After leading His sheep out of the fold, the Lord Jesus imparted eternal life into them. He said, “I came that they may have life and may have it abundantly” (John 10:10b). The Greek word for “life” here, zoe, is the word used in the New Testament for eternal, divine life. This is God’s life, the divine, infinite, uncreated, eternal life. This is the life Christ imparted into His sheep, and this is the life we receive by believing in Him. “He who believes in the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36).
In John 10:11 the Lord Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.” Here the Greek word for life is psuche, the same word for soul, which signifies the soulish life, the human life. As a man the Lord Jesus has the human life, and as God, He has the divine life. He laid down His human life to accomplish redemption for His sheep so that they might share His divine life, the eternal life, by which they are formed into one flock under Himself as the one Shepherd.
Although the Lord’s sheep are God’s chosen ones, they are fallen persons in need of redemption. Therefore, the Lord Jesus sacrificed His human life in order to accomplish redemption for the sheep. In this way His sheep have been redeemed. Then the sheep receive eternal life, and by this life they live together as one flock. Thus, the flock is formed into one unit, one entity, by the eternal life Christ imparts into them. In the human life we are condemned and divided; in the divine life we are accepted and united and become one entity, one flock in one life. The flock is produced, kept, maintained, and formed by the divine life. Through Christ’s redemption, eternal life has been imparted into us to make us one flock.
In John 10:27 and 28a the Lord Jesus goes on to say, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give to them eternal life, and they shall by no means perish forever.” Eternal life is the uncreated life of God, which the Lord Jesus released through His death (John 12:24) and imparted into every one of His believers through His resurrection (1 Pet. 1:3). Since this is the eternal life that lasts forever, whoever possesses it will by no means perish forever, that is, for eternity.
Matthew 4:17 says, “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near.” Here Christ continued the preaching of His forerunner, John the Baptist (Matt. 3:2). John the Baptist was the first to preach repentance for the kingdom, and Christ was the second. It is marvelous that the Lord Jesus repeated and continued the preaching of John the Baptist. This shows the importance of the kingdom. If the preaching of the kingdom were not important, the Lord Jesus would not have repeated it. His repeating the preaching of John the Baptist proves that the preaching of the kingdom is very important.
In Mark 1:15a Christ declared, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has drawn near.” The kingdom of God is the ruling, the reigning of God with all its blessing and enjoyment. To enter into this kingdom, people need to repent of their sins and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15b) so that their sins may be forgiven and that they may be regenerated by God to have the divine life, which matches the divine nature of this kingdom (John 3:3, 5). All the believers in Christ can share the kingdom in the church age for their enjoyment of God in His righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). This kingdom will become the kingdom of Christ and of God for the overcoming believers to inherit and enjoy in the coming kingdom age (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5), that they may reign with Christ a thousand years (Rev. 20:4, 6). Then, as the eternal kingdom, it will be an eternal blessing of God’s eternal life for all God’s redeemed to enjoy in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:1-4; 22:1-5, 14, 17). It was such a kingdom of God that, according to the Lord’s word, had drawn near.
According to Luke 4:43, in His earthly ministry the Lord Jesus brought the “good news of the kingdom of God.” The kingdom of God is Christ Himself (Luke 17:21) as the seed of life, sown into His believers, God’s chosen people (Mark 4:3, 26), and developing into a realm which God may rule as His kingdom in His divine life. Its entrance is regeneration (John 3:5), and its development is in the believers’ growth in the divine life (2 Pet. 1:3-11). The kingdom is the church life today, in which the faithful believers live, and it will develop into the coming kingdom as an inheritance reward to the overcoming saints in the millennium. Eventually, it will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the eternal kingdom of God, an eternal realm of the eternal blessing of God’s eternal life for all God’s redeemed to enjoy in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:1-4; 22:1-5, 14). Such a kingdom, the kingdom of God, is what the Lord Jesus preached as the gospel, the good news.
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