John 3:3-5 informs us that in order to see and enter the kingdom of God, we must be born again of water and spirit.
3 Thus, if the kingdom does not exist at this time, then no one has yet been born from above.
Ever-Expanding
For each of as individuals, the kingdom commences when the King indwells us as His temple:
[Y]our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)4
The kingdom is here, if for no other reason than because the King is here in us. But God does not intend that His kingdom be limited to just within us, or merely to the four walls of our homes or church buildings. This is tantamount to hiding your light under a bushel basket:
Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)
These verses are contextually married to the next three verses:
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 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. (Matthew 5:17-19)
In other words, our being salt to the earth (Verse 13) and light to the world (Verse 14) is intrinsically linked with the implementation of the King’s law here on earth.
The kingdom begins with the King indwelling His temple, but the temple is not His kingdom in its entirety. It’s merely the seat of government, here on earth, in addition to His temple in heaven, from which the King rules His kingdom. In the case of our King, this means over His entire creation:
The earth is Yahweh’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. (Psalm 24:1)
The kingdom—the King’s reign and dominion here on earth—begins in the hearts of His loyal subjects, and is to then be expanded throughout all of society by His faithful ambassadors5:
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of Yahweh of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)
This ultimately means His Son’s stone kingdom topples and replaces all other kingdoms:
And in the days of these [Roman] kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom .... shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. (Daniel 2:44)
How is this realized? It was definitively realized when He resurrected from the grave. It will be finally accomplished to its fullest effect at the consummation of the ages. And, in the intervening age, it’s progressively achieved by His ambassadors overcoming evil with good, including evil government with good government, per Romans 12:21-13:7, 1 Corinthians 6:2-4, 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, and 1 Timothy 1:8-11.
World-Wide Impact
The Greek word parateresis translated “observation” in the phrase “not with observation” in Luke 17:20 is defined as “ocular evidence.”6 Individual conversions cannot be observed. Under the New Covenant, it’s the heart, not the flesh, that’s circumcised.7 Only Yahweh sees and knows the heart of man.8 The kingdom is thus imperceptible in its beginning (at least as compared to how earthly kingdoms usually commence) and its progression, at least initially, is slow in development. The following was especially true at the time Christ declared to the Pharisees that the kingdom comes without observation:
[T]he kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. (Matthew 13:31-33)
Although the kingdom’s advance is to many what might be considered unobservable, the intent is that the entire “loaf,” the entire world, be eventually leavened by its impact.
[T]he earth shall be full of the knowledge of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:9)
This is accomplished on two fundamental levels:
1. For the remnant, individually through conversion by means of Christ’s blood-atoning sacrifice and resurrection from the grave.
Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with [a remnant of, Verse 7] the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.... [T]his shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel ... I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. (Jeremiah 31:31-33)
2. For society by means of Yahweh’s perfect law of liberty.9
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
Kingdom Blessings
What is observable are God’s blessings, cited in Deuteronomy 28:1-14, upon those who look to Him as sovereign and thus His law as supreme. This, in turn, results in others—even entire nations—seeking the same God who provides the blessings for obedience to His law:
Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as Yahweh my God commanded me.... Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as Yahweh our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day? (Deuteronomy 4:5-8)
This may very well have been the passage Alexis de Tocqueville had in mind when he penned the following:
They [the 17th-century Colonials] exercised the rights of sovereignty; they named their magistrates, concluded peace or declared war, made police regulations, and enacted laws as if their allegiance was due only to God. Nothing can be more curious and, at the same time more instructive, than the legislation of that period; it is there that the solution of the great social problem which the United States now presents to the world is to be found [in perfect fulfillment of Deuteronomy 4:5-8, demonstrating the continuing veracity of Yahweh’s law and its accompanying blessings, per Deuteronomy 28:1-14].
Amongst these documents we shall notice, as especially characteristic, the code of laws promulgated by the little State of Connecticut in 1650.10 The legislators of [New Haven] Connecticut begin with the penal laws, and … they borrow their provisions from the text of Holy Writ ... copied verbatim from the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy.…11
What begins imperceptibly within us as individuals eventually turns an upside-down world right side up,12 provided Yahweh’s remnant are diligent in being the salt of the earth and a light to the world.
END NOTES
1. “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.... But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness....” (Matthew 6:10, 33)
“Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21)
“[T]he weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We aredestroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we aretaking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.” (2 Corinthians 10:4-6)
2. The Kingdom is Not Of the World But In the World
Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant
3. Baptism: All You Wanted to Know and More
4. See also Romans 8:9-11 and Acts 2:38.
5. “Now we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us....” (2 Corinthians 5:20)
6. James Strong, parateresis, “Greek Dictionary of the New Testament,” The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990) p. 55.
7. Colossians 2:11-13
8. 1 Samuel 16:7; Proverbs 21:2; Acts 1:24
9. Psalm 19:7-11, Psalm 119:44-45, and James 2:12
Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant
A Biblical Constitution: A Scriptural Replacement for Secular Government
10. America’s Greatest Constitution
11. Chapter 3 “The Preamble: WE THE PEOPLE vs. YAHWEH” of Bible Law vs. the United States Constitution: The Christian Perspective
12. “[C]ertain lewd fellows of the baser sort ... drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down ... do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus.” (Acts 17:6-7)
Click Here to Read Appendix 3
