As we pointed out in a previous chapter, the first gospel preaching, preached both by John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus, was concerning the kingdom of the heavens. Because of our natural concepts, we are prone to consider that the first item of the New Testament gospel is the forgiveness of sins and the second item is eternal life. Negatively our sins have been forgiven and positively we have eternal life. But in fact the first word of the New Testament gospel was to repent for the sake of the kingdom of the heavens (Matt. 3:2; 4:17). We need forgiveness of sins so that we can have eternal life, and we need eternal life so that we can be under the heavenly rule. The kingdom is the requirement of the gospel, and the life is the supply of the gospel. What the gospel requires, it also supplies. The gospel requires us to be governed and ruled by the heavens. The gospel also supplies us with the divine life for us to fulfill the requirements of the kingdom.
As Christians who are born from above, we should not need any kind of earthly government to rule over us. We already have the heavenly government ruling over us. This is the real meaning of the kingdom of the heavens. The kingdom is simply the requirement of the gospel. The gospel not only requires us to be sinless, but also to be controlled and ruled by the heavenly government.
If we are going to meet the requirements of such a high standard, we must have a life that is on an equally high plane. Otherwise, we cannot meet such a high standard. Only the divine life can meet such a high standard. Only the divine life can meet the requirements of the heavenly government. The kingdom is the requirement of the New Testament gospel, and the eternal life, which is Christ Himself, is the supply. The divine life can fulfill the requirements of the kingdom. Once we see the matter of the kingdom, we can see how high a standard is required by the gospel. After we are saved, we have a heavenly requirement within us demanding us to live on a high level. This level can be reached only by the supply of the divine life.