Christ's central message?

Once Christ officially began his ministry what was His central message? 

"From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand' " - Matt 4:17 - i.e. the kingdom is right at your doorstep, so get ready, for it and its King, is about to be ¹initiated and established.

What time is "that time" being referred to above? The time right after his 40 days of testing in the wilderness. A ⁹testing that the Spirit ²led Him into right after the public announcement of his ministry at his baptism.

During his time in the wilderness, Jesus passed three tests by the deceiver (corresponding to the 3 failures of Adam and Eve, our first parents). This set the stage to announce His soon-coming kingdom and ⁸earned Him the right to be its King.

What is the kingdom of God (or heaven)? It is the rule and reign of ³love by Jesus - the ⁴King of love - over His followers i.e. His willing subjects.

Why does Jesus use the kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven interchangeably? Because they are one and the same. 

How?

It is a heavenly (blissful) kingdom because it is a kingdom that issues forth from love and is governed by and filled with ³love - for God is love. It is the ⁵arrival of heaven (i.e. Love/God) on earth which was inaugurated at the birth and incarnation of the Son of God, secured and sealed by his death and burial, and initiated by His resurrection (Death no longer has the last word, life does; life back from death) and will be fully implemented when Christ returns to earth to reign forever with those who have received His offer of life and love through the forgiveness earned for them by His life, death, and resurrection. 

Wherever God and His rule of love are present is a ⁶taste of heaven on earth (but only a taste for now...the full feast is later) i.e. a taste of joy and delight in the King's love which ultimately will lead to an uninterrupted, eternal, unobstructed, infinite feast of love and bliss i.e. heaven on earth.

How does this work? How is this different than the typical kind of kingly rule or kingdom?

Typically a king reigns or rules by decree (law) under threat of punishment. If and when you violate a king's decree (law) you suffer the consequences. Those consequences can be anything from fines, to prison, to execution. Fear of punishment is the primary motivation used to maintain compliance in this typical kind of kingdom.

A rule (kingdom) of (or run by) love is completely different. Unlike a rule of law, which works by ⁷fear of punishment, rejection, and condemnation, a rule of love (or law of love) creates within its subjects the desire to obey its king's directions (commands). His subjects willingly (delightfully) obey because they want to, not because they have to...they obey out of love for and trust in their King not out of fear of punishment by their judge. Why? Because Christ bore the judgment for us for not properly honoring and loving Him as rightful King and not loving our neighbor - fellow image bearers of the King - as we were designed to.

Even though there are still consequences for not loving Him (and others) as deserved - under the rule of love - they are not the consequences of rejection, condemnation, and judgment. They are consequences of correction as His beloved child. Correction designed to draw us closer to the king of love so we might experience His love more and freely display it more perfectly for His glory. Once Christ literally comes to earth to reign we will be perfected like him for we will see Him fully as He is in all His love. 

Under both a rule of law and a rule of love there are clear directions to follow and what is good and right conduct. The difference is the motivation that drives the behavior of its subjects. Under the rule of law, it is a fear of rejection, condemnation, punishment, and judgment. Under the rule of Christ, love, and trust is the driving force behind true, love inspired obedience.

In light of all this God calls us to enter His kingdom through the love of its humble king.

Matt 11:28 

"Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 take my yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

What rest? The rest from constantly having to seek life and love (i.e. affirmation from others) because we now have it fully and perfectly in God through Christ. All that is left is for us to accept his offer. Do you accept it?

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. - 

Rev 22:17

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¹What would it take to establish this kingdom of love? The death and resurrection of Christ to remove the barrier between God and man - i.e. he removed the legal consequences of our rebellious distrust of Him - so that his love could flow freely to his subjects and Christ's rule of love could be firmly and permanently established.

²Which makes the prayer Jesus taught His disciples all the more interesting.

Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. - Matt 6:9‭-‬13 ESV

The Father's will being done - i.e. His rule and reign as King - on earth as it is in heaven - was most fully demonstrated in the very person of Christ during His incarnation and time on earth. That which is of heaven - i.e. God and His Son - was fully displayed and manifested on earth in and through Christ as a human... a creature i.e. the incarnation or fleshing out of God himself among us in Christ while here on earth leads to his complete and ultimate physical reign on earth when He returns (and also our reign in and through Him).

Since the resurrection of Christ and the coming of his Spirit (of love and life), we are now the "fleshing out" of God before a watching world until He returns.

³And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” Jesus answered with the Shama, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 

And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 

And when Jesus saw that the man had answered wisely, He said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God” - i.e. You understand that the essence of the Kingdom of God is love. Now live by it.

"And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions." - Mark 12:28‭-‬34

The greatest and second commandment is the essence of the kingdom of God. And what is the essence of these commands? Love. The love of God and others.

⁴Christ earned his right to reign over His subjects by humbling himself as a servant and dying on behalf of the subjects He rules over. 

Christ our King cast himself into battle to fight and overcome evil to save his subjects and died. He did this knowingly and willingly. 

And then He came back to life. And because He did, those of us who have submitted to Him as our King will also rise to life after our death and rule along side Him on earth when He returns. 

Death is the inevitable result of rejecting the Giver of life. But Life is the inevitable result for those who accept that His death was on their behalf i.e. it was done to restore them back to the Giver of life they had rejected.

⁵The arrival of the Kingdom of God begins in the individual hearts of men and women when we place our trust in the King of love. But will be completed when God sets up His literal physical kingdom on earth at His return. 

⁶It isn't the full meal however until we sit at the feast with the King. A feast that will not be just a one-time meal but heaven itself will be a perpetual eternal feast of love that will never be interrupted or end. At that time he will usher in and fully establish his perfect rule and kingdom on Earth, where there are no more tears, pain, or dying... only love, joy, and bliss. In fact, a (maybe the) primary cause of the joy we experience now under God's rule (kingdom) of love is knowing we will one day experience his love fully and perfectly face to face without limit or interruption.

It is also a kingdom of hope. It is a sure hope (expectation) that we will fully experience what we now only have a taste of.

For an excellent article on the "already... but not yet" aspect of the kingdom click here.

For additional thoughts on this click here.

The arrogant seek to control and rule over the resources of creation but in the end, the meek will inherit the Earth. Why? They are humbly submitted to Earth's Creator, Sustainer, and true King and will use creation to honor Him as such.

⁷We are to fear God as children, not as criminals. This is a fear of correction for not listening to our Father's wise and loving instructions, not of condemnation and rejection for violating the law. A "spanking" hurts but when done out of love it is designed to bring us life. 

⁸Unlike us, Christ earned everything he received. Everything we receive is a gift i.e. by grace - earned for us and given to us by Christ. We couldn't earn it and because He did and extends what is rightfully His to us, we don't have to.

But he earned it nevertheless. How? He fulfilled the rightful requirements of the law because we were unable to - and assigns his complete record of perfect obedience to us as if it's ours - if we accept it. Do you accept his offer?

⁹It is worth noting that Christ encouraged us to pray that we not be tested by the evil one.

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil (evil one in the original)." Mat 6:13

He's encouraging us to pray we do not experience what Adam and Eve experienced or Job experienced or what Christ went through in the wilderness. Temptation (testing) is not God's preferred plan or design. These were all unique events with a specific purpose and not the norm.

Tests come and we can learn much from them but only because God can bring good out of evil. It is still evil and not what God created us for. 

Death, harm, and destruction are the fruit of our rebellion, not the fruit of our design. They are not the preferred experience he desires for us (and they will all be done away with in eternity). 

Evil is simply part of living in creation that is under bondage among broken humans, eagerly awaiting deliverance. If he want us to go through evil he would not have included this in the prayer he taught us.