The Use of the Phrase – Part two

“And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20,21).

Was Jesus teaching he would never reign as king on the earth, that he would never establish a new political, economic and social order? That cannot be the case, for he immediately said to his disciples, “The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them. For as the lightning, that lighten­eth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day” (Luke 17:22-24). Christ will some day come with observation, that is openly and visibly, as openly as the lightning that flashes so visibly through the sky.

The Emphatic Diaglott gives the most acceptable rendering of the phrase in question: “…behold, God’s royal majesty is among you.” “The kingdom of God” here refers to the king of the kingdom. During Christ’s ministry, there would be no visible manifestation of the political and economic changes the kingdom will bring. There would be, however, a revelation of the king of the kingdom and the divine principles that would be the foundation of the new social order.

The Pharisees had been watching Jesus closely to see if he would introduce what, to them, would be signs of the coming kingdom. They anticipated that, if Jesus was indeed the Christ, he would commence dramatic action. They expected that Messiah would surely throw off the Roman yoke and vindicate the Pharisees by installing them in positions of power. But Jesus did not do that; he criticized their hypocrisy and decried their meticulous observance of externals and neglect of righteous principles. Instead of looking for political reform, the Pharisees needed to apply what the king was telling them right then.

Divine authority present

Like in the coming kingdom, divine authority was openly evident among them. When Jesus began to preach the gospel, he spoke with the authority of God Himself. Those who heard his sermon on the Mount were “astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one having authority…” (Matt. 7:28,29. See also John 7:46).

On another occasion, he responded to the people, “Many good works have I showed you from the Father…If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him” (John 10:32,37,38).

The word and the works of God were seen in Christ’s teaching and miracles. The glory of God’s moral attributes shone in the conduct of Christ. His manifestation of God was such that he could answer Philip’s request to see the Father by saying, “Have I been so long with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how saith thou then, Show us the Father?” (John 14:6-9).

The king and his people

“From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus was preparing a community of people who accepted him as their king. They would marvel at the power vested in him. Some had experienced his power to heal; others had witnessed his control of the storm or his creative ability to multiply loaves and fishes; still others saw the power to give life as, on separate occasions, Jesus raised three people from the dead.

For those who followed Jesus, there was a sense in which the kingdom existed for them at that time. They could rejoice in the power of the kingdom; they could learn from the same teaching that will cover the earth in the kingdom; they could practice the principles and develop the attitudes that will be required in the kingdom; they could talk with the king of the kingdom. By following Christ, they were experiencing a marvelous foretaste of the kingdom.

The kingdom of believers

While millions did not submit, the phrase “kingdom of God” or “king­dom of heaven” was applied to those who did believe. The Lord said, “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the right­eousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:19,20).

Those who were called “least in the kingdom of heaven ” were like the Pharisees who taught people to break the law. The Pharisees did this with their Corban law, for example, which taught people to circumvent the command to honor their parents (Mark 7:9-13). Such people “shall in no case enter into” the coming kingdom to be established on the earth. Yet they were spoken of as then being in the “kingdom of heaven” because they were part of the company who said they believed in Christ.

Used of the gospel

It is also used of the gospel message. Here is one example of such usage. Jesus told them they must “receive the kingdom of God as a little child…(or they)…shall in no wise enter therein” (Luke 18:16,17). The kingdom message must be received enthusiastically and faithfully or else the physical entrance into the kingdom will not be possible.

Another example is found in Matthew 11:12; “And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” Neither Christ nor the believers had yet been persecuted but the message of the gospel had been attacked and distorted by that generation. Accordingly, we suggest that the “kingdom of heaven” is here used regarding the gospel of the kingdom.

The future kingdom

The literal kingdom of God on earth was not to come until the future. Jesus left no doubt of that fact: “And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusa­lem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return” (Luke 19:11,12). In retrospect, we see he was referring to his ascension to heaven that had to precede his future return to rule the world.

As we have noted, the phrase, “the kingdom of God,” is used rather broadly. We have seen how it applies to Jesus himself, to the community of believers and to the message of the gospel.