The Kingdom: A place to live or a way of living?

When we think about the Kingdom of God (or Heaven, take your pick) most of us tend to think of a place. We think of the Kingdom as the destination of our souls after death. The Kingdom is the place where we will spend life in eternity with God. The sensible summary of this is that the Kingdom is the future home of those who live rightly in the present.

Yet, this really was not the way that Jesus spoke of the Kingdom or eternal life. Let’s look quickly at a few passages from the Gospels. Jesus clearly found the Kingdom to be an important issue, since it emerged as the heart of his message right from the very beginning of his ministry. Take a look at Mark 1:14, 15:

4After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

For Jesus, the Kingdom was near. Not near as in the near future. If so, he would have said, “The time is coming.” No. He means near as in close by. It has come. In other words, Jesus is telling us that where he is the Kingdom is. Why? Because the Kingdom is not a place. It is not a destination. It is God’s rule, God’s reign, and where Jesus is, God rules. Moreover, we can experience this Kingdom in our lives right now. How? Jesus tells us. Repent and believe. So, it is by faith and obedience that we can experience the rule of God in our lives. In other words, we can experience heaven on earth. Jesus told us to pray for this very thing: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

So what of eternal life? Again we tend to think of eternal life as something we will enter into after death. In reality, the Kingdom and eternal life are but two sides of the same coin. In Jesus teaching, eternal life is closely related to Shalom (i.e. the peace of God).

Shalom, in the biblical sense, means much more than what we typically think of as peace. Shalom means to be complete, perfect, and full. It is what Jesus proclaims for us, when he says, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” [John 10:10] This life to the fullest is Shalom. This “peace” is life in the Kingdom. It is the experience of the full and complete rule of God in one’s life. This “peace” is the present experience of eternal life.

This can be true, because it is against the very nature of something “eternal” to simply reside in the future. The “eternal” is descriptive of something that always was and always will be. It is without beginning or end. It exists outside of the boundaries of time. When we understand this, we understand that eternal life does not simply describe the state of living forever after death. Eternal life is the experience of the complete and perfect life found by living within the incorruptible and ceaseless peace of God’s rule. This experience is not confined to the future.

Let’s take a look at one last story from Jesus life to illustrate this. In Luke 10:25 Jesus is asked a question: "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" I think that we tend to think of “inherit” as “earn”. We certainly think of “inherit” as obtaining something after someone’s death. But the Greek word translated as “do” means more than simply “earn” or “obtain”. It means “to bring forth” or “to continually produce”. The word “inherit” is even more interesting. It means to “obtain one’s portion of an inheritance”, but within jewish religious thought the word took on a greater meaning. In the Old Testament, the word was frequently used to describe the taking of possession of the promised land. This was the inheritance of God’s covenant promises with his people. Consequently, over time, the word evoked images of the possession of the holy land crowned with all divine blessings, an experience which Jews were to expect under the Messiah. Hence the word became associated with partaking in or experiencing eternal life in the Messiah’s Kingdom. So, what the man is asking Jesus is, “How do I bring forth and continually experience the blessings of my promised inheritance of eternal life?”

This is important to understand, because the man is not asking “how do I get to heaven?” In fact, such a question would be fairly nonsensical for a Jew. Heaven is understood in ancient Judaism as the domain of God, not humans. What this man wants to know is “How do I experience the Kingdom life?” When you understand that, you understand that Jesus’ reply does not imply that good works earn your way into heaven. What Jesus’ is saying is this: Acts of love are the truest expression of the eternal life. When we love God and love others we bring forth the Kingdom of God and God’s peace- the full and perfect life- breaks into our broken and imperfect world.

So don’t be satisfied with this life. Don’t wait to experience the fullness of eternal life. Live life to the fullest now. Live the Kingdom life. Love God, love people and experience the breakthrough Shalom, the Kingdom, of Eternal life today!