The unsaved man is in a desperate need of a saviour who will reconcile him to God who made him. Man needs a saviour because he is in a slavery of sin.
Those who have been reconciled to God have had their sins atoned for, and are therefore citizens of the kingdom of God.
It is very important to insist that the Kingdom of God points to a person, the man Jesus Christ, who shed His blood for the salvation of all who receive and believe in Him.
Without Jesus, people will have no access to the kingdom of God, and Christians have no heavenly kingdom to belong to. Oh yes! This is the truth. The Lord Jesus makes this point crystal clear.
“Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:4).
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, is the way, the truth and the life. The Lord is the only way to the Father.
He is the truth, the Word, which sanctifies believers. He is the life by which He quickens and makes the spirits of all believers alive.
The Lord Jesus is the only link between humanity and the kingdom of God. There is no other way!
Meet with Jesus and get transformed in His arms or deny Him and continue to conform to the pattern of this world forever, die and go to hell!
The apostle Paul seems to support the view that the kingdom of God points to the Lord Jesus.
“…From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to the KINGDOM OF GOD AND TRYING TO CONVINCE THEM ABOUT JESUS both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets” (Acts 28:23).
It is wonderful how the early apostles who had no New Testament Scriptures put together for them, as we have it today, were able to preach the gospel out of the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.
I believe that Christ Jesus gave them the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to open and explain all the mysteries of the gospel (Matthew 16:19).
After all, ministers of God are the servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
The apostles preached the whole (complete) gospel – Christ Jesus’ conception, birth, life, doctrine, death, burial, resurrection and second coming (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).
They prepared and delivered their messages focusing on Jesus Christ. They knew that all things were created through Him and for Him and in Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:16-17).
“…For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:19-20).
May we thank God for saving us through Christ Jesus our Lord who loved us gave Himself to us.
May we see the need to preach about Him so that the over 5 billion people who are unsaved may believe in Him and be saved. Amen.
By James Quansah