It’s a cliché in many ways — a protagonist is searching for an elusive Something… true love, inner peace, the meaning of life, the solution to the problem… only to find they already have what they need and have possessed it all along. Like Dorothy and her slippers in The Wizard of Oz, she already has a “home.”
That’s the crux of what Jesus expressed in his words to the Pharisees in Luke 17:22 when he tells them, “The kingdom of God is in your midst.” Or another translation phrases it, the kingdom of God “is within you” (NKJV).
Yet many of us long for that great One Day when Jesus will return, and the wrongs will be set right when the Kingdom of God will reign forever and ever.
What does it mean when Jesus tells the Pharisees that God’s kingdom is “within you”? Is the Kingdom of God really in us?
The answer is yes, for those of us who are believers. Jesus Christ, who is of the Father and lives in every Christian through the power of the Holy Spirit, is indeed within us — then, now, and always.
Yet the best is still to come.
What’s Happening in Luke 17?
Luke’s gospel, in this chapter, tells us that Jesus is asked by the Pharisees, who were Jewish teachers and religious experts when the kingdom of God would come.
To this, Jesus replies, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst” (Luke 17:20-21).
Then he elaborates to his disciples that, one day, they’d be yearning for the time when Jesus would return in glory, but they shouldn’t go chasing signs or listening to other people who claim to know the answers.
Like in the time of Noah when the flood came, or when Sodom was suddenly destroyed with fire and Lot’s family had to race to escape, his coming would be unexpected, without warning, much “like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other” (v. 24).
He says something similar in the Gospel of Matthew, noting that two men will be in the field and two women will be grinding with a hand mill, and one will be taken and the other left.
But, he said, “About that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthew 24:36).
Yet that is the Second Coming. What Jesus is referring to first is the here and now, when he — the Messiah, the Son of God — is already there with them, eating and breathing and teaching and walking around with them, performing miracles.
Right now, I am here with you, he’s telling them. Most cannot see this, and soon a time will come when he will be rejected and betrayed. But for now, the Son of God is in their midst. He’ll stay with them in another way, through the Holy Spirit, and he’ll return again in triumph.
How Is Jesus in Us?
Those who believe in Jesus have eternal life, he promises (John 5:24). Christ-followers are part of him and “will be saved” (Mark 16:16).
By believing in him and acknowledging his power and divinity, our faith helps accomplish this. Our faith is part of that often-invisible web that is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. When we believe, miracles happen. Salvation happens.
Jesus lives among and within us.
Like the woman who had bled for 12 years came up behind Jesus and touched his cloak, instantly becoming healed, when we believe healing and transformation happen. As Jesus told that woman, “Take heart, daughter, … your faith has healed you” (Matthew 9:22).
Or as he told the sinful woman who extravagantly anointed his feet with perfume because of the overwhelming gratitude she felt at her belief in him, “Your faith has saved you go in peace” (Luke 7:50).
Jesus is in us because of that faith.
The Power of the Spirit
Jesus is also with us and in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. When he comforted his disciples, teaching them important truths and warning them he would soon be condemned, he told them, “I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you” (John 14:20).
Then he promised they would not be alone, for God would send another in Jesus’s name: the Holy Spirit.
As he explained, “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:26-27).
They don’t need to worry — they are never alone. They are all connected in this soul-infused belief, and all will be well.
Jesus and the Kingdom of God Are One
What is important to understand is that Jesus and the Kingdom of God are one. God, who embodies the Father, Son, and Spirit, is his kingdom. God’s will and way, and purpose are infused throughout the kingdom. Jesus compares it to a house with many rooms where they can all live together (John 14:2).
When Jesus says he is “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6), he is also saying he is the key to that kingdom. He is the salvation all seek, and belief in him results in eternal life.
In John 10:30, Jesus tells us, “I and the Father are one.”
What Other Bible Verses Remind Us Jesus Is in Us?
A number of Bible verses remind us Jesus — and hence the kingdom of God — is within us. In the Apostle Paul’s writings, he talks about how we, the church, are the “body,” all different parts with different uses and gifts.
But Christ “is the head of the body” (Colossians 1:18). We are in him, he is in us, and with the Holy Spirit, we are all part of God and God’s kingdom together when we are fully and perfectly united.
Here are a few other verses:
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).
To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you (Romans 8:9-11).
So, if you are lamenting the state of the world, the evils that befall us, the death and sickness and irreverence that can often permeate culture and our families, remember: one day, Christ will come again, yes.
But for now, take heart that he is also in us, working and moving and bringing about God’s kingdom here on earth.
Even now. Praise the Lord!
For further reading:
How Do We Seek First the Kingdom of God?
10 Things to Know about What Is Meant by the Kingdom of God
What Does it Mean the Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand?
Photo Credit: ©iStock/Getty Images Plus/fotostorm
