Easy answer – The Kingdom (God’s) is here, NOW!

But in case that doesn’t clear it all up for you, I’ll try to explain it in more detail.

God is, well, He’s GOD. It’s all His. He’s the King of everything. Where He rules and reigns, that’s His Kingdom. He decided to share it with us. He made only one rule; we broke it. We are still within the borders of His Kingdom, just not living as citizens of it. We rebelled against His reign.

God’s perfect. Perfect in everything! It’s in His job description. Because of His perfect judgment, He could not accept our disobedience – our revolt. There’s a price that must be paid. You know it as death. Death both physically – you quit breathing, forever – and spiritually – you are separated from God, forever.

Remember, though. God’s perfect in EVERYTHING. That includes love, mercy (not giving you the punishment you do deserve) and grace (giving you the gift you don’t deserve). Because He’s perfect in these areas, He gave us JESUS, His own son, to pay the price for us. We don’t have to suffer the fate of eternal separation from God because of Jesus’ sacrifice! He saves us from spiritual death. That’s GOOD NEWS, if you ask me.

But that’s not all of the Good News, there’s more!

To receive this gift of grace we must reestablish our citizenship in The Kingdom. How do you do that? Simple. Receive Jesus for who He is and what He does, then follow His lead. Prior to His sacrifice, He spent all His time telling and showing us how a citizen of The Kingdom lives. It can be broken down into (2) basic categories – love God with everything you have, wholly and completely, and love your neighbor (that’s everyone) as yourself. If we love God, then we want what He wants – restoration, healing, redemption. If we love our neighbors as ourselves, then we want all this for them too.

We can’t love our neighbors as ourselves AND allow them to be hungry, oppressed, and hurting. Doesn’t work! A citizen of The Kingdom works to change these things – to feed the hungry, free the oppressed, and nurture the hurting. This – feeding, freeing, and nurturing – expands The Kingdom, and that’s GOOD NEWS for this present world!

But wait, there’s still more!

The Kingdom is now, but it’s not complete. We live in a broken world. Everyone’s not ready to follow Jesus and live as citizens of The Kingdom. Which means there will be some ugliness in this world for a while. But God has promised that there comes a time when His Kingdom will be reestablished, FULLY! Completely and totally restored. Now, that’s some REALLY GOOD NEWS in my book!!