Genesis 1 says that God created man in His own image and that He gave man the authority to rule all the created things (v. 26). In the creation of man the two vital things are the divine image and the divine authority. If we are to have the full image of God to express God and to realize the full authority to represent God, to subdue His enemy, to subdue this earth, God Himself must be our life. In the first two chapters of Genesis we see the image and the dominion, the authority, and the life of God, which is signified by the tree of life (Gen. 2:9). To express God and to represent God in a full way we must take God as our life. We must have God living within us and through us. Then we will have the real image of God to express God, and we will realize the divine authority to represent God on this earth to subdue His enemy. The divine life to be received by man is for two things: to express God on the positive side and to deal with God’s enemy on the negative side. To express God, man needs the image of God. To deal with the enemy of God, man needs the authority of God. The divine authority, which is something of the kingdom, is revealed throughout the Scriptures.
After man became fallen, God chose the race of Abraham. The first race, the race of Adam, failed God. But after the great flood, God began again with a second race of mankind, the race of Noah. This second race also failed God. Then God chose the third race, the race of Abraham, after the time of Babel. The purpose of God’s choosing of Abraham is revealed in Genesis 12:1-2. These two verses tell us that God chose Abraham with the intention of having a kingdom. The Lord told Abraham that He would make of him “a great nation” (v. 2). This great nation is a kingdom. The kingdom is a sphere, a realm, to exercise authority. Without the kingdom God can never exercise His authority. For God to accomplish His purpose, He must have a realm, a sphere, as a kingdom for Him to exercise His authority. This is why the Lord Jesus mentioned the kingdom when He taught the disciples to pray in Matthew 6. At the beginning of the Lord’s prayer and at the end of it the kingdom is mentioned. The beginning of the Lord’s prayer says, “Your kingdom come” (v. 10). The end of this prayer says, “For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen” (v. 13).
The accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose depends on the kingdom. If God does not have a kingdom to exercise His authority, He can do nothing. Thus, in the Old Testament God chose Abraham so his descendants could be made a great nation, a kingdom. The children of Israel came into being, and God did make them a nation, a kingdom. Then after God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, He told them that they would be to Him a kingdom, a nation (Exo. 19:4-6). God made Israel a kingdom, a nation, and in that nation God exercised His authority. God accomplished certain things by exercising His authority in the kingdom of Israel.
In the New Testament the first preacher was John the Baptist. The first word preached by him was, “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (Matt. 3:2). When the Lord Jesus began to preach the gospel, He said the same thing as John the Baptist: “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (4:17). When the Lord sent the disciples to preach the gospel, He charged them to say, “The kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (10:7). The book of Revelation tells us that at the Lord’s coming back after His judgment upon the nations, the kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of Christ (11:15). Eventually, in the millennium the Lord will rule as a king with all His victorious saints (Rev. 20:4, 6). Revelation shows that in the accomplishment of His eternal purpose God eventually will have a kingdom in which He can exercise His authority to the fullest extent. The Scriptures clearly reveal this line of the kingdom of God in which or through which God can exercise His authority to accomplish His eternal purpose.