A word that changes everything 

What does the phrase “kingdom of God” really mean? How does it bring profound and practical clarity and coherence to living all of life—identity, work, play, relationships, justice, and character—in this age of distraction?

The kingdom of God is the number one thing Jesus talked about. You might be shocked. Having been in the church for a long time, we might know all about heaven and hell, the cross of Christ, and God’s love for sinners, but the kingdom can be missing in our understanding of the message of Jesus.

So, let's go on a journey, seeking to understand what the kingdom is and what it means for my life. Lets look to the Bible, it is clear: the kingdom of God is at the heart of Christ’s message and mission.

When Jesus began his ministry, the first words out of his mouth were, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). But this message of God’s reign was not only the beginning of his ministry. Christ proclaimed the kingdom of God in his preaching and demonstrated it in his miracles and healings. Jesus was crucified as the king of the Jews (Matt. 27:37), he was raised from the dead as the king of the world (Eph. 1:20–23), and then he gathered his disciples to teach them for 40 days about—guess what?—the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).

Jesus gave his followers many commands, but he said only one thing to seek first: “Seek first the kingdom of God” (Matt. 6:33). This is the one thing that changes everything.

The message of the kingdom will change your life, your worldview, and your patterns of life. It’s not just about understanding the idea of the kingdom but also about experiencing its power. I hope you experience the sovereign mercy of Christ in a life-changing way. 

We’ll spend eternity learning the depths of the kingdom of God, but here’s an eight-word definition as a starting point: The kingdom is God’s reign through God’s people over God’s place. It’s a vision of the world reordered around the powerful love of God in Christ. I’ll break down each aspect of the definition:

God’s reign. The kingdom is first and foremost a statement about God. God is king, and he’s coming as king to set right what our sin made wrong. Many people today talk about the kingdom in a way that focuses on what we do to make the world a better place. The kingdom of God is not the culmination of human potential and effort but the intervention of God’s royal grace into a sinful and broken world.

God’s people. God the Creator-King reigns over all his creatures, but he also reigns through his people. This was God’s design from the beginning. Adam and Eve were sent out from the garden as royal representatives of the king, called to steward his creation and spread the blessings of his reign throughout the earth. Instead, they chose to seek their own path to power and glory, apart from God. Their rebellion fractured humanity’s relationship with God and shattered the goodness of his creation. Since sin entered the world, God’s kingdom project has at its heart a rescue mission for rebellious sinners, drawing them into his work of renewing his creation as king.

God’s place. The Bible is the story of God making his good creation a glorious kingdom. It all started in the garden, where God commissioned his people to go to the ends of the earth to make the rest of the world like Eden. The garden kingdom was meant to become a global kingdom where people would rejoice, and the world would flourish under God’s loving reign. After the fall, making the world God’s glorious kingdom would require a reversal of the curse and a renewal by grace. And that’s precisely what God set out to do. The Bible is a rescue story, not about God rescuing sinners from a broken creation but about him rescuing them for a new creation. God’s reign begins in the human heart, but it will one day extend to the ends of the earth.