I.　The kingdom of God is God Himself—Mark 1:15; Matt. 6:33; John 3:3:

A.　God's kingdom has God as its content; God Himself is everything as the content of His kingdom—1 Cor. 4:20; 15:28.

B.　God is life, having the nature, ability, and shape of the divine life, which forms the realm of God's ruling—Eph. 4:18; John 3:15; Hymns, #602.

C.　In actuality, God's reigning over us is not an outward matter but a matter of the innate ability of the divine life—Rom. 8:2.

D.　The life of God is the kingdom of God and also our entrance into the kingdom of God; we must see this basic principle—John 3:3, 5, 15.

E.　The nature of the kingdom of God is divine because it is the kingdom of God.

F.　The Lord Jesus said, "The kingdom of God has drawn near"—Mark 1:15:

1.　To proclaim that the kingdom of God has drawn near is to declare that God Himself has drawn near and that we should get ready to receive God into us—Matt. 3:1-2; 4:17.

2.　The way to prepare is to put away the old, natural concepts and to hold on to the New Testament revelation, knowing that to enter into God's kingdom is to receive God Himself—Luke 3:4-5; John 1:12-13; 3:3, 5.

II.　The kingdom of God is not only the reign of God but also the realm of the divine life—Matt. 6:13b; John 3:3, 5, 15-16:

A.　The kingdom of God is the realm of the divine life for this life to move, to work, to rule, and to govern so that life may accomplish its purpose—v. 3.

B.　The kingdom of God is an organism constituted with God's life as the realm of life for His ruling, in which He reigns by His life and expresses Himself as the Divine Trinity in the divine life—v. 5; 15:1-8, 16, 26.

C.　The kingdom of God is God in Christ being the totality of life with all its activities—11:25; 10:10b; 14:6.

D.　The unique way to enter into the kingdom of God is to receive God as life and gain God Himself; this is regeneration—3:5, 15; 1 John 5:11-12:

1.　The kingdom of God is a divine realm to be entered into, a realm which requires the divine life; hence, for us to see or enter into the kingdom of God requires regeneration—John 3:3, 5.

2.　Repentance and regeneration through believing in the Lord are not first for salvation but for entering into the kingdom of God—Matt. 4:17; John 3:3, 5.

3.　Because through regeneration we receive the divine life, the life of God, regeneration is the unique entrance into the kingdom—vv. 3, 5, 15.

4.　We have been born into the kingdom of God, and now the divine life in our spirit knows the kingdom of God—vv. 5-6.

E.　The kingdom has its reality, and this reality is the living of the divine life— Matt. 5:3, 8, 20; 6:33; 7:21; Rom. 14:17.

III.　The kingdom of God in the sense of life is the Lord Jesus as the seed of life sown into His believers and developing into a realm over which God can rule as His kingdom in His divine life—Luke 17:20-21; Mark 4:3, 26:

A.　The kingdom of God is actually the God-man, Jesus Christ, sown as a seed into the believers—Matt. 1:18, 20-21, 23; 13:3-8.

B.　God's life, which is Christ Himself, is the seed of the realm of the divine life that develops into the kingdom for His ruling—Mark 4:3, 26-29.

C.　Christ, as the first seed of life of the kingdom of God, sowed Himself into His believers that He might grow and live in them and be developed from within them to bring forth many grains—Matt. 13:3-8; John 12:24.

D.　The believers, who receive Christ as the seed of the kingdom of God, also become seeds of life, since they have Christ in them as their inner life— Matt. 13:38a; Col. 1:27; 3:4.

E.　Christ establishes the kingdom by sowing Himself as the seed of life into believing people so that the kingdom may grow; this indicates that the establishing of the kingdom is absolutely a matter of the growth in life, not of our work—1 Pet. 1:23; 1 John 3:9; Matt. 13:4-8; Mark 4:3, 26-29.

F.　The kingdom is Christ Himself as the seed of life sown into us, growing in us, spreading in us, and maturing in us until there is a full harvest—the manifestation of the kingdom—Matt. 13:43a.

IV.　The kingdom of God in the sense of life is a blessing for the believers to inherit—19:29; 1 Cor. 6:10b; Gal. 5:21b; Eph. 5:5b:

A.　To inherit the kingdom of God is not simply to enter into the kingdom; it is to receive the kingdom as a reward for our enjoyment—Matt. 25:14, 21.

B.　To inherit the kingdom of God is to inherit the eternal life as our enjoyment—19:29.

C.　To inherit the kingdom of God is to obtain the enjoyment of God's eternal life in the millennial kingdom through our present experiences in His eternal life—1 John 1:2; 2:25; 5:11-13; Matt. 19:29.

D.　Inheriting the kingdom of God is different from entering into the kingdom of God through regeneration—1 Cor. 6:10b; John 3:5:

1.　When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we were regenerated, received eternal life, and entered into the kingdom—1:12-13; 3:5, 15.

2.　When we live by the eternal life we have received, this life becomes our inheritance for our enjoyment—Gal. 5:21b; Eph. 5:5b.

E.　We need to live in the kingdom of God by the eternal life, experiencing and enjoying the eternal life in this age, so that we may inherit the kingdom of God in the coming age, that is, inherit the full enjoyment of God's eternal life as our reward—John 3:5; Rom. 8:2, 6, 10-11; 14:17; 1 Cor. 6:10b.

F.　To receive the eternal life and enter into the kingdom of God and to live according to the eternal life and inherit the kingdom of God are both a matter of life—John 3:3, 15; Matt. 19:29.

G.　We should be diligent to pursue the growth and development of the divine life within us until we are richly and abundantly supplied the entrance into "the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ"—2 Pet. 1:5-11.