The stress in Colossians 1:13 is the kingdom of the Son of God’s love in this age, which is the reality of the church. The church life today is the kingdom of the Son of God’s love which is as delightful to God the Father as the Son of God is. We, the believers, all have been transferred into this delightful kingdom of the Son of God’s love. God the Father loves the delightful part of the kingdom just as He loves His delightful Son as His own. So, the church, as the delightful part of the divine kingdom, is considered a great blessing to God’s redeemed people by the Apostle Paul in the book of Colossians, a book which is on Christ as the all-inclusive portion of God’s people (Col. 1:12).
John 3:5 indicates that it is through regeneration that all the believers have been transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. Through regeneration we have been brought out of the darkness of Satan into this delightful aspect of the kingdom. God loved the Son, so He gave this part of the kingdom to Him. Through God’s salvation and regeneration, all the believers of His Son have been transferred into this section of the kingdom.
Ephesians 5:5 speaks of the kingdom of Christ and of God. The kingdom of Christ is the millennium (Rev. 20:4, 6; Matt. 16:28); it is also the kingdom of God (Matt. 13:41, 43). The believers have been regenerated into the kingdom of God (John 3:5) and are, in the church life, living in the kingdom of God today (Rom. 14:17). Not all believers will participate in the millennium; only the overcoming ones will. The unclean, defeated ones will have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God in the coming age.
In the aspect of the kingdom as the kingdom of Christ and of God, Christ reigns with God. We may also say that Christ reigns as God. Hence, it is the kingdom of Christ and at the same time also the kingdom of God.
Revelation 11:15 says, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.” The kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of Christ at His coming back after His judgment upon the nations (Dan. 7:13-14; 2:44-45). That the Lord “shall reign forever and ever” refers to the Lord’s reign for eternity in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 22:5).
Second Peter 1:11 speaks of “the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” The eternal kingdom here refers to the kingdom of God given to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Dan. 7:13-14), which will be manifested at His coming back (Luke 19:11-12). It will be a reward to His faithful believers, who pursue the growth in His life unto maturity and the development of the virtues of His nature so that they may participate, in the millennium, in His kingship in God’s glory (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 20:4, 6). To enter thus into the eternal kingdom of the Lord is related to the entrance into God’s eternal glory, to which He has called us in Christ (1 Pet. 5:10; 1 Thes. 2:12).
The kingdom of Christ and of God, the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ—all three are the same one aspect of the kingdom, the aspect which concerns Christ’s relationship with the kingdom of God. Christ has redeemed the church with His blood through His death that it may become the kingdom of God in the church (Rom. 14:17) and the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ in the millennium (Rev. 11:15). This kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ will become the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in which He shall reign forever and ever (Rev. 11:15).