Between Two Mountains: Kingdom Life Now

Picture standing between two mountains.

On one mountain in Galilee, Jesus taught what life in the kingdom of heaven looks like. The Beatitudes don’t focus on achievement or outward success, but on character. Humility, mercy, purity, and peacemaking are lifted up as marks of a life shaped by God. It’s not about self-reliance, but a quiet dependence on him. These qualities aren’t just for some future time. They are meant to be growing in us now. The kingdom of heaven begins wherever God is allowed to rule in the heart.

Then there is another hill outside Jerusalem. There, everything Jesus taught was lived out fully. The meek one was rejected, the merciful one was mocked, and the peacemaker was crucified. At the cross, the character of God was revealed perfectly, and through that sacrifice, forgiveness and hope were secured.

So we find ourselves between two mountains: the place where the kingdom is described and the place where it is demonstrated. And ahead lies a third, Mount Zion, when God’s kingdom will be fully established. What is being quietly formed now in faithful lives will one day fill the whole earth.

The question that remains is simple: is that character taking shape in us?

Not perfectly, but genuinely. Are we becoming more humble, more sincere, more eager to make peace? This is not something we achieve on our own. It is a work God is doing in us through Christ. So the call is to live that kingdom life now, not so we can earn a place in the future kingdom but rather so we can look forward to perfecting a way of life that's already begun in us.