The triune God of Christianity from His throne in heaven has always had dominion and has reigned over the created universe (Ps. 103:19). God’s kingdom over which he rules from eternity necessarily consists of everyone and everything. The Son of God rules, along with the other two persons of the Trinity, in this kingdom over all creatures and things.
Jesus told Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea under the Emperor Tiberius, that He is the king over a kingdom of this age and that He came into the world for this kingship. This conversation was recorded by the apostle John.
“Then Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world―to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:37).
Thus the Son of God, along with the other two persons of the Trinty, is king over all things. Jesus became incarnate man for the purpose of establishing a spiritual kingdom in this age manifested on earth in the souls of believers. At the end of the age when Christ returns, the earthly manifestation of the kingdom would be consummated as the eternal kingdom of God with Christ continuing to reign over His church forever in the new heaven and new earth.
This earthly kingdom is His mediatorial kingdom and is different from the original kingdom of the triune godhead but it is not a different realm. Since everything is in the original triune kingdom, the mediatorial kingdom is within that same kingdom. The difference is that in this mediatorial kingdom, Christ rules not only in His divine nature but also in His human nature―He rules as the God-man.
Jesus Himself said that He came into this world for the purpose of being a king and He came to bear witness to the truth. Scripture testifies to this kingdom using several designations. Christ’s kingdom[1] is alternatively referred to in Scripture as the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of the Son of Man (Matt. 13:41) and his kingdom (Matt. 6:33). All of these denotations may be used interchangeably; there is no difference in what these terms refer to.
The Bible contains an abundance of references to the kingship of Christ. If one is a king, then by necessity, a king reigns over a kingdom. And if there is a king with a kingdom there must be subjects to populate that kingdom. Therefore the Bible supports our understanding that Christ became incarnate man to be the king of a mediatorial kingdom manifested in this age. Furthermore, He established this kingdom at His first advent and subsequently initiated and provided for populating that kingdom with people who believed in Him. No more citizens of His kingdom will be added after this age has ended at His second coming.
Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, exhorted His followers to “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). All who sincerely receive Jesus as the Christ and Lord and Savior shall have Christ as their king. The people who give allegiance to an earthly sovereign ruler are his subjects and he is their king. In a similar sense, the followers of Christ who truly believe in Him as their Lord and Savior represent the citizens of Christ’s kingdom as manifested in this age and in its final consummation in the eternal age to come.
Christ’s mediatorial kingdom is both a present and a future reality. There is an “already” and a “not yet” aspect to the kingdom. This spiritual kingdom exists now in the souls of believers and will be consummated at the second coming of Christ at the end of the world in the new heaven and new earth. The view that this kingdom is completely realized in this age and the view that this kingdom is totally a future realization are contrary to the teaching of the New Testament.
The Son of God through His divine nature shared in the rule of the kingdom of God with the Father and the Holy Spirit by divine right. His purpose for becoming incarnate man was the kingship of His mediatorial kingdom that He established in this age after His first advent. This kingship was not by right but was conferred upon Him by the Father and exercised by Christ as the God-man.
Jesus was invested with His mediatorial kingship over a realm that was already under the kingship of the triune godhead. Christ was especially given this mediatorial kingship which was of a different mode with a unique purpose compared with the kingdom of God under the dominion of the Trinity. Berkhof defines the mediatorial kingship of Christ writing that it is “His official power to rule all things in heaven and on earth, for the glory of God, and for the execution of God’s purpose of salvation.”[2]
Christ’s spiritual rule over His followers, the church or the body of Christ, is a mediatorial kingship that is in the spiritual realm and is manifested in the souls and lives of those individuals who believe in Him. The chief end of this kingship is the salvation of believers. The kingdom of Christ is effectuated through the Word of God and through the instrumentality of the Holy Spirit. Scripture testifies that Christ is the head (i.e., has authority over) of the church (Eph 1:22; Col. 1:18; etc.). This authority or headship over the church is absolute and in this sense He may be considered as the king over the body of Christ.
This kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God, Christ’s mediatorial kingdom, does not originate as a creative act. In other words, citizens of His kingdom are not admitted based on their humanity. Membership in the kingdom of heaven is a result of God’s gracious work of redemption by Christ’s payment for their sins and grounded on His merited righteousness. This membership comes as a result of believers salvation fashioned also through the works of the Holy Spirit. So, the kingdom of God or of heaven is a work of God’s redemptive grace.
As mentioned earlier, the kingdom of God established by Jesus at His first coming under the New Covenant is a spiritual kingdom. It is not the theocratic kingdom of Israel in the Old Testament which was a mere shadow of the New Testament kingdom. That Old Testament earthly kingdom disappears with the coming of Christ and the New Covenant. When Jesus was asked by Pilate if He was the king of the Jews, Jesus answered “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews” (John 18:36). The Bible is clear that the kingdom of God is one which a person can only gain admittance to by regeneration (John 3:3, 5) and not by inheritance.
The kingdom of God or of heaven is a heavenly kingdom that has two aspects, an earthly one and a heavenly one. Jesus established His kingdom in the souls of regenerate sinners who came to belief in Christ here on earth and this kingdom will see its consummation in the new heaven and new earth at the second coming of Christ.
The manifestation of the kingdom of God on earth as a spiritual kingdom in the souls of regenerate people will come to its end when Christ has defeated all His enemies, the last one being eliminated is death itself. This does not mean that the kingship of Christ ends or that the kingdom of God ends. The earthly mediatorial aspect of the kingdom of God ends when Christ has put all his enemies under his feet 1 Cor. 15:25). It is then that Christ delivers the kingdom to God the Father (1 Cor. 15:24), the redemptive plan in creation being completed.
The mode of operation of the kingdom of God in the souls of people on earth, not its eternal character which will exist forever, ends and Christ hands the consummated church kingdom over to the Father who sent Him. Christ will continue to reign as king over His church for eternity. And “the devil, with the whole power of the world, can never possibly destroy the Church, which is founded on the eternal throne of Christ.”[3] The triune godhead will rule over the kingdom of God in the new heaven and new earth forever.
[1] Bibliographic note: for more detail see Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2012); Hodge, Charles, A., Systematic Theology, vol. II, Hendrickson (2016); John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, II, 15 (Hendricksen 2008).
[2] Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2012), 415.
[3] John Calvin, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, II, 15 (Hendricksen 2008), 319-20.
