After reading these words in the New Testament, we can clearly see that the goal of God’s gospel and God’s salvation is to save us into the kingdom. The goal of the gospel of God is not the forgiveness of sins or life but the kingdom. The gospel of God saves us not merely into the forgiveness of sins or into life but also into the kingdom.
Regrettably, in Christianity today this light has been annulled and buried. Even many among us who have been saved for years do not have any impression or sense regarding the kingdom. They do not have the sense that the gospel of God is to save them into a kingdom. However, the Bible repeatedly reveals that the central, primary, and most important goal of the gospel of God is the kingdom of God. The reason God saves us is to bring us into this kingdom. The reason God forgives us of our sins is to bring us into this kingdom. The reason He gives us life and the Holy Spirit is for us to be regenerated and to live in this kingdom (John 3:3, 5). We must receive the life of this kingdom in order to live in this kingdom and to live the life that corresponds to this kingdom. In summary, the goal of the gospel of God is the kingdom of God, that is, to save people into this kingdom that they may live in this kingdom.
Therefore, all the riches of salvation given to us by God are for one thing—to bring us into His kingdom that we may live in this kingdom. Hence, we must see that neither the forgiveness of sins nor life is the goal of the gospel of God; the goal of the gospel of God is the kingdom. The reason that God forgives us of our sins, cleanses us, gives us life, sends His Spirit into us, and makes us cleansed and enlivened persons is to save us into His kingdom, to place us in His kingdom, that we may live in this kingdom. Only this kingdom is His goal.
Regrettably, many saved ones today have not seen the importance of the kingdom. We probably have seen the forgiveness of sins, life, and various gifts and blessings, but we may not have seen the kingdom. God’s focus is the very thing that we neglect; God’s emphasis is the very thing that we ignore. For this reason, I have a heavy burden to release this message to the saints.
We deeply believe that in the last days the Lord will recover particularly the truth and light of the kingdom. Hence, we will briefly describe the process of God’s recovery in the past generations.
Those who know God realize that all spiritual matters were revealed in the Gospels and the Epistles in the age of the apostles. However, not long after the departure of the apostles the church gradually lost these matters. By the time of the death of the last apostles around A.D. 100, the church was on a path of losing these spiritual matters. Day after day the church was proceeding on this path. Many precious things of the church were lost one after another. On the one hand, the church lost many precious things that she should have had; on the other hand, the church brought in many things that she should not have had.
This situation reached its worst in A.D. 1500; almost all the precious things of the church were gone. This was the darkest time, the time when the Roman Catholic Church was at the height of its power. The Catholic Church lost the precious things and brought in many other things to produce a mixture. In such a situation, because almost all the precious things in the church had been lost, God raised up Martin Luther to take the way of recovery.
The first item God moved to recover in the church was the truth of justification by faith. If we carefully study church history in the last five hundred years, we will clearly see the steps of God’s recovery. Beginning with Luther, God first recovered the truth of justification by faith. Then step by step He recovered the precious things in the Bible that had been lost by the church. After justification by faith God recovered the truth of Christ being our life. Some time later He recovered the truth of the cross as the way to solve all the problems in the universe and accomplish all God’s work. At that point the truths of justification by faith, Christ as our life, and the cross accomplishing God’s work were almost fully recovered.
Based on the light we have seen, however, there are not only these three great matters in the New Testament—justification by faith, Christ as our life, and the cross—there are also at least two other great truths—the church and the kingdom.
We can say that the general subject of the New Testament is Christ; the entire New Testament concerns Christ. From Christ three great items are produced: the cross, the church, and the kingdom. Hence, the cross, the church, and the kingdom are the three great items in the New Testament. Christ accomplished the work of the cross, the cross produced the church, and the church brought in the kingdom. In the full manifestation of the kingdom, the will of God will have been done in the universe and His name will have been sanctified on earth (Matt. 6:9-10). At that time all God’s plan will have been fulfilled.
Now we have clearly seen that the New Testament comprises four great matters: Christ, the cross, the church, and the kingdom. Concerning Christ as life, there has been adequate recovery in the past years. Furthermore, concerning the truth of the work of the cross of Christ, there has been adequate recovery in the past. However, concerning the truths of the church and the kingdom, until today many of God’s children still do not have an adequate understanding. What exactly is the church? What is the kingdom? God’s children know these two things merely as terms but lack an adequate understanding of what they actually are. Hence, what God must recover in this age are these two things.
In these end times the few brothers who went before us spent much time studying the Bible, and what they saw was either the matter of the church or the matter of the kingdom. Hence, in recent years we have had a heavy burden within us to speak on the truths concerning the church and the kingdom, because we deeply believe that in this final age God must recover these two things. Perhaps these two things are what God desires to recover last. God has been doing His recovery work for nearly five hundred years, and many truths have been recovered, but these two important truths of the church and the kingdom have not yet been fully recovered.