Scripture Reading: John 3:3, 5, 16; 1:12-14; 8:12; 17:22-23; 1 John 1:5, 7
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.
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 acti- vities—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 that re- quires 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 as the reign of God and as the realm of the divine life is the realm of the divine species, in which are all the divine things—John 3:3, 5:
A
In John 3 the kingdom of God refers more to the species of God than to the reign of God.
B
God became man to enter into the human species, and man becomes God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to enter into the divine species—1:12-14; Rom. 8:3; 1:3-4.
C
To enter into the divine realm, the realm of the divine species, we need to be born of God to have the divine life and nature—John 1:12-13:
１
We were regenerated of God to be the species of God and enter into the king- dom of God—3:3, 5.
２
Our second birth caused us to enter into the kingdom of God to become the species of God; now we are God in the divine species, that is, in the king- dom of God.
Ⅳ
The kingdom of God as the realm of the divine life and the divine species is a realm of light—8:12; 1 John 1:5, 7:
A
The divine light is the nature of God's expression—John 1:4; 8:12:
１
Light is God's shining, God's expression; when God is expressed, the nature of that expression is light—1 John 1:5.
２
To walk in the divine light is to live, move, act, and have our being in the divine light, which is God Himself—v. 7.
３
If we are under God's dispensing, we participate in God's nature as light and are constituted with this element of His nature—v. 5; 2 Cor. 4:6.
B
The divine light shines in the divine life—John 1:4; 8:12:
１
A great principle in the Bible is that light and life go together—Psa. 36:9.
２
When we receive the divine light and believe in Christ as the light of the world, we are born of God to become sons of light—John 1:6-12; 12:35-36.
C
The divine light is the source of the divine truth—1:5, 9; 18:37:
１
When the divine light shines upon us, it becomes the truth, which is the divine reality—8:12, 32.
２
When the divine light shines, the divine things become real to us.
３
Because light is the source of truth, and truth is the issue of light, when we walk in the light, we practice the truth—1 John 1:6-7.
Ⅴ
The kingdom of God is a realm of glory—John 1:14, 18; 17:22-24:
A
Glory is the expression of God, God expressed in splendor—12:41.
B
The kingdom is the realm in which God exercises His power so that He can express His glory—Matt. 6:13; 1 Thes. 2:12.
C
The Son is in the divine glory of the Father's expression; thus, for the believers to be with Him where He is means that they are with Him in the divine glory to express the Father—John 17:23.
D
The oneness in the divine glory for the corporate expression of God is a oneness in which the believers, their self having been fully denied, enjoy the glory of the Father as the factor of their perfected oneness to express God in a corporate, built-up way—vv. 22-23.