Biblegems #231
Question: Is there a difference between the
Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God? Also, what does it mean that
"the kingdom of heaven is near," "theirs is the kingdom of
heaven," "Your kingdom come. . . on earth as it is in heaven,"
"seek first His kingdom," etc. Are all of these kingdoms the same? Is
it a state of mind? An actual place?
Special note: The biblical concept of the Kingdom
is one of the richest themes in Scripture, as these questions demonstrate.
Because it is so rich in meaning—and so complex—I will be devoting the next
several Bible Gems posts to this topic. Even so, we will be just scratching the
surface, but hopefully shed some light that will help us all search the topic
on our own with some sense of solid ground beneath our feet. Buckle up for a
great journey into God’s Word!
First,
some stats: The phrase “the kingdom of
heaven” is unique to the Gospel of Matthew and appears 32 times. On the
other hand, the phrase “the kingdom of
God” appears 66 times and is spread throughout the four Gospels, Acts and
four New Testament letters. In fact, “the
kingdom of God” is used 32 times in the Gospel of Luke and 6 more times in
Acts, the sequel to Luke’s Gospel. Combined, Luke-Acts accounts for more than
half of its uses in the New Testament.
Next,
let’s explore “the kingdom of heaven.”
Matt.
4:17 From that time on Jesus began to preach,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is
near."
This is
precisely the same terminology used by John the Baptist (Matt. 3:2). Like John
before Him, Jesus declared that God was about to establish His kingdom upon the
earth as promised through the prophets:
Dan. 2:44 In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a
kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another
people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself
endure forever.
In light
of the impending arrival of this kingdom set up by the God of heaven, people
everywhere should repent—switch their loyalty to the Lord, before it is too
late. This is not some “spiritual” kingdom only, as taught by some, but the
literal messianic kingdom to be established at the end of the age.
Jer. 23:5-6 “The days are coming,”
declares the LORD, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King
who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days
Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which
he will be called: The LORD Our Righteous Savior.”
Each time
Jesus speaks of the kingdom of heaven He has in view this messianic
kingdom. The Beatitudes in Matthew (5:1-11), for example, describe the kind of people who
will typify the citizens of that kingdom: “humble” (5:3), those healed of
broken hearts (5:4), etc. These are the people of the Kingdom of Heaven who
will “inherit the earth” (5:5)!
Jesus also
uses “the kingdom of heaven” as a synonym for “the kingdom of God,” using the terms
interchangeably:
Matt. 19:23-24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I
tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
There is
much more to this topic, which we will explore in upcoming Bible Gems.
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