What is the Kingdom of God?
Perhaps, like me, you’ve grown up in the church. The Bible, particularly the Gospels and Jesus, talks a great deal about the Kingdom. So we might feel dumb asking this question. Usually, we assume it’s simply another word for heaven.
And yet the way Jesus describes it, the Kingdom seems something related but different. My questions regarding the Kingdom started in earnest when I read the Gospel Jesus preached: “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” I was raised with the understanding that the Gospel is the process of realizing you’re a sinner and praying a prayer. What did Jesus mean by this Gospel?
Turn to God because his Kingdom is here and on the way.
At the same time, when Jesus taught his followers to pray, He taught that our prayers should all flow from the ultimate request: “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” This creates some distinction between heaven and the Kingdom.
But again, the question remains. What is the Kingdom? As I sought understanding on this, asking pastors and other leaders, I found that most people don’t know. It’s a vague concept. And yet it was the focus of Jesus’ teaching, along with revealing God as Father.
2 Good Definitions of the Kingdom of God
Taking Jesus’ teaching about prayer, he gives a hint with: “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” With this simple prayer, we see the Kingdom of God is the manifestation of heaven here on earth.
We see this theme throughout the Bible. In Genesis, God creates a garden of perfection and creative order, a paradise on earth, and places human image-bearers within it as his heavenly representatives, to maintain and continue to spread the garden-kingdom across the earth through multiplying the image bearers. All through intimate relationship with him. Humanity lost this in the Fall. The rest of the Bible explains how God seeks to redeem and restore this idea. He didn’t give up on it.
God called Abraham and gave him a covenant for a purpose — a people to be a heavenly blessing to all other people. The Lord designed Israel to exist as a place and a people, an earthly realm where God reigned as king, dwelling among them, and the blessings overflowed from that place and people. Israel rebelled against this, first asking for an earthly king and later through idolatry and sin. The problem? They were faulty image bearers.
Therefore, the promise became a Messiah to come and set this right. God would once again be king, priest, and prophet in one, and those who repent would receive a new, God-infused heart. The divine nature shared with humanity. Proper image bearers. King Jesus brought the Kingdom of God with him, to preach and spread heaven coming to earth in people and places. Hence, why Jesus preached this Good News to a broken world. Heaven was coming to earth.
The rest of the New Testament reveals the realization of heaven come to earth, first through evangelism and church planting directed by the Holy Spirit. At the end of all things, Jesus will return. Revelation finishes with a new Jerusalem coming from heaven to land on earth for all time. Heaven expressed on earth again.
As I researched and asked questions, I found two great definitions of the Kingdom of God. First, the “realm in which God rules and reigns.” This highlights the Kingdom as a space and people who willingly obey God as Lord and King, as we’ve already pointed to God’s will being done on earth like the heavenly realm.
Secondly, the Kingdom is “life as God designed it to be.” God created this world and humanity with definite purposes in mind. Because of the Fall, we’ve gone far from these ideas. But Jesus returns us to this, as the only one who lived who came from heaven. Only he could tell us what heaven is truly like. The Sermon on the Mount describes the culture and nature of living under God’s rule and reign, how to enjoy life as he designed it to be: for our good and the good of all.
Why Doesn’t the Bible Give a Definition of the Kingdom of God?
To some degree, we shouldn’t look for a concise definition of the Kingdom of God. The Bible doesn’t provide one. Jesus never gave an actual definition, even though he constantly taught about it. The apostle Paul had education in both the Old Testament and Greek philosophy, yet he didn’t give one either. Academics love definitions, and our modern Western culture has grown from those Greek and Roman notions, which has positives and negatives.
The closest Paul gets to a Kingdom definition happens when he says, “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). Here, Paul contrasts the details of the old Law with the reality of the Kingdom. Not really a definition, he tells us the nature of the Kingdom and where we can find it (the Holy Spirit).
Why no definition? The Kingdom of God exists as a realm completely unlike anything humans have known in this fallen world, which is our whole experience up to some point of godly revelation. The Kingdom is spiritual, eternal, and heavenly — crafted from different materials and governed by God himself, resulting in a place of perfect peace, justice, righteousness, joy, and love. We long for such a world but have never seen it.
The Kingdom rests beyond our human comprehension, a living culture of God’s ways. And his ways are far higher and of a different nature entirely. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as high as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). Our emotions and intellect can’t properly understand the Kingdom. We need the mind of Christ to even begin.
Therefore, Jesus says we must be born again (born of the Spirit, of a different world and way) to both “see” and “enter” the Kingdom of God (John 3). Upon repentance to God, we become a new creation, and then the Kingdom can be seen and entered. Both are needed. How can we enter something we can’t see? The Spirit enables this.
In other words, the Kingdom can’t be intellectually known, because if it could, it wouldn’t be heavenly. But it can be experienced.
Why Does the Bible Use Story and Vision to Teach about the Kingdom of God?
Intellect and emotion prove insufficient to engage the Kingdom of God. Experience transcends both yet includes them as well. Jesus came to earth, in part, to share his experience of heaven and declare the coming Kingdom. And since the Kingdom can be experienced, God communicates it through visions and stories.
In Daniel, God revealed the Kingdom through visions. The Lord used King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a statue to show the rise and fall of earthly kingdoms. In the end, a heavenly Kingdom would crush all others and exist eternally (Daniel 2). In Daniel 7, God revealed a vision of four beasts, representing worldly empires, followed by the Son of Man establishing an everlasting Kingdom. Prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, and others gave further pictures and images of what the future Kingdom of God would look like, often connected with the Messiah.
Although Jesus never gave an intellectual, concise definition, he taught about the Kingdom through stories, called parables. Matthew 13:35 says, “All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: ‘I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.’”
Since the Fall, the Kingdom has been hidden from humanity, as God set an angel at the entrance to Eden with a flaming sword to keep corrupt humans from the Tree of Life. Matthew quotes from Psalm 78:2 to show how stories can tell us eternal secrets. Jesus came to reveal the Kingdom, so he never taught without a story.
Stories transport us to other worlds, other places, other times, whether real or fantastical. Through story, we enter the mind and motivation of the characters. Studies show that children as young as 3 or 4 put themselves in the character’s place when they see, read, or hear a story. Only stories can properly point to the Kingdom of God.
Jesus not only told parables but lived a story, as well. He healed, taught, loved, showed compassion, and more. The Kingdom became real and a story through how he acted and spoke. His birth, his ministry, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension all become part of a story arc truly showing God’s message to humanity. When the first-generation Christians and apostles wrote about Jesus, they told his story and called them Gospels. His whole life, every decision and moment expressed the Good News of the Kingdom.
What Does This Mean for Christians Today?
Our academic or emotional ability can’t truly reveal the Kingdom for anyone else. Human, limited language can’t properly contain the limitless. But we can use story. We can show them the Kingdom. Jesus showed us how.
First, we tell the Kingdom story through what we say and do. As Jesus did, we declare the Kingdom by speaking truth and living it out in tangible ways. Preaching, teaching, and sharing Scripture helps others understand the value of God’s rule and reign. Our words must flow from our actions: healing the sick, practicing generosity, caring for the poor, offering grace. When we embody the love, mercy, and redemptive justice of God, we give them a living picture of the heavenly reality. We do this individually and corporately with our faith community.
Second, we share our personal “testimony,” which is religious language about bearing witness and sharing our story. Each Christian’s journey is a unique representation of the universal Gospel and God’s grace transforming our lives. Through sharing how God brought salvation, healing, and redemption to us, we point to the power of his Kingdom to others. Arguments create division. Personal stories make friends, lead to more intimacy, and invite questions and more conversation.
Finally, we can use the arts to express the Kingdom of God. Jesus’ parables were fictional stories. Our first introduction to God is as Creator with purpose. As image bearers filled with the Spirit, we can tell fictional stories and make visual arts to engage people’s imagination in ways a direct explanation never can. Fiction can reflect Kingdom truths like redemption, sacrificial love, and good’s victory over evil. C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings are classic stories that express deep and meaningful spiritual truths.
In these three ways — living, testifying, and creating — we tell the story of the Kingdom and invite others to see and enter it with us for transformation and joy.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/deberarr
