What The Kingdom of Heaven Is
What The Kingdom of Heaven Is WHAT THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS
By Chas. H. Roberson
“And the angel said unto her, Fear not Mary: for thou hast found grace with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob unto the ages; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:30 ff).
“From that time began Jesus to preach, and to say, Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17).
“Now after John was delivered up, Jesus, came into Galilee, preaching the good tidings of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:14 f).
“And Jesus went about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the good tidings of the kingdom” (Matthew 4:23).
“But he said unto them, I must preach the good tidings of the kingdom of God to the other cities als,o: for therefore was I sent” (Luke 4:43). The most casual reader of the gospel records knows the large place that the kingdom has in Jesus’ teaching. Immediately on entering upon his personal ministry, his first public utterance related to the kingdom (See Matthew 4:17). The possession of the kingdom is the subject of the first beatitude; he made its coming with ever increasing power the subject of daily prayer; he urged the seeking of the kingdom as the first .and the highest duty of man (Matthew 6:33); he said that his purpose in coming to the sons of men was to preach the kingdom of God; and for the same purpose he sent forth the twelve (Luke 9:1-12). The kingdom was the message which the twelve were to carry to the uttermost parts of the earth: “And this good tiding of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony unto all the nations,” (Matthew 24:14). From the first to the last the keynote of his teaching and his preaching was a revelation of the doctrine of his kingdom.
It is, therefore, a matter of vital importance to understand Jesus’ teaching concerning the kingdom. To misunderstand it is to misunderstand Jesus,’ message which results in misunderstanding his interpretation of life. The kingdom of heaven occupies such a prominent place in Jesus,’ teaching that it is helpful to trace its earlier meaning and usage.
Conceptions of the Kingdom in the Old Covenant In the twenty-third chapter of Exodus each Israelite is commanded to appear three times each year before Jehovah with gifts in his hands. This ancient law indicates that Jehovah was early regarded as Israel’s divine king. In the initial vision of Isaiah, Jehovah is so described when the prophet exclaims: “I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: For mine eyes have seen the king, Jehovah of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5). The same idea underlies the protest of Samuel against the appointment of Saul as, king, “Ye said unto me, Nay, but a king shall reign over us; when Jehovah is your king” (1 Samuel 12:12). This conception, however, did not prevent the Hebrews from paying homage to an earthly king, nor from cherishing the hope that a human Messiah would come to establish a world-wide kingdom and whose chief task would be to extend the authority and the glory of Jehovah unto the ends of the earth (See Is,a. 11:1-10; 35:1-10; Micah 4:1-8; Il.ab. 2:14). This nationalistic conception was held by the common people in the days of their liberation from Babylonian servitude; in the days of the Maccabeans; and in the days of Jesus by the Zealots, a party that sprang up in the days of Herod the Great.
Among the Pharisees, a party that dates its, beginning during the days of John Hyrcanus (135-105 B. 0.), were many leaders in Jesus’ time who, realizing the impossibility of throwing off the yoke of Rome, believed that the kingdom of heaven would be miraculously established and based their belief and expectancy upon passages like Daniel 2:44. A third conception of the kingdom of God is pre-sented in the Psalms, particularly Psalms 24, 29, 47, , 95 J 00, in which the human king completely disatu pears and the reign of God is presented. Jehovah reigns over men. His rule is to be just, merciful, righteous, good, with power, and everlas,tmg. This broad conception of the reign of God was also voiced by the pre-exilic prophets and is by far the noblest idea of the kingdom of God to be found in the Old Covenant.
Current Partial Views
One cannot well discuss “What the Kingdom of Heaven Is” apart from making specific inquiry concerning some partial views which obtain. Many good men identify the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, which is its exact equivalent, with heaven, the abode of the blessed dead. Under this view, to seek the kingdom is to seek heaven, and to enter into it is to gain heaven at last. The most perfect exposition of this view occurs in Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress.” The fallacy of this idea lies in the fact that it makes a part synonymous with the whole. It makes religion too exclusively other-worldly. It makes the kingdom something future and remotely related with the hard facts of daily living. Heaven was a great reality to Jesus, and he proposed to set in motion those principles which exemplified would make earth a colony of heaven. A more common conception identifies the kingdom of heaven with the visible church. The church becomes an end in itself, and its own upbuilding becomes its chief concern. Such a conception of the kingdom has resulted in the sin of ecclesiasticism and the wretched strife of sectarianism. The church, like the blessed Master, is not to be ministered unto but to minister. The church is the divinely appointed means to a divinely ordained end. The function of the church is to extend and upbuild the kingdom; to execute the will of the reigning sovereign. The king* dom.relates to a purpose to be achieved; the church is Ihe means by which that purpose is to be realized. Men get into the church by what they profess; they get into the kingdom of God only as they hunger and thirst after righteousness.
Another view identifies the kingdom of God with the invisible church, which is in effect much the same as confusing it with heaven. Such a conception has the effect of making the kingdom remote from, the life that now is and not vitally concerned with its distracting problems. The true view of the kingdom of heaven is large enough to include all. that is true in each of the views named. In extent, the kingdom of heaven includes heaven and earth, and the church, visible and invisible. In content, it embraces heaven, the invisible church, and the regenerate membership of the visible church.
Jesus’ Description of the Characteristics of the Kingdom of Heaven Is it a valid question to ask which of the conceptions in the Old Covenant did Jesus teach? Or did he reject all of them and proclaim a new interpretation of the ancient hope? There are many divergent views among scholars. Some hold that Jesus was indeed a son of his age and race and looked forward, like the majority of his people, to the establishment of a temporal kingdom, and himself enthroned as king. A larger number of modern scholars maintain that Jesus shared the current apocalyptic hope of his day, and expected and taught his speedy second coming and the miraculous establishment of a superna* tural kingdom. There are others who are convinced that he expected and labored for the establishment of a world wide spiritual kingdom in which God alone should rule. One’s faith in Jesus does not depend upon the answer to this question, however, it is a fact that the conclusion adopted will influence his conception of Jesus’ character and his work. It is a question that can be answered only by a most careful study and analysis of the evidence recorded in the Bible. The right basis for answering such a difficult question is: furnished by the large body of Jesus’ teaching on the subject. The kingdom of heaven or its equivalent kingdom of God occurs eighty-four times in the Gospels.
There is no other subject to which Jes,us devoted greater attention. By a wealth of figures and parables he illustrated the kingdom. His description is clear and in detail, and a careful study should do much to remove the confusion and misunderstanding which is current concerning it. By the parable of the Mus.tard Seed (Matthew 13:31 f; Mark 4:30 ff; Luke 13:18 f) Jesus taught that the growth of the kingdom is slow and natural. By the parable of the Leaven (Matthew 13:33; Luke 13:20 f) Jesus taught the pervasive and transforming influence of the kingdom of heaven. By the parable of the Seed Growing Secretly (Mark 4:2 Gff) Jesus taught the silent and progressive character of the kingdom of God, “First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear,” and that it is not due to man alone in planting the seed, but to God who constantly nurtures and fosters it, “and the seed spring up and grow, he (man) know- eth not how.” Israel’s history had been a preparation for it; John the Immerser announced its approach which Jesus reiterated; the work of the apostles marked its establishment in its true meaning and distinctive nature. But it is to continue to come in the world through increasing obedience of men to the will of God. Alike m extension—The Mustard Seed —and in intention—The Leaven—the kingdom of heaven is to go on developing in greater and greater power. The crowning passage in Jesus’ description of the kingdom is Luke 17:20 f. The occasion of this was the oft recurring question of the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God would come. It reflects their belief that it would be something sudden, catastrophic and revolutionary, instituted by God without man’s having any part in its being set up. Jesus refutes, this idea in his declaration, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation,” that is in a form to be seen by the human eye. In its coming no one can say, “Lo, here! or There!” In the reason he. gives we have the most illuminating statement found in all the gospels concerning his conception of the kingdom of God, “the kingdom of God is within you.” It is unfortunate that the Greek idiom admits of two interpretations,, namely, “in the midst of you” and “is within you.” The former is supported by the classical Greek; the second has the support of the Greek of the Koine period. The phrase is used in the latter sense in the Old Govenant in such passages, as Psalms 39:3; Psalms 103:1; Psalms 109:22; Isaiah 16:11; and Daniel 10:16. This testimony is quite strong, for writers of the gospel were more powerfully influenced by the Greek ver-sion of the Old Covenant than by the classical Greek usage. It appears, therefore, that “is within you” represents the thought in Jesus’ mind, and if so, it is a definite rejection of the popular nationalistic conception of the kingdom of God, and at the same time makes the kingdom individual and spiritual, something within the heart of man. This interpretation accords with Jesus’ teaching concerning God and man and the strong emphasis which he always placed upon that which is inner, personal and spiritual rather than upon that which is national, external and material.
Jesus, met the current ideas of the kingdom, and when standing in the very shadow of the cross, he calmly and explicitly stated, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). In Luke 14 Jesus teaches that the privileges of the kingdom of God are open to all, but only those who appreciate them will enjoy them. And before Pilate his calm faith in the goodness, and the justice of the Father failed him not; and he declared his absolute conviction that the reign of God in the hearts of men would surely be and that both he and his disciples would have a prominent place in it. The Place and Meaning of the Kingdom in Jesus’ Teaching The term “kingdom of heaven,” or its exact equivalent, “kingdom of God,” occurs more than eighty (80) times in the gospel records of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Matthew prefers the form, “kingdom of heaven” which he uses thirty-two times. Four times he has “kingdom of God”; Luke has it thirty-two times; Mark fourteen times; and John, two times. In later Jewish writings, heaven was constantly employed as a synonym for God, (cf. I Maccabees). There is no difference in the meaning of the two terms. The term “kingdom of God” is not taken from the eschatological vocabulary at all. This is a fact which champions of the “eschatological theories” of the gospel have lightly passed over; but it is quite signi-ficant. It is taken from the synagogue prayers of the day, and Jewish teachers explained it as meaning the rule or the sovereignty of God; where God’s law is obeyed, there is the kingdom of God. Jesus himself, in making it the principal petition in his pattern prayer, subjoins a paraphrase: “Thy kingdom come,” that is, “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The question, “Why does Jesus give so great promi-nence to the kingdom of God?” is in point. The answer may be: It was the topic uppermost in the
minds of all classes with whom he came in contact. It was the watchword in the preaching of John the Im- merser. It was constantly on the lips of the scribes. His disciples frequently asked concerning it. It was, therefore, to the wise teacher, that Jesus was, a natural and effective point of contact with his hearers. Its nationalistic interpretation by the Zealots was the will-o’the—wisp luring the Jewish nation into rebellion against Rome which resulted in the downfall of the nation in 70 A. D., and any like movement either now or in the future has no promise of different results,. Its apocalyptic interpretation dulled the sense of personal responsibility, and so now the idea that the kingdom of God is wholly future may be the reason that so great laxity in morality prevails. But the use of the term in the Psalms prepared the minds, of the. more thoughtful student for the individual and universal interpretation that Jesus gave it.
It is most remarkable that neither John nor Jesus gave any definition of the kingdom of heaven. The wisdom of the Master is confirmed by the large number of cumbersome definitions which scholars have attempted. The dominion or rule of God is the sim plest yet found. It is the reign of God in the minds and hearts and wills of men. It is the recognition by man of the sovereignty of God m every thought and act. It is man’s, on his own volition, bringing his will into submission to the will of God. It is a divine gift, yet it is something to be acquired through the will and the effort of man. It is, in its origin, individual and spiritual, yet in its ultimate development is destined to transform society, for loyalty and devotion to the heavenly Father is the strongest and only universal bond that can bind men together. Jesus’ teaching concerning the kingdom of God contemplates a universal brotherhood in which all men are united in the common desire to do the will of God. The idea of the divine kingdom of God as a spiritual relationship, that is, composed of those who possess certain qualities, of heart and mind is clearly borne out by the passages describing participation in it. The beatitudes are the classic illustral ions. “The poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3; Luke 6:20), “the pure in heart” (Matthew 5:8), and “the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9), are the ones to whom the kingdom is promised. Distinctly there is, a new note in Jesus’ teaching concerning the kingdom of heaven. It was new cloth that could not be sewed on the old garment of Judaism; it was new wine, and must not be put in old wine-skins (Matthew 9:16 f; Mark 2:21 f; Luke 5:56ff). The Most Exalted Ideal In the exalted conception of the pre-exilic prophets, the student finds two essential ideas concerning the kingdom of God: it is a regenerate community; in the fellowship of this community God’s will is to be fulfiled. The kingdom of God implies a world-wide society, in which universal obedience to the divine law as administered by the Father’s Anointed, would bring universal blessings, spiritual and temporal. The kingdom of God fully come means to them an-ideal world. One infers from the Master’s statement, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17), that he came to make actual the prophets’ vision. The kingdom of heaven is the ideal which will be fully realized among men when the will of God is “done in earth as it is in heaven”; that is;, when the laws of the king are perfectly obeyed by men. Jesus, knew that his mission was primarily directed to the. spiritual nature of man, yet it is true that all of God laws are laws of the kingdom of heaven. All the laws of God, physical and mental, moral and spiritual, are laws of the kingdom and are given to minister to the blessedness of its citizens. The kingdom of God (heaven) is as far reaching as the laws of the king, and is large enough, broad enough, and inclusive enough to comprehend all that is true, useful and beneficient. In the kingdom of God fully come can one imagine the violation of God’s laws, in any sphere of living?
“The kingdom of God fully come! Then inhumanity, injustice, unrighteousness, inordinate greed and selfishness, and all the enemies of human welfare and human happiness, spiritual, intellectual and physical, eliminated from human life! The kingdom of God fully come! Then right-doing universally prevalent among men, for ‘the kingdom of God is righteous,- ness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit’ (Romans 14:17). Then love regnant in human life, perfect brotherhood realized through perfect obedience to the two great laws of the kingdom of God, perfect love to God and perfect love to man, man at peace with his God, himself and with his fellow-men, universal happiness reigning in the world!”—Guy Hoover (Indiana Pulpit).
Such an ideal is ennobling, sublime, and worthy of the best of which man is capable. The mess,age to this assembly is that if you are to render the best service of v/hich you are capable, you must make the ideal the Master set before men your ideal, for in it are included all true and worthy aspirations. Each life is significant only as it strives to attain to its own highest living and for the welfare of humanity. May each of us rededicate and reconsecrate his power and efficiency to the interests of the kingdom of heaven (God). This means that character shall be our chief concern; and by character is meant the character of the archetypal pattern man, the Christ of God. The achievement of Christ-like character is the sublimes,t task beneath the stars. The kingdom of God is an invisible world, not ap-parent to the senses, not involved in the space-time continuum, but it is very close to us. One must be careful, however, not to tie down the conception of the kingdom to a narrow ethic, or to a passive and resigned obedience. The kingdom of God is an overwhelming power transforming the lives of men. Jesus rescued the great truth so long forgot that God works in his world all the time, that his justice and his compassion overrules all things from the rise and the fall of mighty empires to the untimely death of fledgling sparrows. This, invisible power, this inner history, is the kingdom of God. God is near to men, not remote from them, and is familiar with men and enters into communion with them. The kingdom of God is the invisible world of power and glory, parallel with the visible world of space and time, and breaking in upon it and subduing it. In Jesus himself the process, begins; in and through him the kingdom of God is coming to men. To accept him is to accept God; to reject him is to reject God. Jesus is the divine Son of Man who symbolizes the kingdom of God; he is here now in poverty and lowliness and humility, but he is, to come again in power and glory on the clouds of heaven, that is to say, the kingdom is to come, it does not matter which you say; it comes to the same thing. Those who accept him now on the earth already belong to the kingdom; he will acknowledge them when he comes in glory. Those who are ashamed of him now will be denied then.
Jesus, the Perfect Exemplar of Doing God’s Will The divine Son of Man, the champion of the kingdom of God, came to the earth to do a work which is hid in mystery from his followers. This work began with a battle with Satan. Satan is a name for spiritual fact, the strong, cunning, vicious opposition to all good that is in the world. Jesus never speculates, whether the evil in the world is a person or a force or a tendency; he never speculates on its origin; he simply names it: SATAN.
Jesus is a spiritual real ist; he finds in his heart and in the world a set of forces working for good, and another working for evil; one is the kingdom of God, and the other is Satan. The Master found Satan in his owm inner life, and overcame him; he found Satan next in his opponents and denounced them; he found Satan thirdly in his own chief disciple and warned him. Peter had the idea that there was no need for Jesus to go to Jerusalem and die; Jesus taught that the narrow way must lead to the cross for each of them, and that unless each took up the cross he could not be his disciple. The way of justice and mercy and love is also the way of patience and suffering and sacrifice. Jesus went to Jerusalem to meet force with endurance and to overcome death by dying, and as he went he told them how through his. death man could find the way into the kingdom of God, and how his death was to be the ransom for the sins of the world. On the cross he met the last of Satan’s terrors, and overcame it; his disciples were convinced that he had vanquished not only sin, but death als.o, and carried the news of their meeting with him risen from the dead throughout the whole inhabited world. Such are the things which the men who knew Jesus best reported about him.
Contrast With Jewish Conceptions The kingdom of God (heaven) is one of the most remarkable ideas and phrases of all time. Its us,e by Jesus is by far the most interesting aspect, for it is his watchword, or comprehensive term for the whole of his teaching. When Jesus, began to speak of the kingdom of God, it soon became manifest that by him and his contemporaries it was used in different senses. The contrast went on increasing until there was a great gulf between him and them. The difference can be expressed no better than that he and they laid emphasis on different halves of the phrase. They stressed “the kingdom” and he “of God.” They were thinking of the expulsion of the Romans, of a Jewish king and court, and of a world-wide dominion going forth from Mt. Zion; he was thinking of righteousness, holiness and peace, of doing the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven. So earthly and fantastic were the expectations of the Jewish multitude that he had to escape from their hands when they tried to take him by force and make him a king. The authorities never acknowledged the pretensions of one who seemed to them a religious dreamer, and, as they clung to their own conceptions,, they grew more and more bitter against one who was turning the most cherished hopes of a nation into ridicule, besides threatening to bring down on them the heavy hand of the Romans. And at last they settled the controversy between him and them by hanging him on a tree.
Conclusion And now do you ask what the kingdom of heaven is. It is not a separate inclosure, not a bounded kingdom, but a pervasive spirit. The kingdom of God is goodness made natural, vital, submissive and dynamic in the lives of men. In the early centuries of the Christian era, the phrase, “the kingdom of heaven” was used by teachers to designate heaven itself. The Alexandrine thinkers brought back the phrase to designate the rule of God in the conscience of men. Augustine’s great work bears a title, “De Civitate Dei,” which is a translation of our phrase; and to him the kingdom of God was the church, while the world outside of the church was the kingdom of Satan.
It is evident to students of the Bible that the leading phrase in the teaching of Jesus must always be the masterword of his interpretation of life. The controversy throughout the whole sweep of human thinking is an interesting one, and while this teacher has no desire to be dogmatic, he wishes to set forth certain elements of living power in the phrase, “kingdom of God” or “kingdom of heaven,” which can never pass away: (1)It expresses the social side of the Christian religion. Though religion must begin with the individual, it must aim at brotherhood, organization and expansion. (2) It expresses loyalty. The will of God must be done. The Son shows men how. Without the love of God the Father and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, no progress can be made in bringing the world to Christ. (3) It keeps constantly before men the sublime truth expressed in the pattern prayer, that the one needful thing is doing the will of God on the earth. Herein is the true end of all authority, and behind which there is at work the power of heaven. (4) It reminds all generations of men that their true home and destiny is heaven. Often as the Master used the phrase, he did so obviously as, the name for heaven; and while his aim was that the kingdom should be established on earth, he always promised to those who aid in making it a colony in this world that their efforts would be rewarded in the world to come. The constant recogni-tion of a spiritual world and an eternal world is one of the unfailing marks of the true and the genuine follower of the Lord Jesus, Christ.
Often did the Master promise rest, peace, and the like. Again and again, where he might be expected to employ the phrase “kingdom of God,” he used life or eternal life. Such were the blessings for which he came into the world to bestow; and the most comprehensive designation for all of them is “The Kingdom of God” or “The Kingdom of Heaven.”
References: Bible—American Revised Version, The Indiana Pulpit, ed. Book, The Life and Teaching of Jesus—Kent, The Meaning of the Revelation— Carrington, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.