The Already, Not Yet

The Kingdom of God is already, and not yet. We tend to focus on the not yet, more than the already. But, the already is here – it's now. There is Kingdom work to do, and if you are a follower of Jesus, you already have what you need to do it.

“One day the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the Kingdom of God come?” Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God can’t be detected by visible signs. You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you.” - Luke 17:20-21 NLT

The Greek translates this passage to “the Kingdom of God is within you.” In this after Christ world, when you decide to make Jesus the Lord of your life, you automatically already have everything you need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). When you receive the gift of salvation, you already pass from death to life (John 5:24), so eternal life begins now – not in Heaven. We get to be spiritually alive in the here and now.

This concept can be hard to wrap our minds around, but the rewards of our salvation don’t start in Heaven, they have already started. When you go about your day to day, and see the horrors of the reality of our world, this can be a hard truth to hold onto. The darkness seems to be winning, but as long as believers of Jesus exist, the Kingdom of God exists – so there is work to do.

“…the darkness is passing the true light is already shining.” - 1 John 2:8 NIV

Kingdom workers push back the darkness each and every time we allow the death and resurrection of Jesus to enable our vocational work.

“The ‘goal’ is not ‘Heaven’, but a renewed human vocation within God’s renewed creation.” - N. T. Wright, The Day the Revolution Began

The Kingdom of God is ALREADY here, so let’s get to work.