The kingdom of God was first realized in the Garden of Eden.  In this wonderful paradise—which is the first phase of God’s kingdom on the earth—God was sovereign and His sovereignty was delegated to man who would rule over the earth.  We see this in Genesis 1:26:

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So we see that, in the very beginning, man was made a part of God’s kingdom and was given authority over the creation.  But man’s authority was not his own; it was derived from God.  And so man was required to be submissive to God’s authority, obeying Him completely.  As…