salvation and constantly remind their people to make disciples.
A doorway to something bigger
But Jesus taught more about the Kingdom. He taught about who would enter the Kingdom. He told parables to explain how the Kingdom worked. He used similes to describe how it grew. He used the word “Kingdom” often and in a way that assumed His listeners understood to what He referred.
What if salvation is the doorway into something larger?
Jesus hinted at this with Nicodemus:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5).
Salvation isn’t important only because it reconciles us to God or is a precondition for eternal life but because it gives us access to a new realm called the kingdom of God.
What the kingdom of God is
Yet, if someone asked you to define the kingdom of God, could you do it? Most people could not. We use phrases like “Kingdom business” and “Kingdom mindset” with no more than a vague idea of what we mean.
Most simply, the kingdom of God is the reign of King Jesus.
Where people are obedient to Jesus, there the kingdom of God is. That is why Jesus told His disciples, “The kingdom of God is in your midst.” (Luke 17:21). He told the seventy to tell the people who rejected them in other cities, “Surely the kingdom of God has come near to you” (Luke 10:11). Why? Because the kingdom of God went where the seventy went.
In short, the Kingdom comes on earth as people voluntarily do God’s will. This was Jesus’ prayer — “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10). The more God’s will is done on earth, the more His kingdom manifests on the earth.
Personal salvation vs. the Kingdom
This explains why Jesus spent so much time talking about the kingdom of God. Salvation reconciles us to God, but salvation is not the destination. It is the doorway into the reign of King Jesus.
The gospel is not merely about getting people into heaven one day; it is about bringing people under the benevolent reign of King Jesus today.
And as we shall see in subsequent posts, as Christians, we are called to perform our work in the kingdom of God. GS
