What is the reign of God like? Or how can we describe it?

A few weeks ago I was asked to allocate a significant chunk of my discretionary budget to a new mission initiative. But then I wouldn’t have enough money to do the things I had planned. I prayed about it and said yes. Four days later I received a grant for 10 times the amount I gave away.

I was on a call with Southeast Asia last week. They had been looking for property for a training center for months, and were spending time in prayer. Her story started out: “On the last day of our fast…” I love stories like that. Sure enough, someone they led to Christ months ago gave them the perfect place for a great price.

These sound familiar, right? Step out in faith, wait on God through the uncertainty, and he comes through, often at the last minute, with something far better than we could have asked for or imagined. We know what the reign of God is like.

But in Jesus’s day, they didn’t know, so he spent his time describing it.

• This is what the reign of God is like – Mk 4:26
• What shall we say the reign of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? – Mk 4:30
• What is the reign of God like? What shall I compare it to? – Lk 13:18
• He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the reign of God. – Acts 1:3

You’ll notice I’m using “reign” instead of the NIV’s “kingdom”. Reign is closer to the original Greek, and it’s the word they used (rīċe) in the first English translation (Wessex Gospels) when England was organized around small tribal units governed by local kings. Consistent with New Testament times, their idea of rule focused more on the king’s personal authority and relationship with his people than on the bounded land he controlled.

After the Norman Conquest in 1066, the feudal idea of a kingdom as a territorially defined domain ruled by a monarch became more prominent. Notice Matthew 6:10:

• Wessex Gospels (990) “to becume þin rīċe” (rice = reign)
• Wycliffe (1382) “thy kingdom come to” (like feudal kingdoms)
• King James (1611) “Thy kingdom come” (consistent with Wycliffe)
• NIV (2011) “your kingdom come” (consistent with King James)

You’ve probably noticed when Jesus told parables about the “kingdom”, they were never about a place and always about how God rules. That’s because he was literally talking about God’s reign, not his land.

• A seed that becomes a harvest – Matthew 13:18-23, Mark 4:13-20, Luke 8:11-15, Matthew 13:36-40, Matthew 13:31-34, Mark 4:26-29, Mark 4:30-34, Luke 13:18-19
• Yeast that works through the dough – Matthew 13:33, Luke 13:20-21
• A treasure that’s found and bought – Matthew 13:44, Matthew 13:45-46
• A net that brings up a catch of fish – Matthew 13:47-50
• A master returning to settle accounts – Matthew 18:23-34, Matthew 25:1-12, Matthew 24:45-51, Mark 13:35-37, Luke 12:35-48
• A landowner looking for results – Matthew 21:33-41, Mark 12:1-8, Luke 20:9-18, Matthew 20:1-16
• A wedding banquet to attend – Matthew 22:1-14, Luke 14:15-24, Matthew 25:1-13

This mistranslation has unfortunately made our job of unnecessarily difficult. If we are to proclaim the kingdom of God, many of us would have to admit we don’t really even know what it is. If we are to proclaim the reign of God, it gets really synonymous with “Jesus is Lord!” or “Jesus is King!” which everyone understands.

The New Testament reflects this. In the gospels “the reign of God/heaven” was used 119 times. In the 23 other books it’s mentioned only 36 times. After Jesus ascends to reign, the new description of the reign of God is that Jesus is Lord.