Part 1
Throughout this journey, we have constantly heard two words:
The King.
The Kingdom.
The prophets spoke of the coming of the King and His Kingdom.
John the Baptist came to prepare the way and proclaimed:
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Matthew 3:2
And when Jesus came, one of the first things He proclaimed was:
The time has come, the kingdom of God is near; repent and believe the gospel.
Mark 1:15
Indeed, Jesus said:
I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.
Luke 4:43
So, if we want to understand what Jesus came to proclaim, we must first understand:
What does King mean?
And:
What does Kingdom mean?
And here we return for a moment to the first man.
GOD IS THE KING
When God created man, He said:
Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion…
Genesis 1:26
Then God blessed him and said to him:
Fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion…
Genesis 1:28
This tells us something very important.
God is the King.
And when He created the Earth, He placed man upon it with a clear duty and responsibility:
To administer what was entrusted to him.
To exercise authority over it.
And to do this according to God's will.
Adam was not the owner of the Earth.
He was its administrator under God's authority.
Man was placed on Earth to represent the Creator's will and to administer what He had created.
This helps us understand what a Kingdom is.
WHAT IS A KINGDOM?
A Kingdom is not simply a piece of land.
It has a King.
There is a territory.
There are people who belong to it.
And there is a way of functioning:
Laws.
Justice.
Principles.
Culture.
And a way of life defined by the King.
In very simple words:
The Kingdom is a reality governed by a King, according to His will and authority.
And now it becomes clearer what it means:
The Kingdom of God.
We are not simply talking about a place called “heaven”.
We are talking about God as King and how He wants to govern human life.
The Bible proclaims Jesus:
King of kings and Lord of lords.
Revelation 19:16
Therefore, when Jesus speaks of the Kingdom, He is not simply presenting a destination where people will go one day.
He is proclaiming the King and His Kingdom.
NOT ANOTHER RELIGION
And here we must understand something else.
Jesus did not come to bring another religion.
He did not present His message as the creation of a new religion.
His message was:
The Kingdom of God is near.
The strongest opposition to Jesus came precisely from many of the religious leaders of His time.
They opposed Him.
They accused Him.
And they sought His death.
It was the religious authorities, along with the political authorities, who led to His crucifixion.
So, what Jesus came to proclaim was not another religious system.
He came to proclaim the Kingdom of God.
But now comes the question that directly affects us:
If man was created from the beginning to live in relationship with the Creator and to administer the Earth according to His will…
what happens to man when he returns to God?
The Bible calls this:
Reconciliation.
Paul writes:
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
2 Corinthians 5:18
And further:
Be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:20
So, returning to the Father, our Creator, is reconciliation with God.
But where does this return happen?
Here.
On Earth.
And this is a part that is often lost when everything is summarized only in the idea:
Believe to go to heaven.
Of course, the Bible speaks of eternal life and the hope of being with Christ.
But, when we look at Jesus' message, we see something more than just man's departure from Earth.
Let's look again at the prayer He taught His disciples:
Your kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Matthew 6:10
Not just:
In heaven.
But:
On Earth as in heaven.
WHY HERE ON EARTH?
Jesus Himself gives us another very strong view of this.
In His prayer to the Father, just before He went to the cross, He said about the disciples:
I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
John 17:15
And a little further:
As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
John 17:18
This is very clear.
Jesus did not say:
As soon as they believe in me, take them out of the Earth.
On the contrary:
Do not take them out of the world.
They still had a purpose here.
Because the Kingdom of God is not merely an escape from this life.
It is man's return to the Creator and entering into a new relationship with Him, while living here on Earth according to the King's will.
Therefore, when we become part of the Kingdom, we do not become citizens only for a future life.
We become citizens of the Kingdom of God now, while we live here on Earth.
And this brings us back to the original plan.
Man was created to live with God.
To receive direction from Him.
To administer what was entrusted to him.
And to live in the good that God had prepared.
Therefore Jesus taught us to ask:
Your Kingdom come; Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.
And if the King's will must be done on Earth, then we must know:
What is His will?
We find this in His Word.
The Bible reveals God's character to us.
It reveals His righteousness to us.
It reveals His will to us.
And it shows us the way He wants man to live.
Therefore we can see the Word of God as the Constitution of the Kingdom.
There we learn about the King.
About His will.
About the principles of the Kingdom.
And about how its citizen should live.
And now the question becomes very simple:
If we have returned to the Father…
If we have become citizens of His Kingdom…
If His Kingdom must also be manifested in the way we live here on Earth…
what should the life of a citizen of the Kingdom look like?
Here begins the next discovery.
Where you can continue
Next chapter: 07 · How Does the Kingdom Work?.