Christ The King - The Kingdom of God
November 2009
‘My Kingdom does not belong to this world.’ The Kingdom of God is a mystery; that is it cannot be fully understood or explained. All we can do is get glimpses which do not always dovetail.
- The Kingdom of God is here now. - ‘Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus said in reply, The coming of the kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, Look, here it is, or, There it is. For behold, the kingdom of God is among you.”
- The Kingdom of God is growing. ‘Again Jesus said, To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed (in) with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.’
- the Kingdom of god will come sometime in the future (at the Parousia or the second coming of Jesus). ‘Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.’
Having digested the above I can now add to the confusion - for some - or to the richness of the phrase ‘Kingdom of God’, for others.
To enter the Kingdom is synonymous with entrance into Eternal Life. The Kingdom is identical with and consists in personal union with Jesus Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ (that community of people with Jesus as its centre and who strive to live in union with him) is the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is the person of Jesus himself. The Kingdom of God is in complete opposition to merely human values.
All the above consist of rich veins of thought and understanding in the Bible and could be used for meditation of further study and reading.
So although I are already part of the Kingdom and live in the Kingdom I must strive mightily for the further growth of the Kingdom in both myself and in the world. Nevertheless I am acutely conscious that I and this world as a whole are deeply flawed. I can never be perfect just as the world as a whole can never be wholly just and peaceful. This world and everything in it is deeply flawed. This is obvious to anyone who truthfully examines themselves and the world around them. This is what is called Original sin.
So the Bible and the Church teaches us that a ‘new heaven and a new earth’ are needed so that the Kingdom of God be finally and definitively inaugurated. Hence, Every time we say the Lords prayer we say ‘Thy Kingdom come.’