My Kingdom is Not of This World
John 18:36 New King James—Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now my kingdom is not from here.”
Jesus said that his Kingdom is not of this world…the current system by which humanity regulates itself. To make matters even clearer, the New American Bible RE has Jesus declaring that his Kingdom simply “is not here.” In other words, not only is the Kingdom of God not based on the current system that runs human affairs spiritually-speaking; it is also not even here physically or literally at the present time. That, of course, is obvious and makes perfect sense. The word (seed) and hope of the Kingdom are here (Matthew 13:19-23), but not the actual Kingdom because its system of operation will not be replacing the current one until Jesus returns to take the reins of power over all nations of the earth. The two systems are mutually exclusive. Allow me to explain.
Jesus came preaching the good news of the (coming) Kingdom of God (Mark 1:14-15), and those who have an ear to hear are to believe it and put their hope and trust in it. Why is it so important to start the Bible’s faith journey from this place? One important reason is because the Gospel of the Kingdom of God cuts through all the noise of competing religious ideas by delegitimizing the entire system of this world that supports them. The system of God in His Kingdom will be based on the Father/child dynamic, wherein the children are coming to know their Father, admire Him, and desiring to emulate Him (John 17:3). This is the way of Jesus, God’s uniquely begotten Son, and firstborn of many brothers and sisters. This is the way of the New Covenant, the chief operating system in the coming Kingdom of God. And this New Covenant dynamic is also offered to those with the faith of Jesus now so that they can prepare to hit the ground running when Jesus returns to implement the Kingdom of God on the earth.
Except for those within whose hearts the word and hope of the coming Kingdom resides, the best this current age can offer is a zeal for God through the mode of Moses and the Old Covenant. The covenant is holy, just, and good from the standpoint of how God connects with this world’s system (knowledge of right and wrong only), but it can’t do the job on the human heart that the New Covenant’s Parent/child dynamic can (Rom. 7). Obedience gets an upgrade from simply doing what you are told under the Old, to emulating a Father whom you have come to admire under the New (Rom. 8). The upgrade is needed not because any of God’s means are less than righteous (Heb. 8:7-8), but because human beings were created to rise to the level of children in their Father’s image through knowing, believing, admiring, and emulating Him. This is the faith of Jesus, and it begins with believing God’s words about the coming Kingdom of God, and trusting in its methods as Jesus himself did. It comes with understanding the difference between this age and the next…putting one’s trust and hope in what’s coming, and receiving the gift of the holy spirit, which is the spirit of son-ship. It means giving up on this world’s faulty system.
This world’s secular and religious ideas fall far short of the thoughts of God. They arise from a faulty system that lacks the believing/knowing/admiring/emulating process. We continue in our history of misunderstanding and even misjudging God because we seem determined to disbelieve what His Gospel of the coming Kingdom is telling us. If rightly understood in its plainness of speech, it could unite the world in righteousness. But alas, without the admiration/emulation factor toward our Father, the confusing noise of this world’s religious notions will continue unabated.
By declaring that his Kingdom is not of this world, Jesus completely pulled the rug out from under current governments and religions and made them irrelevant in comparison to what is coming. This age and the next are mutually exclusive because their systems are. One must end before the other one begins. It is an apocalyptic administration change. The only overlap between the two is the heart and mind of those who have the seed-word of the Kingdom hope residing in them, and abide by its New Covenant Parent/child dynamic.
And make no mistake. Just recognizing that the God of the Bible is a Father is not sufficient. One must believe in Him through His words, admire Him for those words, and then desire to emulate Him and the thoughts that characterize Him. That’s what a son or daughter does. Having the holy spirit of son-ship is not simply a name badge that one wears, but more importantly, the Father’s heart and mind that one pursues.
