In this book we will consider the matter of the kingdom of God in a specific and systematic way. All the above verses concern the kingdom. The kingdom is the center of the gospel. The New Testament even says that the kingdom is the gospel. In Luke 4:43 the Lord Jesus said, “I must announce the gospel of the kingdom of God.” The sense in the Greek here is that to announce the gospel is to announce the kingdom of God. Hence, this phrase may be rendered “announce the kingdom of God as the gospel.” The kingdom of God is the gospel of God. In the Gospel of Matthew the kingdom of God is called “the kingdom of the heavens”; elsewhere it is called the “heavenly kingdom” (2 Tim. 4:18).
Regrettably, the gospel preached in Christianity today rarely mentions the kingdom of God. When it does mention the kingdom of God, it mentions only the name without explaining what the kingdom of God actually is. For this reason many people know the kingdom of God in name but not in its reality—they do not know what the kingdom of God truly is. Today when many people preach the gospel, they preach the “heavenly mansion” as the central and most important matter. This is truly ridiculous.
A careful reading of the New Testament from the first book to the last will reveal not even a single verse that says that the goal of the gospel is for people to go to heaven. Rather, almost every book in the New Testament speaks of the kingdom of God and says clearly that the central goal of the gospel is the kingdom of God. God’s intention with the gospel is not to save people into heaven but to save them into the kingdom, that is, into the kingdom of the heavens.
The gospel is not a matter of a heavenly mansion but a matter of the kingdom. Moreover, the Bible does not speak of a heavenly mansion but of the New Jerusalem. Revelation 21:2 says, “I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” I must say emphatically that what the Bible shows regarding the gospel and salvation is absolutely not aimed at a heavenly mansion but at the kingdom. The goal of the gospel of God is not to save people into a mansion but into a kingdom. There is a great difference between a kingdom and a mansion. A mansion is merely a place; however, a kingdom involves not only a place but also many other matters.
I hope that this opening word will give you a deep impression that the aim of the gospel of God is to save us into His kingdom. Perhaps you have never heard such a word or had such an impression. Although you may have heard the gospel, been saved, become a believer, and even met with believers for a number of years, you may have never had the impression that the goal of God’s gospel is to save you into a kingdom. You may know that through the gospel of God you have obtained forgiveness of sins, peace through the forgiveness of sins, and reconciliation to God. You may also know that through the gospel of God you have received God’s life to become God’s child and a member of God’s household. Perhaps you know that through the gospel of God you have received the Holy Spirit of God and all kinds of spiritual gifts and blessings. I believe that all the brothers and sisters know these contents of the gospel. However, in addition to all these good things, the central matter revealed in the Bible concerning the gospel of God is that its goal is to save us into the kingdom of God.
In the New Testament age, the age of the gospel, the first sentence God spoke to man was “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (Matt. 3:2). He spoke this word through John the Baptist. When the Lord Jesus came out to preach, His first sentence was also “Repent, for the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near” (4:17). Why is there a need for repentance? It is because the kingdom of the heavens has drawn near. Repentance is to bring people into the kingdom of the heavens. It not only causes people to be forgiven of their sins, receive life, be saved, and be regenerated, but it also brings them into a kingdom. Later, the Lord Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in the synagogues and preaching not merely the gospel of forgiveness and of life, but the gospel of the kingdom (9:35).
When the Lord Jesus was about to depart from the earth, He told His disciples, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (24:14). This word implies a great deal. It indicates mainly that the kingdom must be preached in the whole inhabited earth until all the nations know this kingdom, and then the end will come.
Acts reveals that after His resurrection the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples particularly concerning the kingdom of God for a period of forty days (1:3). Then at Pentecost the disciples announced the gospel in Jerusalem and throughout the land (2:1-41; 8:1-4). Acts also says that the gospel they announced was the gospel of the kingdom of God (v. 12; 14:22). Even Paul himself said that his testifying of the gospel of the grace of God was his proclaiming of the kingdom; therefore, the kingdom of God is the content of the gospel of God (20:24-25). The last verse in the book of Acts says that the apostle Paul was “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness” (28:31).
When we come to the Epistles, the apostle Paul says in the book of Romans, “The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (14:17). In 1 Corinthians, Galatians, and Ephesians he indicated that the unrestrained ones, the filthy ones, and the evil ones have no inheritance in the kingdom of God (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21; Eph. 5:5). In Colossians 1:13 he wrote that God’s salvation is to deliver us out of the authority of darkness and transfer us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. From God’s perspective we were formerly in Satan’s kingdom, which is the authority of darkness, but God has delivered us out of the kingdom of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.
The apostle Paul is not the only one who mentions in his Epistles that the gospel is the kingdom of God; James also refers to this matter in his Epistle. He says, “Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which He promised to those who love Him?” (2:5). Peter refers to the kingdom of God in his Epistles also. He says, “In this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly and bountifully supplied to you” (2 Pet. 1:11). Even the apostle John, who ministered primarily on life, mentions the kingdom of God. He indicates that regeneration is for the kingdom of God, writing that unless one is born anew, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5). In writing the book of Revelation, he began by saying, “I John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in Jesus” (1:9). Halfway through the book he said, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ” (11:15). At the end he said that all the overcomers will be resurrected and will reign with Christ for a thousand years (20:4, 6). Finally, he said that all the saved ones will reign forever and ever in eternity (22:5b).