What Is The Kingdom Of God

In a general sense, the kingdom is the sphere in which God exercises His authority so that He may express His glory. As revealed in the Bible, the kingdom of God is an eternal kingdom (Dan. 4:3); it existed in eternity past without beginning, and it continues throughout all time to eternity future without end. In Genesis, God created man in His image and according to His likeness so that man might express God. He also gave man dominion over all created things and charged man to multiply and fill the earth and subdue it so that God might have a kingdom on earth in which to carry out His purpose in man (Gen. 1:26-28). However, man became corrupted and fallen to such an extent that God could no longer accomplish His purpose through the created race. Eventually, God called Abraham out of that race and promised to make of him a great nation, which is the kingdom of God (Gen. 12:2). Abraham’s descendants fell into slavery in Egypt, but after 430 years God brought them out through Moses and told them that He would make them a kingdom of priests (Exo. 19:6). Thus, the nation of Israel was the kingdom of God in the Old Testament (Matt. 21:43). Those who live in the divine kingdom must have the divine life, just as those in the animal kingdom possess the animal life. When we live by the divine life, not by our natural human life, we live in the reality of the kingdom of God. In Romans 14, in his word concerning the life of the church, the apostle Paul referred to the kingdom of God (v. 17), indicating that in the New Testament age, the kingdom of God is actually the church, composed of all the real believers in Christ (Matt. 16:18-19).