The Kingdom of God is the reign and rule of God. It broke into this world in a new way through the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus. It confronts, combats and overcomes evil, holistically spreading personal and communal well-being. It takes hold of God’s people, blessing them completely and demanding allegiance from them.
A local church is supposed to be a community of people who live as citizens of God’s kingdom, a model of what a group of people look like when they come together under the reign and rule of God, being rightly related to their Creator and rightly relating to one another for the good of the whole world. It should be a startling alternative to any other community available.
For now we eagerly await a time when this kingdom will be completely fulfilled even while we celebrate those places where it has come and is advancing. At that time in the future when the kingdom is fully consummated, our bodies, our society and our universe will all be renewed. Sin, pain, frustration, anxiety, disease and death will all be forever eradicated. Life characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control will be our experience for the rest of eternity.
Salvation is a bigger and broader concept than we often communicate.
Why in the world do you think we so often reduce it to being let off the hook for our sins?
