Message Three

The Kingdom of the Son of the Father’s Love

Scripture Reading: Col. 1:13; Acts 26:18;
John 3:3, 5; Luke 17:20-21; Mark 9:1-2

1. The kingdom of God is the ruling, the reigning, of God with all its blessing and enjoyment—Mark 1:15:
   1. The kingdom of God is God’s reign in a general way from eternity past to eternity future and also God’s reign in a particular way in the sense of life—Heb. 1:8; Psa. 145:13; Dan. 4:3; John 3:3, 5, 15.
   2. The kingdom of God is God Himself, and God Himself is life and everything as the content of the kingdom of God—Mark 1:15; cf. Eph. 4:18.
   3. The kingdom of God is the Savior, the Lord Jesus, as the seed of life sown into His believers and developing into a realm over which God can rule as His kingdom in His divine life—Luke 17:20-21; Mark 4:3, 26:
      1. The entrance into the kingdom is regeneration, and the development of the kingdom is the believers’ growth in the divine life—John 3:5; 2 Pet. 1:3-11.
      2. The kingdom is the church life today, in which the faithful believers live—Rom. 14:17.
      3. The kingdom of God will develop into the coming kingdom as a reward to be inherited by the overcoming saints in the millennium—Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5; Rev. 20:4, 6.
      4. The kingdom will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the eternal realm of the eternal blessing of God’s eternal life, which His redeemed will enjoy in the new heaven and new earth for eternity—21:1-4; 22:1-5, 14.
   4. The kingdom is the shining of the reality of the Lord Jesus; to be under His shining is to be in the kingdom—Mark 9:1-2.
   5. The kingdom of God as the reign of God is a realm not only of the divine dominion but also of the divine species, in which are all the divine things—John 3:3, 5:
      1. In John 3 the kingdom of God refers more to the species of God than to the reign of God.
      2. God became man to enter into the human species, and man becomes God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to enter into the divine species—1:12-14; Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4.
      3. To enter into the divine realm, the realm of the divine species, we need to be born of God to have the divine life and nature—John 1:12-13:
         1. We were regenerated of God to be the species of God and enter into the kingdom of God—3:3, 5.
         2. Our second birth caused us to enter into the kingdom of God to become the species of God; now we are God-men in the divine species, that is, in the kingdom of God.
2. The Father delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love—Col. 1:13:
   1. The authority of darkness denotes the authority of Satan—Acts 26:18:
      1. Darkness is Satan as death; thus, to be delivered out of the authority of darkness is to be delivered from the devil, who has the might of death—Heb. 2:14; John 17:15.
      2. We have been delivered from the devil, Satan, by the death of Christ and by the life of Christ in resurrection—Col. 1:13; 2:14-15; John 5:24.
      3. In Colossians the authority of darkness refers to the good aspects of culture and of our character, disposition, and natural being.
      4. Whenever we are in the natural man or live in the self, we are under the control of the authority of darkness; the only thing we can do is go to the cross and allow the cross to deal with every aspect of the satanic authority of darkness—Matt. 16:24; Col. 3:5-9.
   2. The kingdom of the Son is the authority of Christ—Rev. 11:15; 12:10:
      1. The Son of God is the embodiment and expression of the divine life; hence, the kingdom of the Son is a realm of life—1 John 5:11-12; John 1:4.
      2. The kingdom into which we have been transferred is the kingdom of the Son of God’s love; this realm of life is in love, not in fear—Col. 1:13.
      3. The kingdom in which we find ourselves today is a realm full of life, light, and love—1 Pet. 2:9.
      4. The Son of the Father is the expression of the Father as the source of life—John 1:18, 4; 1 John 1:2:
         1. The Son of the Father’s love is the object of the Father’s love to be the embodiment of life to us in the divine love with the authority in resurrection—Matt. 3:17.
         2. The Son, as the embodiment of the divine life, is the object of the Father’s love—17:5:
            1. 1) The divine life embodied in the Son is given to us in the divine love.
            2. 2) The object of the divine love becomes to us the embodiment of life in the divine love with the authority in resurrection; this is the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love.
      5. To be transferred into the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love is to be transferred into the Son, who is life to us—1 John 5:12:
         1. The Son in resurrection is now the life-giving Spirit, and He rules us in His resurrection life with love—1 Pet. 1:3; Rom. 6:4-5; 1 Cor. 15:45b.
         2. When we live by the Son as our life in resurrection, we are living in His kingdom, enjoying Him in the Father’s love; here we have the church life—Col. 3:4; John 6:57.
      6. Although the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love comprises the present age, the coming age, and the eternal age, the emphasis in Colossians 1:13 is on the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love in this age, the age of the church:
         1. Because the Father delights in His Son, the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love is a pleasant thing, a matter of delight—Matt. 3:17; 17:5.
         2. The church life today is the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love, which is as delightful to God the Father as the Son of God is.
         3. God the Father loves the delightful part of the kingdom just as much as He loves His delightful Son.