In order to have God’s habitation for His expression, there is the need of the exercise of God’s authority. In Genesis 1:26 dominion follows image and goes along with it. This means that God’s kingdom goes along with His expression. Without the kingdom as a safeguard and protection, it would be difficult for the expression of God to exist. Where the expression of God is, there is always the kingdom of God. Is the church not the kingdom of God today? Yes, the church is surely the kingdom of God today.
John 3:5 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (Recovery Version). In this verse we see that regeneration brings us into the kingdom of God. Yet some say that the kingdom of God is not present today. Some hold the concept that after Matthew 13 the kingdom of God was suspended. According to this concept, after the Lord Jesus presented the kingdom to the Jewish people and they rejected it, the kingdom was suspended. But if this is true, where shall we put John 3:5, which says that regeneration brings us into the kingdom? Have you not been reborn? Since we have been reborn, we must be now in the kingdom of God. John 3 tells us that we have been reborn into the kingdom of God. When an animal is born, it immediately enters into the animal kingdom. When a man is born, he is certainly born into the human kingdom. We have been born of God; therefore, we have been born into God’s kingdom. Do you not have the divine life? Since we have the divine life, how can we say that we are not in the kingdom of God?
We should not be influenced by the concept that the kingdom of God is not here and that we must wait for it. Although I do not say that the kingdom of God has come in every sense or in a full way, I do say that the kingdom has come already. While Matthew 6:10 says that we should pray, “Thy kingdom come,” Matthew 16:18-19 indicates that the kingdom comes when the church is built. In Matthew 16:18 the Lord Jesus said, “I will build my church,” and in the next verse He said, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” This indicates that the words church and kingdom are used inter-changeably, proving that the church is the kingdom and that the kingdom is also the church. When Peter used the keys to open the kingdom, that was the time when the church was built. Although the whole book of Matthew is on the kingdom, it speaks of the church in both chapters sixteen and eighteen. In Matthew 18:15-17 we are told that if a brother with whom we have a problem will not listen to us, we should “tell it unto the church” and that he should “hear the church.” If that brother neglects to hear the church, the church will look upon him as a publican or as a heathen man. Immediately after saying this, the Lord speaks of the church having the authority to bind and loose. We see by this that the church life is the reality of the kingdom.
Other New Testament books also reveal that the church life today is the kingdom. In Romans, a book that is on the church life, not on the kingdom, we see that the kingdom of God is the church life. Romans 14:17 says, “The kingdom of God is...righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” The church life today is the kingdom of God.
The book of Ephesians also shows us that the church is the kingdom of God today. Ephesians 2:15 speaks of the new man, Ephesians 2:22 speaks of the habitation of God in our spirit, and Ephesians 3:21 speaks of the church. The church as the kingdom of God is found in Ephesians 5:5. Thus, the new man is the habitation, the habitation is the church, and the church is the kingdom. Hence, the church today is the kingdom of God. Hebrews 12:28 says that we are receiving this unshakable kingdom. We are not just waiting for it; we have already begun to receive it.
We see the same thing in the book of Revelation. Although many Christians hold the concept that the kingdom has not yet come but that it will come in the future, in Revelation 1:9 the Apostle John says, “I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.” This verse indicates that John was in the kingdom already. What was the kingdom for him at that time? According to the following verses (10-13), it was the church. Therefore, the church today is the kingdom where God’s authority is exercised and represented. Where God has His dominion, there is rest. So the church, being the kingdom of God today, is God’s Sabbath rest. Since the church has God’s image and is God’s kingdom, it is a Sabbath rest for God.