What Is God's Kingdom Like?预览

God’s Kingdom is not like human kingdoms

Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.’ (John 18:36)

Jesus is King, but His kingdom is not “of this world.” When people wanted to crown Jesus as king of the Jews, He refused. His Kingdom is not political and is not limited to a certain place on earth. Jesus is the King of the whole universe!

As long as this earth exists, the nature of His reign is mainly spiritual. If you willingly submit to God’s authority, you belong to His Kingdom, even though you are a citizen of an ordinary human country as well.

Jesus explains this to some Pharisees in Luke 17:20-21. You can’t observe the coming of God’s Kingdom, He says. You can’t say, ‘Look, here it is!’, for it is already there, in your midst. It’s in the hearts of people who accept Jesus as their Lord.

When Jesus returns to earth at the end of time to judge humanity and create new heavens and a new earth, His Kingdom will also get its full material dimension. Everybody and everything that does not submit to Him will be destroyed. Then the original situation will be restored, where both people and creation happily submit to the King of Kings.