AN ENTRANCE INTO THE KINGDOM
All things which relate to the divine life have been granted to us for an entrance into the kingdom (2 Pet. 1:3, 11). Second Peter 1:3 says that "His divine power has granted to us all things which relate to life and godliness." Verses 5-11 show us the development of the eternal life issuing in a rich entrance into the eternal kingdom. By the eternal life with its development we may enter into the kingdom.
RELATED TO THE INNER LIFE
AND THE CHURCH LIFE
The kingdom is related to the inner life and to the church life. John 3:3, 5 tells us that we must be reborn to see the kingdom and to enter into the kingdom. To enter into the kingdom of God is a matter of the inner life. We need to be born again in order to have the divine life. When we have this life, we are in the kingdom. To receive the divine life is to enter into the kingdom of God.
In Matthew 16:18-19 the Lord says that He will build His church and then that He will give to Peter the keys of the kingdom of the heavens. These verses show that the kingdom is for the church. Romans 14:17 says, "For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Romans 14 is a chapter on how to receive the weaker ones in the church life. When Paul mentions the kingdom of God in this chapter, he is referring to the church life. The church life is the kingdom of God today. The church life, the kingdom of God, is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
THE SEED SOWN IN THE GOSPELS
The all-inclusive Christ has been sown into His believers as the seed of the kingdom (Matt. 13:3; Mark 4:26). The Lord Himself is within the believers as the King, the seed. Jesus is the King; we are the "dom!" The kingdom is the expression or the extension of the King. The King is the seed, and the church is the extension, the "dom." The King’s spreading within the believers as the seed is the kingdom (Mark 4:26-29). The kingdom was sown in the Gospels by the Lord Jesus in the midst of the Jews and within the Lord’s disciples (Luke 17:20-21). The kingdom is something inward. We cannot observe it outwardly. The Lord Jesus said that the kingdom was not observable.
This kingdom was manifested to Peter, James, and John (Matt. 16:28—17:2). When the Lord sowed the seed of the kingdom among the Jews within His believers, the Jews could not discern it. One day, however, three disciples went to the mount with the Lord Jesus. On the mount Jesus was transfigured. His transfiguration was the manifestation of the kingdom. The kingdom is Jesus Christ Himself sown into us and growing in us until one day there will be the manifestation of the kingdom.
(The Basic Revelation in the Holy Scriptures, Chapter 6, by Witness Lee)
