The church of God refers to the believers’ life and right (1 Cor. 1:2; 10:32). Life here indicates the believers’ inner life. The church is a matter of life and also a matter of right. Today the people on this earth, especially Americans, are fighting for human rights. We also have a divine right, and we need to fight for our divine right. If we have the American life, we surely have the American right. Right is based on life.
The kingdom of God refers to the believers’ obligation and exercise (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5; Acts 14:22). We may prefer to have the life and right in the church rather than the obligation and exercise in the kingdom. One may be in the church of God, but he will be excluded from the kingdom of God if he is a sinful person (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5). If we are fleshly, we can be sure that we will have no share in the kingdom of God. This means that we will have no inheritance, no participation, in the kingdom of God.
Acts 14:22 tells us that to enter into the kingdom of God, we must pass through much tribulation. The Christian life is a life with many tribulations. Every tribulation is an exercise, a training, and a discipline. As we suffer, we sense that we are being disciplined, trained, adjusted, and corrected. We prefer to have blessings and do not like tribulations. However, mere outward blessings often are vanity; but tribulations, sufferings, and afflictions always bring us many genuine blessings.
The kingdom is the realm of the divine life’s rule and discipline (1 Thes. 2:12). The new section of the kingdom of God is of the divine life in God’s New Testament economy, but the divine life is for us to be ruled, to be disciplined, and to be trained. A prince in a royal family lives a life that is always under a certain kind of rule and discipline. He must learn how to sit and how to talk with people. He must be strictly ruled, adjusted, restricted, and disciplined in everything. That means that he must be trained. If we would be kings, we must be trained and disciplined in everything. The kingdom of God with the divine life is for our training.
Regeneration is the initial entrance into this divine realm. In John 3:5 the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Regeneration is the beginning, the initial entrance into the kingdom of God, but not the entire entrance. We are still entering into the kingdom through tribulations. Every step of our entering into the kingdom of God is a tribulation. Although we may not like to walk the way of tribulations, there is no other way for us to enter into the kingdom except by the way of being exercised, trained, and disciplined.