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SUBJECT:
Kingdom of God
QUESTION:
What did Jesus mean when He said that the Kingdom of God is
within you?
ANSWER:
The verse your refer to is
Luke 17:21:
Luke
17:20-24
20 And when he was demanded
of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he
answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with
observation:
21 Neither shall they say,
Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is
within you.
22 And he said unto the
disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see
one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.
23 And they shall say to
you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow
them.
24 For as the lightning,
that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth
unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of
man be in his day.
The following commentary on
this verse comes directly from our doctrinal statement about
the Kingdom of God:
Jesus Christ was a member of
God’s family, of the godhead, and hence of God’s Kingdom,
from eternity. But He divested Himself of His godhead and
rulership to become human, in order that He might announce
the coming Kingdom of God and qualify as its chief executive
officer, as both King and Lord. Jesus—as the primary
messenger of the coming Kingdom and the heir to its
throne—was in a sense the personification and embodiment of
that Kingdom on earth during His physical lifetime and
ministry. This is why He stated, “The time is fulfilled,
and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in
the gospel” (Mark 1:15). The Kingdom of God was indeed “at
hand” because Jesus Christ, as its King and Lord, and right
there. Jesus, in fact, spelled this out when He told some
that His being among them was equal to the Kingdom being in
their midst. “Being asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom
of God was coming, He answered them, The Kingdom of God is
not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, Lo
here it is! Or there! For behold, the Kingdom of God is in
the midst of you” (Luke 17:20-21).
The message of “good news”
or gospel which Jesus brought to this world has, as its
focal point, the announcement of the coming Kingdom of God—a
description of how it shall be established on earth and the
explanation of how mankind might enter it as sons of God.
Christ through His death and resurrection became the
“firstborn” member of this prophetic spiritual Kingdom.
Christians who follow in the
footsteps of His life will likewise follow in the reality of
His resurrection. They shall be raised from death to rule
with Him in His Kingdom. Through this process God shall
increase or build His Divine family and spiritual Kingdom
from the present two members to multiple billions (and
perhaps, ultimately, even more).
In one sense, those begotten
of God’s Spirit are part of the Kingdom of God already,
since they actually have the essence of that Kingdom, God’s
Holy Spirit, dwelling within them. Furthermore, Christians
today, like Jesus during His physical human life, are
representatives of that Kingdom since they, like Jesus,
shall be kings and priests. Paul wrote that God “has
delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred
us to the Kingdom of His beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13),
indicating that Christians are already considered part of
God’s Kingdom. Obviously, no human being can really be a
part of God’s Kingdom since “flesh and blood cannot inherit
the Kingdom of God nor does the perishable inherit the
imperishable” (1 Cor. 15:50); this must wait unti the
resurrection when “the perishable puts on the imperishable
and the mortal puts on immortality” (v. 54).
---End
of quote from our doctrinal statement ---
So, we see the meaning of
Luke 17:21. Christ was stating that the Kingdom of God was
in there midst not literally in them (their
bodies or minds). He was stating that because He
was there, the Kingdom was there. We know that one must
have the Spirit of God in them if they are to inherit the
Kingdom of God. We receive that Spirit by repenting, being
baptized and receiving the Holy Spirit with the laying on of
hands.
John 3:6
That which is born of the
flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit.
Romans
8:9
But ye are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in
you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is
none of his.
Romans
8:13-14
13 For if ye live after the
flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify
the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
14 For as many as are led by
the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Romans
8:16-17
16 The Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17 And if children, then
heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be
that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified
together.
1
Corinthians 2:11
For what man knoweth the
things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?
even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of
God.
Galatians
6:8
For he that soweth to his
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth
to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Ephesians
1:13
In whom ye also trusted,
after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were
sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, |