VB204 Kingdom (part 1)
Kingdom (part 1)
The ministry of Jesus is centered and summed up in these words, “The kingdom of God is at hand” (Mk 1:15). His whole purpose was to rescue and redeem man to his original realm and divine order. We become stronger and more grounded when we understand the kingdom of God. Paul tells us the kingdom is not “eating and drinking” (so it is not, ritual or performance based), but “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17).
God’s Sovereignty– Gen 1:1
The logical starting point when we study, The kingdom of God, is the Bible’s opening verse. Here we introduce the Sovereign of all the Universe, whose realm, reign, and regency are described at the outset. MEET GOD!
Gen 1:1– In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
- The scope of His rule is His realm which is transcendent; it not only includes the entire universe, but it exceeds it. He existed before all creation. He expands beyond it. And since He has begotten it, He includes all that it is.
- The power He uses to rule is His reign and is activated by His Word, which is His will. By His own will He creates, decides, and designs. By His word He speaks creation into being; and by His works, His Spirit demonstrates His unlimited power.
- The authority to rule (or His regency) is in His preexistence and holiness. He was there before creation “in the beginning.” God has sovereign rights over all creation. He is The Creator. His purpose in creating things “good” reveals His holy nature (that is, complete and perfect). It is His right to be creation’s King. All kingdom power and authority flow from Him. He is the author and owner of all.
Gen 1:26-28; 2:16-17–Man’s Delegated “Dominion”
Gen 1:26-28– Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Dominion: H7287. A verb meaning to rule, to have dominion. This Hebrew word conveys the notion of exercising dominion, over those who are powerless, or otherwise under one’s control.
- It is related as the exercise of authority by the priesthood (Jer 5:31)
- by slave owners over their slaves (Lev 25:43)
- by supervisors over their workers (1Kgs 9:23)
- and by a king over his kingdom (1Kgs 4:24; 5:4)
Theologically significant is the use of this word to identify people’s God-ordained relationship to the created world around them (Gen 1:26, 28).1
Before He created man, God had a plan to delegate to him “dominion… over all the earth” (v. 26). Man’s power and authority to rule is a part of God’s purpose to make man in His own image and likeness.
Gen. 2:16-17– And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
17 “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Notice the Lord God “commanded” Adam. Although the Lord gave Adam freedom of choice, He also gave him a command. The Creator is superior to the creation. We still have the freedom to choose, but the only smart choice is to obey God (Dt 30:19). The choice of doing God’s will is always better than being separated from Him, which is the result of disobedience.
This is saying that man’s power to reign in life will go only as far as his faithfulness to obey God’s Word.
Rom 6:16 (NLT) –Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.
Adam and Eve didn’t die physically the day they ate of the forbidden fruit. Adam lived for 930 years (Gen 5:5). But Adam and Eve died spiritually the instant they disobeyed God. That is evidenced by their actions and words. They immediately became fearful and ran from God (Gen 3:8-9).
“… you shall surely4191 die4191. The Hebrew wording of this verse is interesting. The word which was translated “die” is used twice at the end of this verse. Man’s spiritual death, was immediate, which led to physical death, which was progressive.
The word “death” in the Bible never describes, ceasing to exist; it always indicates separation. Physical death is where the spirit and soul separate from the body (James 2:26). Spiritual death is where our spirits become separated from God’s Spirit.
Romans 6:23 makes it clear that the wages of sin is death, just as the Lord told Adam here. As explained in this note, death means spiritual and physical death. Since all have sinned (Rom 6:23), all have to die spiritually and physically. BUT GOD! Praise God that He loved us so much, He sent His Son to die in our place (Jn 3:16). All of the judgment that justice demanded was placed on Jesus, so that we could pass from death unto life (Jn 5:24; 1Jn 3:14).
Before the Fall– Gen. 1:31
Gen 1:31– Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
We need to recognize the difference between the original order of man’s environment on earth, and what it became as the result of man’s fall, the curse, and eventually the flood. Isaiah 45:18 tells us that the earth was “not created in vain.” Creation turned and fell with man. It was man’s sin that put thorns on roses. The agricultural, zoological, geological, and meteorological conflict in the earth, should not be attributed to God. The will of God is not manifest in confusion, death, disease, discord, or disaster any more than it is manifest in human sin.
The world today does not reflect the kingdom order that God originally intended for man’s legal right on earth. And when we know this, we should not attribute to “God’s will” or to “acts of God” characteristics of our world that are results from man’s sin. God has never made a mistake.
Paul tell us in his letter to the Romans,
“The whole creation is standing on tiptoe, eagerly awaiting the revelation of the sons of God.” (Rom 8:19 Phillips Trans.)
I believe, that God sees the curse as a temporary frustration. The next two verses,
Rom 8:20-21 (NIV)– “For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.”
Paul is saying that creation not only is waiting (with attentive or earnest expectation or looking for – with the neck stretched out and the head thrust forward)2 for something, but that it is doing so because it is linked with man. Creation had no choice but to fall with man.
When God’s plan of salvation for people is completed and the children of God experience their glorious freedom from sin, Satan, and physical decay, then the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay. Then all things will become new, according to Revelation 21:5.
God bless you my friend,
1 Zodhiates, Spiros. The Complete Word Study Old Testament, KJV (Chattanooga: AMG, 1994), ref. 7287
2 Ibid, ref. 603
