The Kingdom of God

The Kingdom of God, as taught by Jesus, is heralded by the early parables (Mark 2:21-22) that He used that seems to imply a “change of guard” – the Abrahamic covenant has now become the old religious order, and the kingdom of God has now arrived as a new covenant.

It seems that the phrase “Kingdom of God” and “Kingdom of Heaven” are used interchangeably. Specifically, the phrase “kingdom of God” occurs 68 times in ten different New Testament books, whereas “kingdom of heaven” occurs 32 times, and interestingly only in the Gospel of Matthew. One theory claims that the reason Matthew, being a Jew himself, used the phrase “Kingdom of Heaven” extensively is because Matthew’s writing is specifically targeted for Jewish readers, with the focus to show that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the many Old Testament’s prophecies. Devout Jews avoided using the name YHWH, and rather substituted with an appropriate phrase to depict deity. Hence, Matthew often replaced “Kingdom of God” with “Kingdom of Heaven”, whereas Mark and Luke, with their focus on Greek readership, used the phrase “Kingdom of God”.

Although, a kingdom brings the connotation of having a king, which is Jesus Himself, unfortunately the Jewish’s concept of the “kingdom of God” is very much a physical kingdom - a militant concept, where they expected Jesus to stomp against the Roman empire and establish Israel as an everlasting nation. This is further supported that the Jewish people had been living under foreign forces as early as around 750 BC since the Assyrian invasion. Furthermore, it has been more than four hundred years’ lapse since the last Old Testament, Malachi, had spoken before Jesus came. The Jews had been dejected, possibly even doubted whether God would rescue them from further foreign invasion.

Jesus on the other hand, indicated that the kingdom of God that has come is not a physical one (Luke 17:20-21, John 18:36), but a spiritual kingdom. The entrance into the kingdom of God is heralded by a new birth (John 3:5) with a need for heart repentance (Matthew 3:2). Romans 14:17 further strengthen the fact that the kingdom of God that Jesus initiated is not about the external but rather the internal.

Dr. Alex Tang's Teaching Sessions on Biomedical Ethics

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Alex Tang Biomedical Ethics According To Christian Perspective Teaching Sessions in KB

The Temptation of Christ

The Temptations of Christ

This account follows immediately^[1] after His Baptism. Whereas in the baptism account, the divine voice says “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." (Luk 3:22 NIV), during the three temptations, the Son of God was tempted twice with the phrase “If you are the Son of God….” in attempts to make Him doubt His Messiahship or identity. The word “tempt” in Luke 4:2 is translated from the Greek word peirazō, which also means “to test”, although no explanation was given in the accounts as to why the testing was necessary. But what is clear is that He was driven by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness.

The significance of these three temptations

1. "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." (Luk 4:3 NIV)

In the first temptation the devil suggests Jesus will die if He does not eat^[2]. This temptation was not a temptation to immorality or sin in the traditional sense as there was nothing sinful in eating. Rather, it was a testing as to kind of Messiah that He would be. In other words, it was a testing whether Jesus would use His power and His privileges as the Son of God for selfish gains. Therefore, this was a test as to whether Jesus would trust His Father to provide for His basic needs or whether He would usurp the sovereignty of God the Father for His life.

2. "I will give you all their authority and splendor…if you worship me (Luk 4:6 NIV)

In this temptation, the devil promised Jesus success through a “cross-less” solution. He could have the world and rule it. With the kingdoms of the world given Him, he could meet the basic needs of the world - rid the world of hunger, war, injustice, poverty, etc. All He need do was worship the devil and His mission. The end justifies the means.

3. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here” (Luk 4:9 NIV)

The exact intention of this temptation is debatable. Some have suggested that it was a temptation to perform something spectacular. However, the problem with this view is that no one is mentioned as being present other than Jesus and Satan. The most likely interpretation of this temptation is that it involves a dare on Jesus’ part to make God rescue Him. Jesus recognized the fine line between trusting God for the needs of life and challenging him to rescue him from artificially created difficulties^[3].

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[1] Mark connects the baptism account with the temptation account with his characteristics “And immediately…” (Mark 1:12), and Matthew with “Then…” (Matthew 4:12).

[2] The Bible said that Jesus did not eat for forty days. There was no comment in the Bible whether Jesus drank or not.

[3] This temptation is common among those who profess to follow Jesus. It is not always clear whether a “leap of faith” is an act of true faith or putting God to a test. That is true even if at times such a daring of God is called the “testing the promises of God.” The former would be an act of faith, whereas the latter is clearly an evil, presumptuous challenge. See Deut 6:16

Book Review: The Lucado Life Lessons Study Bible, NKJV

I remember I bought my first copy of the Inspirational Study Bible, NKJV with devotional life lessons edited by Max Lucado in the year 1998 (see picture below).

It has been 10 years since and the new Lucado Life Lessons Study Bible, NKJV is a completely revised edition (with a different name as well) and for the first time, all the devotional materials in this new edition are excerpted from Max Lucado's entire career of writings -from his first book to his latest release, Outlive Your Life.

Comparing the older edition that I had with this latest edition, this new edition follows the same format as the previous one - with each devotional lesson starts with a "Situation", follow by "Observation", then "Inspiration" (which is the excerpted piece of writings from one of Lucado's books), and closes with "Application" and "Exploration".

The older edition has a special 48-inserts printed on good quality paper, offering encouraging words from Max on a variety of inspirational topics. This has been expanded and replaced with a series of 48-full page topical studies also scattered throughout the entire text.

The dictionary/concordance section from the older version has been replaced with a section of devotional index on selected life application topics (each topic is supplied with selected relevant verses with suggestions to read the related passages in the text).

The 100 of the most inspiring passages of the Bible in the older version has been replaced with two new sections "He Did This Just For You" verses and "Spiritual Growth" verses (new selections of bible verses).

I still prefer the older version in terms of the quality of printing paper (better paper quality in the older version) and I like the 100 bible passages personally selected by Max Lucado in the older version.

Nonetheless, the new version has a cool section of 30 Studies for New Believers. I find this section to be an excellent section even for not-so-new believers.

Finally, as with the previous editions, I personally think that this NKJV bible should be more aptly called the Lucado Life Lessons Devotional Bible rather than Lucado Life Lessons Study Bible, as there is really not much of exegetical materials or hermeneutics of the scripture that warrant it to be a study bible. Neither is this bible contains any maps or related materials. Even the dictionary/concordance section has been taken out. The only consolation would probably be the additional capsule outlining the main messages of each books of the Bible in the Introduction page.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
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