The Way to the Kingdom by Joseph Benner is a spiritual study of the Kingdom of God, the inward life, Christ within, abiding, resurrection, faith, sonship, receiving, and the work of the Comforter. Unlike spiritual books that begin primarily with external success, Benner repeatedly turns attention toward Jesus' command to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
The book draws heavily upon the words of Christ, including “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” “I am the door,” “I am the resurrection, and the life,” “Abide in me,” and “Believe that ye receive.” This makes The Way to the Kingdom especially valuable for comparison with Scripture. Benner's interpretations should still be tested against the King James Bible, allowing Scripture itself to determine how the Kingdom, Christ within, faith, identity, and union with God are properly understood.
Listen to The Way to the Kingdom
Joseph Benner • Complete unabridged audiobook with commentary
About The Way to the Kingdom
The central question of The Way to the Kingdom is contained in its title. Where is the Kingdom of God, and how does a person actually enter into its life?
Jesus gives the governing instruction:
The order matters. Jesus does not begin with the things. He begins with the Kingdom.
Food matters. Clothing matters. provision matters. Earthly life matters. Yet Jesus refuses to make those things the source from which peace, righteousness, security, and identity must be created.
Seek the Kingdom first. The things can be added afterward.
The Kingdom Is Not Merely a Future Destination
Christianity can sometimes be presented as though the Kingdom of God exists only after physical death. Jesus repeatedly uses present language.
Scripture contains future dimensions of the Kingdom, but those future dimensions do not erase what Christ says is already at hand, already come upon His hearers, and within.
The Kingdom Has a King
Any study of the Kingdom must remain centered upon Christ. The Kingdom cannot be reduced to a state of consciousness detached from the King.
Jesus does not merely teach a way.
He says He is the way.
He does not merely explain truth.
He says He is the truth.
He does not merely distribute life as an impersonal force.
He says He is the life.
The way into Kingdom life therefore cannot ultimately be separated from Christ Himself.
Christ Is the Door
Benner devotes another major theme to Christ's declaration that He is the door.
This keeps Kingdom teaching from becoming merely inward exploration. The believer does not discover the Kingdom by bypassing Christ and descending into an independent divine self.
Christ is the entrance.
Christ is the source.
Christ is the life received.
The Resurrection Changes the Entire Framework
One of the strongest themes available in Benner's framework is Christ's declaration concerning resurrection:
The Gospel does not end with crucifixion.
Jesus died.
Jesus was buried.
Jesus rose again.
Paul then connects the believer to that resurrection.
Kingdom life is therefore resurrection life. The old man is crucified with Christ, but the believer is not called to remain permanently identified with death.
Abide in Me
The Way to the Kingdom repeatedly returns to inward union and dependence upon Christ. Jesus gives the clearest image through the vine and branches.
A branch does not create its own source of life.
It receives from the vine.
Fruit follows from union.
This is radically different from trying to manufacture spiritual fruit through independent human effort.
Identity Comes Before Fruit
The branch does not perform enough fruit-bearing exercises to become part of the vine. It bears fruit because it abides in the vine.
The same pattern appears throughout the Gospel.
Identity comes first.
Expression follows.
The old man attempts to behave correctly so that he can finally become accepted. Grace reveals acceptance and righteousness in Christ, after which behavior increasingly becomes fruit of what has already been received.
I Have Chosen You
Another chapter of Benner's work centers upon Christ's statement:
Again the order matters.
Christ chooses.
The disciple receives.
Fruit follows.
Paul uses similar language concerning identity in Christ:
The phrase “in him” is essential. Christian identity does not become an independent exaltation of the self. What becomes true of the believer is rooted in union with Christ.
Lift Up Christ
Benner also examines Jesus' statement:
Christ remains the center of attraction.
Spiritual study can become distorted when consciousness, imagination, personal power, or inner experience slowly takes the place Christ occupies in Scripture.
The inward life is important because Christ is inwardly present.
Where Two or Three Are Gathered
Kingdom life is not entirely solitary. Jesus also describes His presence among believers gathered in His name.
This adds another dimension to spiritual life. Christ is within the believer, yet believers are also members of one body and participate together in His life.
Unity does not require the destruction of distinction. Many members remain many members while forming one body.
Except a Man Be Born Again
The Kingdom cannot merely be entered through improving the old identity.
Jesus introduces something more radical:
The language is not repair.
It is birth.
Paul likewise does not describe Christianity merely as moral rehabilitation.
The Gospel introduces new life, new identity, and resurrection rather than endless repair of Adam.
Now Are We the Sons of God
Scripture gives sonship a present tense.
Not merely someday.
Now.
The believer does not spend the Christian life attempting to become a child whom God might eventually accept. Sonship becomes the identity from which growth occurs.
Fear-based religion places the believer continually outside the Father's house attempting to earn entrance. Grace announces adoption.
The Kingdom and the Heart
Benner also engages the biblical relationship between inward thought and outward life.
Scripture does not present the inner life as irrelevant.
The heart matters.
Thought matters.
Faith matters.
Expectation matters.
Yet the biblical answer is not merely controlling thoughts so that the independent self can manufacture reality. The mind is renewed according to truth.
The Mind Can Be Renewed
A fearful interpretation does not have to remain the final interpretation.
A scarcity interpretation does not have to remain the final interpretation.
Condemnation does not have to remain the governing identity.
The mind can learn to agree increasingly with what God has revealed in Christ.
Transformation therefore includes learning to see through another identity.
Believe That Ye Receive
One of the most important chapters for studying faith concerns Christ's promise about believing and receiving.
Jesus places believing before visible possession.
Faith therefore does not merely react to what sight already confirms.
Faith concerns what is not yet seen and nevertheless treats God's testimony as trustworthy.
The Father Gives
Faith must not be separated from the character of the One being trusted.
Jesus repeatedly presents the Father as giver.
This changes prayer from an attempt to persuade a hostile God into reluctant generosity.
The Father gives.
Faith receives.
Gratitude responds.
The Comforter
Benner closes the main sequence of the book with the Comforter, bringing the study directly into Jesus' teaching concerning the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost is not merely an impersonal spiritual energy.
Jesus describes Him as teacher, Comforter, and abiding presence.
He brings Christ's words into remembrance rather than making Christ unnecessary.
The Kingdom Is Righteousness, Peace, and Joy
Paul gives one of the clearest descriptions of Kingdom life:
Notice what the Kingdom contains.
Righteousness.
Peace.
Joy.
And all three are placed in the Holy Ghost rather than being created entirely through external circumstances.
Righteousness Comes Through Christ
“Seek first the Kingdom and his righteousness” cannot be interpreted as another command to manufacture personal righteousness through enough spiritual discipline.
Paul explicitly identifies Christ as our righteousness.
Kingdom righteousness is therefore inseparable from Christ.
From Seeking Toward Living
There is an important distinction between seeking the Kingdom because we believe God is infinitely distant and seeking the Kingdom because Christ has already brought us into relationship with the Father.
The Gospel progressively moves from searching toward participation.
Paul speaks of something God has done.
Delivered.
Translated.
The Christian journey therefore involves increasingly understanding and living from a Kingdom reality established in Christ.
The Kingdom Within and Christ Within
Two statements deserve to be studied together.
These passages should not automatically be collapsed into identical definitions, but neither should they be isolated without investigation.
Jesus announces the Kingdom within.
Paul announces Christ within.
Jesus commands abiding in Him.
Paul says the believer is joined unto the Lord as one spirit.
The Way Is Union, Not Independent Divinity
This becomes the essential safeguard when reading Benner.
Scripture contains extraordinarily strong language concerning union with God. That language should not be weakened merely because it sounds profound.
But union does not require making the human personality an independent God.
Christ remains the vine.
We remain the branches.
The Father remains the source.
The Spirit remains the indwelling power.
The believer participates through union.
A Practical Way to Listen
As you listen to The Way to the Kingdom, use Scripture as the governing framework.
1. Listen for the central claim.
What is Benner saying about God, Christ, identity, consciousness, faith, or the Kingdom?
2. Find the biblical passage behind it.
Many chapters are built directly around statements of Jesus. Read the passage in its surrounding context.
3. Determine the source.
Is God the source, or has human consciousness quietly become independent divine power?
4. Preserve Christ.
Does the interpretation make Christ more central or gradually unnecessary?
5. Preserve grace.
Is righteousness received in Christ, or has spiritual discipline become another system for earning it?
6. Preserve resurrection.
Do not stop with death of self. Scripture moves into resurrection and newness of life.
7. Examine identity.
Is the passage being heard through fear and condemnation, or through union with Christ and received righteousness?
8. Look for fruit.
Kingdom understanding should increasingly produce righteousness, peace, joy, love, faith, and practical service.
Reading Joseph Benner Through Scripture
The Way to the Kingdom is unusually suited for biblical comparison because Benner organizes much of the book around the actual words of Christ.
That does not make every interpretation automatically correct.
It makes the book an opportunity for study.
- Does the interpretation agree with Scripture?
- Does it preserve God as the source?
- Does it preserve Christ as the way, truth, life, door, resurrection, and vine?
- Does it preserve justification by faith?
- Does it preserve the cross and resurrection together?
- Does it preserve new-creation identity?
- Does it preserve the Holy Ghost as Comforter and Teacher?
- Does it agree with the whole witness of Scripture?
The Central Question
Beneath the individual chapters lies one governing question:
Jesus tells us to seek the Kingdom first.
He tells us to abide in Him.
He identifies Himself as the way, truth, life, door, resurrection, and vine.
Paul announces that the old man is crucified, the believer is raised with Christ, Christ lives within, righteousness is received in Him, and the believer has already been translated into the Kingdom of God's Son.
The way to the Kingdom ultimately leads back to Christ. The Kingdom has a King. The new life has a source. The branch has a vine. The believer does not enter by becoming an independent god, but through union with the risen Christ.
Seek first the Kingdom. Abide in Christ. Believe. Receive. Walk in newness of life.