The Blessing of the Kingdom

A significant declaration at the start of Jesus’ ministry is that the Kingdom of God is at hand. Put another way the Kingdom of God begins now. It is, we read, an unstoppable Kingdom, one that will go on increasing and one that we are invited to be a part of. 

​We often ask ourselves “what does this Kingdom look like?” Of course, we get many glimpses of the nature of the Kingdom through the teachings of Jesus and through the gospel accounts. Frustratingly, sometimes, Jesus uses parables (or stories) to depict a particular aspect of this Kingdom. Stories help us but rather than giving a definitive answer they give us a picture - “the Kingdom of Heaven is like……” It often feels like a mystery, and it is. I hope it’s a mystery that keeps drawing us in rather than putting us off seeking it.

Yet we see the foundation for this Kingdom being laid right back at the beginning of the story in Genesis 1. It’s the heart of the Father woven into the very fabric of creation and it was meant to be the way in which society would operate. 

​So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. (Genesis 1:27-28 NIV)

The first thing God the Father did after breathing life into Adam was to bless him. He hadn’t even done a days work yet he was blessed. The second thing that happened was Adam joining the Father for a day of rest. This needs to frame our understanding of who we are: we are blessed and anything we do comes out of rest. 

What does this blessing consist of?

Being fruitful, increase, taking ground and bringing government. 

The garden of Eden was the starting point for Adam and his family. The rest of the earth needed to be farmed and managed. They had to fill the earth and subdue it.

In the New Testament we can see how clearly this is mirrored. Right after creating Adam, God, his Father, blessed him; a theme picked up by Paul in Ephesians 1 “we are blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ”. Our Father loves to bless! Even when we act out of our own strength or are striving through performance, God will bless us. He is a Father and he simply loves to do good to his children. 

Like in the garden of Eden, he wants us to live a life of rest (Matthew 11:25-30). Rest is not laziness or doing nothing; it is living from a heart that has found contentment. True rest is when we know there is nothing more we need to do, have or become. It’s living like Jesus lived in complete harmony and unity with the Father. Rest comes when we know our true identity and, more importantly, when we know who the Father is and who he wants to be to us. 

For both Adam and us the starting point is blessing and rest. I wonder if they are the hallmarks of our life?

As we have seen the blessing given to Adam was to be fruitful, to increase, to subdue the earth and to rule over every living creature. 

In John 15 Jesus exhorts his disciples to go and bear fruit; abundant and lasting fruit. This fruit, he says, comes out of us abiding in the vine or, more simply, it’s the result of us being relationally connected to the source of life. In a family, children are the fruit of intimacy and so the fruit we bear is the result of our intimate relationship with him. In Galatians 5, Paul encourages us to live in the Spirit and as we do we start to produce fruit, not of our own making but the fruit of the Spirit. Such fruit will inevitably cause there to be increase. 

True fruit is not primarily the work of our hands. It’s the outworking of us living in the Spirit. 

​Jesus announces the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven and tells us it is not an external kingdom with earthly rulers and principles. No, the Kingdom of Heaven is within us: “nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). Something Paul reiterates later in his letter to the Romans: “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). 

We often say that the Kingdom of Heaven is the ‘rule and reign of Jesus’. That’s true, but we then struggle as we try to define exactly what that really looks like. 

​I believe the answer lies back in an Old Testament prophecy. In Ezekiel 36:27 there is a glimpse of how we, as followers of Christ, will live our lives. Not out of self-effort but walking in the Spirit and being motivated (or caused) to do the very thing that is impossible for us to do on our own and that is to walk in his ways.

And I will put my Spirit in you and cause you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws (Ezekiel 36:27).

​To truly be citizens of this new Kingdom we need to be filled (and go on being filled) with the Spirit. That enables us to walk in the Spirit and become like Jesus, living in sonship as sons and daughters to our Heavenly Father. As sons we are also heirs (Galatians 4:7) and our inheritance is the promises made by God to Abraham: to be a blessing to the nations, to see Godly change and influence spread across the world. 

It has always been the Father’s plan for his children to extend his reign on the earth. He is the Creator and we are to rule what he has created. Adam started off well with no competing forces. Through the fall, he lost it and now it is ours to regain. For us there are competing forces as we live in a fallen world but, unlike Adam, we have the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us and to become the power house of our life. To live in the Kingdom is to live as God always intended and that is to live in the fulness of the blessing given to Adam in Genesis 1:27-28. 

The outworking of Adam’s blessing is the same for us. To live as sons and daughters who walk in their Father’s ways and bring his ways from Heaven to earth. It’s not a kingdom of force but one of love. As we have been loved so we can begin to love others and it is love that brings about transformation. That’s what this world desperately needs. 

Perhaps the Kingdom of Heaven is best summarised by Jesus. 

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37-39)

and

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)