Four Aspects of the Kingdom of God

FOUR ASPECTS OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

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Four aspects of the Kingdom of God need to be understood:

the Feast of Tabernacles and its relationship to the Kingdom of God;
the oneness of the Scriptures, of the Israel of God, and of the Kingdom of God;
the nature of the new covenant;
the role of Israel among the nations of the saved.

It is difficult to comprehend the Kingdom of God without understanding these four areas.

Introduction
Aspect One — The Feast of Tabernacles and the Kingdom of God
Aspect Two — The Oneness of the Scriptures, of the Israel of God, and of the Kingdom of God
Aspect Three — The Nature of the New Covenant
Aspect Four — The Role of Israel Among the Nations of the Saved

Introduction

The Kingdom of God is what is governed by the will of God, as that will is revealed in Christ in the saints.

God is important because all things of the Kingdom come from Him and not from man.

Christ is important because God has chosen to make Jesus the Lord and Center of all (Ephesians 1:10).

The saints are important because it is through them that the presence and glory of God in Christ are revealed.

The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven are one and the same. This is seen in the fact that the same parables referred to by Matthew as parables of the Kingdom of Heaven are spoken of by Mark and Luke as parables of the Kingdom of God. There is only one kingdom.

In the work of the Kingdom, we are dealing with an inner spiritual reality and an outer spiritual and physical reality. The inner spiritual reality includes what we are as a spiritual personality, resulting from the entering of the Holy Spirit into us, the forming of Christ in us, and the coming of the Father and the Son to abide with us forever.

The outer spiritual reality is the realm of spirits, including God and His angels, Satan and his angels, and many other beings. The outer physical reality is the physical universe. The outer physical realities will be governed by what is being formed in us and is coming to dwell in us.

The will of God is the only legitimate will in the universe. All other wills must yield to the will of the Father. “Your kingdom come. Your will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” Whoever will not yield to the will of God in Christ shall be tormented forever. In the days to come, the saints will destroy all opposition to the Father’s will.

The coming of the outer Kingdom was announced by the Hebrew prophets:

Let the sea roar, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell in it; let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills be joyful together before the LORD, for He is coming to judge the earth. With righteousness He shall judge the world, and the peoples with equity. (Psalms 98:7-9)
When the peoples are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD. (Psalms 102:22)
Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion [body of Christ] shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2:2-4)
He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands shall wait for His law.” (Isaiah 42:4)
Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (Revelation 11:15)

The coming of the inner Kingdom was proclaimed by the Lord Jesus and His apostles:

“But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Matthew 13:23)
My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you, (Galatians 4:19)
To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)

The parables of the Lord Jesus describe the inner Kingdom (such as the parable of the sower in Matthew 13:3), and also His return in the glory of the outer Kingdom (such as the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14).

A willingness to suffer and the determination to overcome all opposition are required of all who are elected to rule in the Kingdom of God. If we suffer with Him, we will reign with Him. All the rulers must drink the cup of suffering; they must be imprisoned until all self-rule has been destroyed out of them, and they must be baptized with the fires of divine judgment.

Aspect One — The Feast of Tabernacles and the Kingdom of God

The seven feasts of the Lord are found in Leviticus chapter 23 and in other passages of the Old Testament. The booths of the Feast of Tabernacles speak of the dwelling of God in Christ in us, and therefore of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is the presence and rule of God in us. The celebration of Tabernacles includes three observances — the last three of the seven feasts of the Lord:

The blowing of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah).
The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).
The feast of Tabernacles (Succot).

The spiritual fulfillments of each of these three feasts are coming to us now internally. As they are being experienced internally by the Lord’s people, they will commence in the world in a more external form. The external trumpets are the seven trumpets of the book of Revelation. As the “green grass” of the adamic nature of the saints is being “burned up” by the presence of Him whose eyes are like a flame of fire, so the green grass of the physical world will be burned up as the Lord begins to judge the world for its deeds (Revelation 8:7).

The blowing of Trumpets signifies the coming of Christ, the Lord of Armies, to wage war against His enemies, and to form His army.
The Day of Atonement (Day of Reconciliation), the sixth of the convocations, is the bringing of our whole personality into the likeness of the will and image of God. The larger expression of the Day of Atonement is the thousand-year Kingdom Age, often referred to as the Millennium.
The feast of Tabernacles, the last and greatest of the celebrations, represents the coming of the Father and the Son through the Spirit to dwell in us for eternity. The larger expression of the feast of Tabernacles is the new heaven and earth reign of Christ.

The Lord Jesus is appearing to us personally now (the physical will come later) to raise us from the dead spiritually and to judge us and cleanse us from our sins. Our life might become chaotic as Jesus deals with our love of pleasure, our trust in the present world system, and our desire for preeminence.

The Lord Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and then directed those standing by to “loose him, and let him go.” The raising and loosing of Lazarus took place on the fifth day, representing the blowing of Trumpets — the fifth feast of the seven feasts of the Lord (Leviticus chapter 23).

Joshua chapter 10 informs us that the five (again, the number five) kings of the Amorites were first shut up in the cave of Makkedah, and later brought forth to judgment. Likewise, our sins have been “shut up” by the blood of the Lord Jesus, and now the “kings” of wickedness that dwell in us are being brought forth and slain by the Spirit of God.

The fifth feast, the blowing of Trumpets, Rosh Hashanah, announces the new year of the Jews. To the Christian, the blowing of Trumpets marks the beginning of the Kingdom of God — the doing of God’s will in the earth.

The Day of Atonement, the sixth feast, is the first phase of the marriage of the Lamb. Our personality is being reconciled to God by the crucifying of our adamic personality, and the raising into life of a new creation that is still we ourselves, but now filled with the Life of Christ.

The feast of Tabernacles, the seventh and last feast, is the second phase of the marriage of the Lamb. The Father and the Son enter us in perfect, complete union so that we are one in Them as They are One.

The royal priesthood of the Kingdom of God is the eternal tabernacle of God, the Bride of the Lamb. The saints of the royal priesthood will see the face of God and will rule over the works of God’s hands forever.

We must beware of overemphasizing the external dimension of the Kingdom of God, such as a place or Paradise to which we can go. The Kingdom of God is not a change of where we are, but of what and who we are. The Kingdom of Heaven is not a change in location, but a change in us. The Kingdom is not a saving of what we are, but a slow and painful transformation of what we are.

The Kingdom of God is not the bringing of forgiven people to the spirit realm to live forever, but the bringing of transformed personalities in transformed bodies to a new earth to live here forever — in a new world filled with righteousness.

Thus the Kingdom of God is the Lord Jesus coming to us individually with the sound of the trumpet, seeking out His enemies and removing them from our personalities. The way is made straight in our hearts for the establishing of the Throne of God. We are becoming the Ark of the Covenant, the place of God’s eternal glory. Out from our heart will proceed the law of God to govern the nations, and the waters of eternal life to make the nations alive in God.

Aspect Two — The Oneness of the Scriptures, of the Israel of God, and of the Kingdom of God

The Old and New Testaments constitute one Word of God to mankind, particularly to the Israel of God. The divine purposes and expectations concerning man’s behavior have never changed from the beginning of the world. The way of faith, of righteousness, of holiness, came from eternity and proceeds into eternity. The Lord Jesus, the Word of God, never changes. The entire Scriptures speak of one God, one Spirit, one Christ; of loving mercy, of practicing righteousness, of walking humbly with God.

The Law of Moses was added because of sin. The Law was a temporary measure until Christ should come. Grace, mercy, faith, and righteousness existed before the Law, during the Law, and always shall be present — for they are of God’s unchanging nature. Therefore every saint profits from every word of Scripture.

The Israel of God is one olive tree. There is only the one true Israel of God. Participation in the Israel of God always is by promise, by calling. There is no scriptural basis for the existence of a “Gentile Church,” although that term is sometimes employed. The following passage reveals with utmost clarity that the Body of Christ is one without reference to Jew or Gentile:

Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh — who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands — that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both [Jew and Gentile] one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity [between Jew and Gentile], that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two [Jews and Gentiles], thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both [Jews and Gentiles] to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. (Ephesians 2:11-16)

The calling of God rested on Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the sons of Jacob. The calling of God expanded to include an elect among the Gentiles. In the last days, the divine calling shall return in great power and glory to the nation of Israel. The Jews are the only race that has been selected by the Lord as belonging peculiarly to Himself. The Gospel of the Kingdom is always to the Jew first.

The Kingdom of God is one kingdom. The Kingdom was prophesied by Daniel and the other prophets. The Hebrew prophets did not speak of two kingdoms, a spiritual kingdom and an earthly kingdom. John the Baptist did not announce the coming of two kingdoms. The Lord Jesus did not announce the coming of two kingdoms. The apostles of Jesus did not announce two kingdoms. The epistles do not speak of two kingdoms.

The current teaching, that there is a spiritual, Christian, Gentile kingdom in Heaven and an earthly, Jewish kingdom on the earth is incorrect. The current attempt to remove physical Israel from the spiritual kingdom of God is of Satan. Satan knows from the Scriptures that in the last days, God will bring physical Israel from the countries where they have been scattered. After Israel has been gathered to the Lord in Jerusalem, the time will be at hand for the appearing of Christ and His saints to set up the spiritual kingdom, the Throne of God, in the physical city of Jerusalem. Then Satan’s liberty in the earth will be at an end.

Therefore Satan will continue to attempt to convince the Christians that God has no further interest in physical Israel as far as His heavenly Kingdom is concerned. But the one Kingdom of God is announced in the following passage, and is always for the physical Jew before it is for any other race of people.

And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. (Daniel 2:44)

The coming of the Kingdom of God, of Heaven, began when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. The Kingdom shall exist forever. One must be born again of God in order to see or enter the Kingdom.

Neither the kingdom of David nor the kingdom of Solomon was the Kingdom of God, although they were forerunners of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is the Throne of the eternal David, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:7)

The one Kingdom of God is governed by the will of God as it is revealed in Christ in the saints. The Kingdom of Heaven is not destined to be located in Heaven, but on the earth. The Kingdom is in Heaven now because the Lord Jesus is in Heaven. The Kingdom also is in the hearts of the saints on the earth. Soon the King of the Kingdom, the Lord Jesus, is coming to establish His Kingdom on this earth.

The throne of the Kingdom is the Throne of God. King Jesus sits in that throne. We have been invited by the Lord Jesus to sit with Him in His throne. The Throne of God and the Lamb are in the new Jerusalem.

And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. (Revelation 22:3)

The new Jerusalem is the Israel of God, the Tabernacle of God, the Wife of the Lamb, the Body of Christ. The new Jerusalem shall abide forever on the new earth.

The Lord Jesus has brought Jew and Gentile together in one new Man, one Temple of God, one Israel of God.

Aspect Three — The Nature of the New Covenant

The new covenant can be made only with the one Israel of God, the one olive tree.

Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah — (Hebrews 8:8)

The new covenant includes the Torah, the Law of Moses. But now the Torah is lifted from the tables of stone and from the limitations of the human personality. The essence of the Torah, which is love for God and for one’s neighbor, is worked into our mind and heart until we by nature practice the righteousness of the Torah.

The new covenant includes the grace of forgiveness, but focuses more on righteous and holy conduct. The grace of God in Christ is the power to change our deeds as our mind and heart are changed. The changing of our deeds by changing our minds and hearts is shown in the cleansing of leprosy from the hand of Moses as he put his hand “into his bosom” and then took it out again (Exodus 4:6).

The Kingdom of God gives us authority over Satan, as portrayed by Moses taking up the serpent by the tail and changing it into the rod of God’s authority. Also, Aaron’s rod swallowed up the rods of the wise men and the sorcerers, revealing the power of the Kingdom over all earthly wisdom and all sorcery.

The grace of the Kingdom of God is not only the grace of forgiveness, but also the grace of authority, the grace of power, the grace of moral transformation. The Kingdom of God is the doing of God’s will in the earth.

God was not pleased with the people to whom the old covenant came because they did not practice righteousness. The purpose of the new covenant is to take away our sins. First, our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus. Then by the power of the Spirit of God, the Lord Jesus performs the work of removing the various sources of sin in our personality until we begin to walk in righteousness, holiness, and obedience to God.

The old covenant was limited to forgiving our sins. The grace of the new covenant covers our sins and then attacks the sin that is dwelling in us. The Lord Jesus is ready not only to forgive our sins but also to remove the presence of sin from us.

The believer who persists in sinning will not inherit the Kingdom of God. There is no sin in the Kingdom of God. The part of our personality that is sinning is not of the Kingdom of God nor is it dwelling in the Kingdom of God.

envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:21)
Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. (I John 3:9)

The part of our personality that has been re-created in Jesus is of the Kingdom by nature. The part of our personality that offends God will be removed from us in the last days. If we do not permit Jesus to remove from us what offends God, we ourselves shall be removed from the Kingdom.

The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, (Matthew 13:41)

First, “all things that offend.” After that, “those who practice lawlessness.”

The Wife of the Lamb will be made holy and without blemish, not only in an imputed (ascribed) sense, but also in an actual sense. We know from the Scriptures that this is a fact. We have labored in the bondages of sin for so long that it seems to be beyond the power of God to actually cleanse us from sin. But it is not beyond God’s power to cleanse us or heal us from any sin or sickness. God is ready today to begin the work of purging us from all sin and unrighteousness.

He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the LORD an offering in righteousness. (Malachi 3:3)

Aspect Four — The Role of Israel Among the Nations of the Saved

The purpose of God’s Israel, the olive tree, the Seed of Abraham, is to serve as a royal priesthood over the nations of saved peoples of the earth. The nations of the saved will walk forever in the light of the new Jerusalem.

And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. (Revelation 21:24)

This means that the Torah of God has been made radiantly glorious in the personalities of the saints; not the letter of the Mosaic Torah, but the full spiritual intent of the eternal moral law of God. The saints have been made God’s covenant with mankind.

The saved peoples of the earth will be enabled to live righteously because of the glory of God in Christ that they see in the saints and hear from the saints. The nations of the saved will keep the feast of Tabernacles by coming to Jerusalem to experience the glory of God in Christ in the saints.

The nations of saved peoples of the earth will believe in the Lord Jesus, and will receive Jesus when the saints come into the spiritual fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles, that is, when they become one in the Father and the Son.

“that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that you sent Me. And the glory which you gave Me I have given them [His body], that they may be one just as we are one: I in them, and you in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent Me, and have loved them as you have loved Me. (John 17:21-23)

“That the world may believe.” “That the world may know.”

The members of the nations of the saved will be able to come to God through the saints to the Lord Jesus, and then through Christ to God the Father. The saints will receive the blessing of God’s presence in Jesus. The saved peoples of the earth will be able to receive the blessing of God’s presence in the saints.

The Gentiles [nations] shall come to your [God’s elect] light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. (Isaiah 60:3)
When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other. (Ezekiel 47:7)

Isaiah, chapters 60 and 61 describe the nations of saved peoples of the earth being blessed by the royal priesthood. First, the members of the priesthood must be made “trees of righteousness.” After that, the royal priesthood will bring the presence, the rule, and the blessing of God to mankind.

Israel will be the glorified Body of Christ.

Ezekiel chapter 47 portrays our moving through the waters of the Holy Spirit until there are “waters to swim in.” Then God causes us to “return to the bank of the river” and plants us there as a tree of life. We become a “life-giving” spirit.

And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. (I Corinthians 15:45)

Now the river of life, the Holy Spirit, will issue from us and enter the dead sea of mankind. Every person the river touches will live, having received life from the Spirit of God. This is the revealing and ministry of the sons of God.

Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. (Isaiah 12:3)

The many aspects of salvation are to bring us to the spiritual fulfillment of the Old Testament feast of Tabernacles. In that day, the day when the Father and the Son are living and ruling in our personality, the Holy Spirit will flow from the Throne of God which is in us. All of those who are saved may come and drink freely of the water of life.

Today we are at Pentecost. Now it is time to move forward to the feast of Tabernacles. But to move from Pentecost to Tabernacles, we must cooperate with the Holy Spirit as He deals with the worldliness, lusts, and self-will that are still enthroned in us. The water of life will not flow from us as it should until we have been totally reconciled to God, and we will not be totally reconciled to God until sin has been destroyed from our personality.

Therefore “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you.”
“I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the LORD Almighty.”
Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (II Corinthians 6:17-7:1)

The nations and the farthest reaches of the earth are the inheritance of Christ and of those who are coheirs with Him.

The destiny of Israel, the new Jerusalem, the Body of Christ, is to be the presence, will, and blessing of God among men. This has been true from the time of Abraham to the present moment.

Isaac, Jacob, and the sons of Jacob are part of Christ, not because of their blood relationship to Abraham, but because of the promise of God — because of divine foreknowledge and election. The elect Gentiles are members of Christ, not because they are Gentiles, but because of divine foreknowledge and election. Every member of the Israel of God is a memeber of Christ because of divine election. We did not choose Christ. Christ chose us.

No person can boast, for it is God who is working all things through Christ according to His own pleasure and wisdom.

(“The Four Aspects of the Kingdom of God” was taken from notes for seminars held during the ICEJ celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, 1988, Jerusalem, Israel)

(“Four Aspects of the Kingdom of God”, 3083-1, proofed 20240718)