Is the Kingdom in you, or are you in it?

[steve]

The following is an email I received as a follow-up to something said on the program:


Steve,

Did I recently hear you say that the kingdom of God is without and not within a Christian? When Christ came into my life I experienced so much love, joy and peace and a sense of righteousness that I have always associated His presence within me as the Kingdom of God, his rule within me which is described in Romans 14:17.

To me Christ is the pearl of great price and if He is within how can his kingdom not be within, too? I don't see how He and His kingdom are separate.

Luke 17:21 says, "neither shall you say, lo here! Lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." If I am in Christ and He is within me, isn't His Kingdom also within me?

I looked up all the scriptures pertaining to the kingdom of God and it would seem that you are right if I understood you correctly. But I am still struggling with the idea of it being something outside a Christian. Could you help me with this?
Thank you, Margaret

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Hi Margaret,

The Kingdom of God is the global phenomenon defined by Christ's reign. It speaks, primarily, of the realm, consisting of all His disciples, over which He reigns. This reign is realized individually by the interior realities of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom.14:17), but the term does not primarily refer to the believer's personal interior experience. Since it is the movement that takes in all true followers of Christ, it is something that we enter at conversion (yes, it enters us as well, but that is a secondary consideration). When Jesus talked about the kingdom growing like a mustard seed, He was echoing Daniel 2:44-45, which describes the same kingdom as a stone growing into a huge mountain (implying, in biblical imagery, an empire) to fill the earth.

If someone asked me, "What is America?" My first response would not be, "It is the freedom I enjoy." I would first make it known that America is not really about me at all. It is an objective reality—one of three nations existing on the North American continent—defined by a government and a people established on certain principles enunciated in its constitution. How I have benefitted by being a U.S. citizen would not really be part of the definition—though it is important to me.

The same is true of the kingdom of God. It is a holy nation—consisting of a King and the loyal citizens living under His rule (called disciples)—which was established 2,000 years ago, and has ever since been expanding in this world. I too am one of its subjects, and, as such, I enjoy righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

The verse in Luke 17 which says, "The kingdom of God is within you" (KJV), would better be translated, "The kingdom of God is in your midst" (NASB, ESV, NRSV, NIV). Jesus was speaking to His enemies. He would not have told them that the kingdom of God was inside them. They were agents of Satan's kingdom.

To say that the kingdom was "in their midst" simply means that they were looking for a kingdom that they could not see, though its presence—in the persons of the King and His subjects—were, even then, in the crowd where they stood.

Blessings!

Steve

[Paidion]

Steve, your understanding is precisely my understanding.

There are two senses of the word "within":

Sense #1:
There are 12 baseballs. A small hole has been drilled in each baseball, and a marble has been placed within each one.
The marbles are within the baseballs.

Sense #2. There are 12 baseballs randomly placed on a mat. A handful of marbles is placed in the midst of the baseballs so that baseballs surround the marbles.
The marbles are within the baseballs.

You and I believe that Jesus meant it in the second sense.

Jesus and his disciples were standing there right in the midst of the Pharisees. So the Kingdom (a kingdom consists of a king and his subjects) was in the midst of the Pharisees whom Jesus was addressing in answering their question as to when the Kingdom of God was coming.

He couldn't have meant "within their hearts and minds" since the Pharisees didn't have the Kingdom inside of them.