If someone asks you what the Bible is about or what is its primary theme, what would you say?
Chances are you would respond with something like “it is about Jesus” or “it’s the story of God and mankind.” You would be right, of course, but you would be missing the bigger picture.
When I was a brand-new Christian, I took a series of classes on the Bible led by various pastors and seminary professors. One of the sessions addressed and answered the question like this: The story of the Bible is about the kingdom of God.
God’s kingdom is the primary theme throughout the Scriptures, and it can be traced from Genesis through Revelation.
Generally speaking, the kingdom of God is where God reigns as King. Steve Timmis defines it as, “where the Father’s rule is exercised through the Son by the power of the Spirit so that it is willingly obeyed, gloriously displayed, and happily enjoyed among his people in the world.”
The kingdom of God has three main characteristics: dwelling, dominion, and dynasty.
Dwelling. God is present with His people and has a close relationship with them. For instance, He walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, He dwelled in the tabernacle with the Israelites, and He lives in us through the Holy Spirit.
Dominion. God brought citizens in His kingdom for a purpose. We are His vice-regents; we are tasked to rule over the earth on God’s behalf and to fill His kingdom with more citizens.
Dynasty. God created the citizens in His image and after His likeness. We are royalty, co-heirs with Christ, and God’s channel to display His glory.
There are four main acts in the story of the Bible: the creation of the kingdom, the fall of the kingdom, the redemption of the kingdom, and the restoration of the kingdom. And we can see the three D’s throughout these acts because the story of the Bible is the story of the kingdom of God.
Creation
The Bible begins with the creation of God’s kingdom. He created the heavens and earth and all that’s in it by speaking them into existence. But the pinnacle of His creation occurred on day six when he created man.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26-28
God created His kingdom and made citizens. He walked in their midst and enjoyed an intimate relationship with them (dwell). He created them in His image and told them to multiply and fill the earth with more image-bearers (dynasty). And then He gave them the authority to rule over all the earth (dominion).
In return, Adam and Eve had to obey the law of the kingdom, which was not to eat of the forbidden fruit (Genesis 2:16-17). This is also known as the Edenic Covenant or the first part of the Adamic Covenant, and it is the first covenant God made to man.
The Fall
All was well in God’s kingdom for some time; Adam and Eve were obedient and enjoyed God’s blessings. But everything changed when they ate the forbidden fruit. As a result of breaking the Edenic covenant, God pronounced a series of curses on them (Genesis 3:16-19). And the most devastating consequence was the fall from the kingdom.
First, they hid from God and fled His presence due to their sin (Genesis 3:8). Second, they lost their duties in the garden. Now they had a more difficult task of working the cursed ground out of Eden (Genesis 3:23). Lastly, they lost their citizenship of the kingdom and were expelled from Eden (Genesis 3:24).
But God, in His grace, decided to give humanity another chance. So He made a new promise, but an unconditional one this time. It is in Genesis 3:15, which says, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
This promise is the second part of the Adamic covenant. God promised that the offspring of the woman would crush the serpent forever and would restore the kingdom Adam and Eve lost.
Redemption
Now we enter the redemption arc, the largest one in the story of the Bible. At the end of Genesis 3, God gave us a glint of hope that He would restore His kingdom through Eve’s offspring. The rest of the Old Testament shows God reaffirming that promise through covenants with the descendants of Eve.
The covenant with Abraham
The Abrahamic Covenant is in Genesis 12:1-3, which says,
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Genesis 12:1-3
In this covenant, God made promises to Abraham with the primary characteristics of the kingdom of God.
First, God called Abraham to leave his home country and go to a new land, a place where God will be with His people (dwell). Second, God said He would bless Abraham and make him into a great nation who would represent God to the other countries (dynasty). Lastly, God promised Abraham would have power over other nations, and through him, they would either be blessed or cursed (dominion).
Abraham obeyed and went to the promised land. God then made the same promise to his son Isaac (Genesis 26:2-5), and his grandson Jacob who became Israel (Genesis 28:13-15; 35:10-12). God’s promise came true as the children of Israel considerably grew in numbers. However, they were enslaved in Egypt for 400 years before God restored them to the promised land.
The covenant with David
Several years have passed since the exodus, and the Israelites are permanently settled in the promised land. God dwells with them in the tabernacle; they have a godly king on the throne, and they have dominion over the nations.
King David thought that God ought to have His own house and wanted to build Him a temple. But God refused. Instead, He made another covenant with David.
“And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.”
2 Samuel 7:10-13
God promises echoes the promises made to Abraham. God would bring His people to a land where He would dwell with them in peace. He promised to build His dynasty through David’s lineage, and that a Son of David would reign as King and have dominion forever.
The New Covenant
The story unfolds with the reign of Solomon, David’s son. He rebelled against God and caused Israel’s division into the northern and southern tribes. And the kings who followed Solomon also rebelled against God. Consequently, God exiled the Israelites from the promised land into captivity for 70 years.
Once again, the people of God lost the kingdom because of sin. But God remained faithful to His covenant even though they were faithless. During the exile, God sent the prophet Isaiah to announce a new covenant promising the restoration of His kingdom.
Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader, and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
Isaiah 55:3-5
This covenant is new and not new at the same time. It is not new as it is the same promises God made to Adam, Abraham, and David. That is, He would raise a king from the seed of the woman through the line of David, and He would restore the kingdom of God and reign forever. However, it is new in quality because this time, the Israelites would not break it. Moreover, it would extend to gentiles.
The prophet Jeremiah also spoke of this new covenant.
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jeremiah 31:31-33 immediately
The Israelites eventually returned from captivity. They rebuilt the temple, immediately, perhaps hoping God would fulfill His promise right away. But He did not. God remained silent for hundreds of years.
The arrival of Jesus Christ
After 400 years of no prophecies or miracles, God broke His silence to announce the birth of Jesus Christ.
The New Testament begins with the genealogy of Jesus Christ and states He is the son of David, and the son of Abraham (Matthew 1:1). We know God promised Abraham’s descendants would be a blessing to other nations, and He promised David’s son would reign on God’s throne forever.
Therefore, by tying Jesus to David and Abraham, Matthew is proclaiming Jesus is the fulfillment of these promises.
The angel of God also made the same proclamation when he announced the birth of Jesus. He said in Luke 1:30, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
So now we have this king Jesus, who is called Immanuel—God with us (Matthew 1:23). He will build His dynasty through us and have dominion over the world forever. This is significant because the arrival of the king meant the breakthrough of God’s kingdom.
Jesus’s first message when He began in earthly ministry in Mark 1:15 was, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” And Matthew 4:11 says, “From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”
The kingdom of God was the central theme of Jesus’s earthly ministry. It appears 61 distinct times in the synoptic gospels and 85 times overall. Jesus spoke about it in several parables, made kingdom analogies, and He taught the disciples to pray for its coming and to seek it first.
Side note
Matthew’s gospel often used the phrase “kingdom of heaven,” while the other gospels only use “kingdom of God.” Some people think that they are two different kingdoms, but the majority of bible scholars and commentators believe they are the same. Matthew wrote his gospel primarily to Jews to show Jesus was the Messiah. Since Jews did not pronounce God’s name out of reverence, Matthew used heaven instead. Moreover, both terms are used interchangeably throughout the gospels.
The death of the King
So the Messiah has arrived, and He is preaching that God’s kingdom is finally here. Many people believe in Him and rejoice. They expect Jesus will overthrow their oppressors and restore Israel. But the plot thickens, the King is sentenced to death!
Why? Why did Jesus die? There are several theological reasons for the cross. But for the scope of this post, I will list reasons on the theme of God’s kingdom.
First, it was the cost to restore the kingdom. When God said, the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent head back in Genesis 3:15, He also said, the serpent would bruise His heel. The crucifixion was the bruise on Jesus’s heel.
And secondly, the cross was the enthronement of Jesus. When the Pharisees arrested Jesus, they accused Him of calling Himself a king. Pilate even asked Jesus if He was the king of the Jews (Luke 23:2-3). Though Pilate found Jesus innocent, he caved to the demands of the crowd and sent Him to the cross. See what happens next.
The soldiers, “stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, Hail, ‘King of the Jews!’” (Matthew 27:28-29).
They even made a sign on the cross, which said, “This Jesus, King of the Jews.” Now the soldiers did this to mock Jesus, but what they meant for evil, God used it for good. They thought Jesus’ death was a defeat, but it was a victorious moment because God used it to enthrone Him as the King. As Hebrews 2:9 says, Jesus was crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death.
The Restoration
The resurrection and ascension of the King
As we all know, Jesus rose from the dead three days later. He spent forty days with the disciples before He ascended to heaven. And here are His last words.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20
Jesus’s last words were a proclamation of the kingdom of God, and it mirrors the proclamation God of the first kingdom back Genesis with the three D’s.
Genesis started with the almighty God, who created His kingdom and ruled over it. Jesus affirmed He was the king of all creation when He said He has all authority.
After creating His kingdom, God made citizens in His image and His likeness. Jesus made disciples —someone who actively imitated the life and teaching of His master (dynasty). God gave work to the citizens to rule over the earth and to be fruitful and multiply. Jesus tasked His disciples to bring light to the world and to make more disciples from all nations (dominion).
Lastly, God gave Adam and Eve the law of the kingdom; Jesus gave the disciples commandments to obey. And as God was present with Adam and Eve in the first kingdom, Jesus promises to always be with us to the end of the age (dwell).
The second coming of the King
The remainder of the New Testament shows the expansion of God’s kingdom as the disciples fulfill the great commission. At this point (and our time), God’s kingdom is present, but only in a spiritual sense. It is not visible, and Jesus does not reign physically.
But God promised the restoration of His kingdom would also include a visible physical location where Christ would reign in person. So though the kingdom of God is here and now, it is also in the future yet to come.
As Kevin DeYoung says, “The kingdom of God is the age to come breaking into the present age.” And the book of Revelation gives us a beautiful sneak peek of what it is to come.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.”
Revelation 21:1-3
In the new heavens and earth, God will dwell with us in person as He did with Adam and Eve in the garden. We will be His dynasty, a people conformed to the image of Christ, and we will have purpose and dominion over all the earth. And this time, the citizens will never break the law of God again.
Conclusion
The Bible begins and ends with the kingdom of God and with its King. But the story also includes you and me. God is still offering free citizenship to all who repent of their sins and believe in Jesus (Romans 10:9-13)
As a citizen of the kingdom, you have the assurance of God’s presence with you through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (John 14:17). You have the privilege to work for the kingdom and participate in its advancement (Ephesians 2:10). And you have the blessing of being conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29) and being part of His dynasty (1 Peter 2:9).
