The New Testament uses different designations, such as the kingdom of God, the kingdom of the heavens, the kingdom of God’s beloved Son, the kingdom of Christ and of God, the kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ, the eternal kingdom of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the kingdom of the Father, the kingdom of the Son of Man, and the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world, to reveal various aspects of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is God’s reign, comprising eternity past, the patriarchs and the kingdom of Israel in the Old Testament, the church in the New Testament in this age, the millennial kingdom in the coming age, and the new heaven and new earth in eternity future. The kingdom of the heavens is the ruling of the heavens. It is a part of the kingdom of God, including the church in this age and the millennial kingdom in the coming age. The kingdom of Christ and of God, the kingdom of the Lord (God) and of His Christ, and the eternal kingdom of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ all refer to the millennial kingdom in the coming age and the new heaven and new earth in eternity. The kingdom of the Father refers to the heavenly part of the millennial kingdom, whereas the kingdom of the Son of Man refers to the earthly part of the millennial kingdom.
The kingdom of God is the church in this age. Man enters into it through regeneration. It is also the reality of the church life. The spiritual living of the church is the reality of the kingdom of the heavens in the kingdom of God. The worldly appearance of the church is the appearance of the kingdom of the heavens within the kingdom of God. In the coming age the kingdom of God is the millennial kingdom, composed of two parts, the heavenly and the earthly. The heavenly part is the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens within the kingdom of God, in which the perfected and overcoming saints of both the Old and New Testaments will be priests of God and of Christ and co-kings with Christ for a thousand years. The earthly part is the Messianic kingdom, which is also the restored kingdom of Israel; the saved Israelites in the future will be priests in it, and the restored nations in the future will be the people. The kingdom in eternity is the new heaven and new earth with the New Jerusalem as its center. In the new heaven and new earth in eternity, the kingdom of God is composed of two kinds of people: the regenerated saints as the sons of God and the restored nations as the people of God. The former constitute the New Jerusalem as the habitation of God in eternity. All the regenerated saints, whether they are perfected earlier or later, will be kings in it. They will enjoy the eternal blessing of the eternal life of the processed Triune God to the fullest extent. The latter are around the New Jerusalem to be the peoples of God in eternity, and they will be under the ruling of the former as the kings.
The kingdom of God is an organism constituted with His divine life, and this kingdom becomes the realm of life for His ruling. He reigns in it by His divine life and expresses Himself in His divine life. It began with the Old Testament saints and is realized in the church in this age. It will be completed in the New Jerusalem in the millennium and ultimately consummated in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. God’s divine life, which is Christ Himself, is the seed of the realm of the divine life that develops into the kingdom for His ruling. This kingdom of God is just Christ Himself. Christ, as the first seed of life of the kingdom of God, was sown into His believers and developed from within them to bring forth many grains. The believers also become seeds producing many more grains; thus the kingdom of God becomes further developed. Such propagation and development will continue until the kingdom of God will fill the whole earth as a great mountain. To inherit God’s glorious kingdom in the coming age and obtain the full enjoyment of the eternal life of God is different from the receiving of eternal life as our life in this age. The former is to receive a reward in the coming age; the latter is to receive salvation in this age. To the believers, the kingdom is an exercise in this age and a reward in the coming age. This reward is an incentive to the believers who would exercise faithfully. Since there is a reward, there is also a punishment. This punishment is a warning to the believers who would not exercise faithfully in this age.