Many Christians believe that, as He promised, Jesus is coming back to earth, and that ultimately He will bring the Kingdom of God to earth – that beautiful kingdom filled with love, life, peace, health, prosperity, unity, righteousness, and justice, and, absent of temptation, selfishness, death, sickness, conflict, poverty, injustice, violence, and all that sin brought and brings into the present broken world. It was often the theme of the Old Testament prophets, of Jesus, and of the Apocalypse (the book of Revelation, as in 11:15; and chapters 20, 21).
Then it will be the world Christians have prayed for (“let Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven”). It will be the world everyone longs for; the world where everyone lives happily ever after.
When will that be? Will it be soon? What are the “signs” Jesus spoke of which will herald its nearness? Are the signs being fulfilled?
That’s not what this post is about.
I believe those things, and with Christians and people of good will everywhere, long for the arrival of Jesus and of His kingdom on earth.
But Jesus and the Scriptures also spoke of God’s kingdom in another way – as being near or even already present. In this sense, the kingdom of God exists wherever Jesus rules and thus wherever His teachings and example are followed and His values adopted in one’s thoughts, words, actions, and relationships. Jesus’ followers and His church ought to be little islands of the Kingdom of God in the ocean of the Kingdom of evil (1 John 5:19, “the whole world is under the control of the evil one”).
The message of John the Baptizer, Jesus’ “advance man,” was simple, “REPENT for the kingdom of heaven is near” (Matthew 3:2). When Jesus emerged from the obscurity of His first 30 years, His opening theme (fleshed out in His teachings and life) was “The time has come, the kingdom of God is near. REPENT and believe the good news” (Mark 1:15).
Perhaps we could state it this way, THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AS NEAR AS MY REPENTANCE.
Repentance is when I turn from my own self-governance and confess Jesus as my Lord. Repentance is turning away from “doing it my way” to doing it His way. It is recognizing that “my way” leads to death, but His way leads to life. My way is selfish, self-centered, and self-seeking. His way is love — loving God and loving my neighbor as myself.
Repentance is turning away from something (“my way”) to follow Jesus – to study His example and teachings and adopting them as the guiding principles and values of my life every day.
Repentance isn’t a “one off” – something I do one time and then it’s done. Repentance is a way of life, constantly rejecting “my way” and recommitting to His way.
How close am I to Jesus’ Kingdom? As close as a life of repentance.
