Digression 8: The Kingdom Of God Today

Graham Bacon

The sense in which the Kingdom of God has a meaning today is among true believers who follow Jesus, who make God their King. Paul wrote to the Ephesians describing their former pagan life as being “alien from the commonwealth of Israel” (Eph. 2:12). On the other hand, in Christ, we are in this “commonwealth”. A commonwealth is groups of people who give their combined allegiance to a central governing body, in this case God. Over centuries these groups of people formed a spiritual kingdom with Jesus as king and God as Lord Almighty. The true believers of today form the latest of these groups. This kingdom is not a political kingdom but is bound together by the faith of the true believers and the present Lordship of Jesus and the acceptance of God’s reign in their lives.

In the context of Jesus healing the blind, dumb and mentally disturbed man (Matthew 12) Jesus said, “If I cast out demons by the spirit of God surely the Kingdom of God has come upon you”. The healing work of Jesus was a taste, a sample of the benefits of the coming kingdom. A little of the wonders of the kingdom had arrived, temporarily at least. The same thought recurs in Luke 10:9-11, again about miracle working by the seventy: “Heal the sick and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you’”. When this message was rejected, “the very dust of your city that clings to us we wipe off against you. But nevertheless know this, the kingdom of God has come near to you”. Tthe faithful disciples and true believers constitute a kingdom eminence clearly displayed among the people of the world. Again, this in no sense measures up to the future glories of the Kingdom of God on Earth, but is evidence of its future arrival. We are to live the Kingdom life now!