“We are not called to build the kingdom of glory, but to carry a cross in the kingdom of grace. To forget the cause of missions is to forget the purpose of Christ in a world still spared from destruction. The purpose of your life must be the purpose of Christ’s death.”
- Edmund P. Clowney, Called to the Ministry
I want you to picture a couple of diagrams in your head. I know, it would better if you could see, but just imagine. This was the Jewish mindset. You have two ages: this age and the age to come. This age is present and evil; the age to come is the age in the future where the Messiah reigns and his enemies are destroyed and there is peace and righteousness. They saw this age going in a straight line, then the Messiah, then off into the age to come. But that’s not how Jesus explained things which is part of the reason why they didn’t like him as their Messiah. For the Jesus, and the rest of the New Testament, the two ages work like this. You have this age, then overlapping it is the age to come. When Messiah came he announced the in-breaking of the age to come which was realized in principle. This in-breaking is called the kingdom of God. With the coming of Christ and especially his death and resurrection, the present evil age has become in principle the age to come. But it’s not a clean break from one to the other. They overlap such that this age is growing into what it is in principle. And when the ideal announced by Christ which broke in during his life becomes the reality, then the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.
Here’s an analogy. It’s not a perfect analogy. So don’t press it too far. But it’s kind of like election day and inauguration day. In this country the president is elected on the first Tuesday in November, but his presidency doesn’t officially begin until January 20. He’s won. His opponent has been defeated. It’s all in the papers and on the internet. The whole country preparing for the transition. The winner starts forming his cabinet and putting together his administration. The new era has begun, but on the other hand it hasn’t. See, in one sense, we live in the time between the election and inauguration. Christ has defeated sin and Satan and death. It is appropriate to talk about Christ as the King. The news is all over the place. And we are supposed to make sure everyone hears about this news. But opposition to King is still strong, and in some ways, growing stronger all time. He is the already, but not yet King. And it will be this way until his enemies are thoroughly defeated and his reign fully in place.
This already and not yet is really important. It’s how the kingdom works and how your salvation works. What’s true on a macro level is true on a micro level too. Your life is not a straight line with a clean break between old man and new man, or non-Christian and Christian. It doesn’t work like that–unconverted, selfish, prideful, boom, in Christ, now I’m completely holy. What happens is that you have your life outside of Christ then you are converted, regenerated, justified, adopted, all of that and now you are positionally in Christ. But who you in actuality is not yet that Christlike. Which is why New Testament ethics are based on who you are in Christ. Be who you are. Work out your salvation. Make your calling and election sure. In other words, grow into in reality who Christ has made you to be positionally.
"Too much 'kingdom now' leads to arrogance and presumption, demanding healings as if on tap. Too much 'kingdom then' leads to pessimism and fatalism, leaving healing to 'if it is God's will'. 'Balance' leads to neutralising of the radical edges, loss of risk taking, a passive middle road and theologically correct approach to healing... It leads to persevering faith, optimistic realism, dependence on God, discerning the moment, honoring people's dignity, respecting the unknown, and leaving the results with God."
- Alexander Venter, Doing Healing, page 78.
Can I pray for you right now? These seven words—seven simply supernatural words—capture the essence of the five core values of the Vineyard movement:
- The Theology and Practice of the Kingdom of God
- Experiencing God
- Reconciling Community
- Compassionate Ministry
- Culturally Relevant Mission
At the Vineyard of Champaign-Urbana , where I pastor, we encourage everyone to be attentive and ready to speak these seven words wherever the opportunity arises—whether in the church building, on the street, or in our homes or workplaces. And in this practice of praying for others, we express the Vineyard’s five core values.
We offer to pray because we believe the kingdom of God has come, and we trust that at any moment the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit may break in and bring healing to our broken world.
We experience God when we respond to the Holy Spirit’s nudges and ask, “Can I pray for you right now?” As we pray, we sense God’s heart, we share his love, and we receive his guidance. We are actually partnering with God! His empowering presence fills us and flows through us.
Hat Tip: Rick Ianiello
If we would understand the Gospels, we would be wise to understand that the good news they were reporting was the good news proclaimed not just about Jesus, but by Jesus. The good news is that the kingdom has come. This is the message of Jesus: the kingdom of God is here.I agree with everything he says. Everywhere I look I see this Kingdom of God Theological Framework seemingly taking over systems of thought where I would not have expected it. There is now a pretty widespread consensus about the inaugurated eschatology position regarding Jesus' teaching on the Kingdom.
On the other hand, the bad news is that the kingdom has come. The life, death, resurrection, ascension and return of Christ is to us who have been called, the very aroma of life. To those who are still outside the kingdom, it is the stench of death. It is the same kingdom either way, but for the seed of the woman (Christians) it is blessing, and for the seed of the serpent it is cursing. That this one kingdom can mean one thing for one group and the opposite for another can help explain how we have come to conflate some terms over time. That is, the difference between seeing the coming of the kingdom as an event of joy or of dread is found in one simple distinction -- do we trust in the finished work of Christ alone or not? The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent began in the same place, as enemies of the kingdom. We are all by nature children of wrath. But it is as we are gifted with repentance and believe that we move from darkness to light, that we are adopted into the very family of God. That's good news. Better still, the king who has adopted us, He is now king indeed. That's very good news.
Our gospel is a truncated shell of this great reality if the good news is merely that we don't have to go to hell. It gets only slightly better if it means that our souls go to heaven. The fullness of the gospel is found in the fullness of the kingdom. Jesus is about the business of remaking all things. He is, after all, the first-born of the new creation. He is remaking all the created order that groans under the burden of our sin. He is remaking all the political order, as all kings everywhere learn to kiss the Son, lest He be angry (Ps. 2). He is remaking the church, His bride, removing from us corporately every blot and blemish. And He is remaking every one of us, reshaping us pots into vessels of grace.
We are a part of this good news precisely because He came and lived a life of perfect obedience in our place. We are a part of this precisely because He suffered the wrath of the Father that is due to us for our sins. We are a part of this because He has given us each a new heart that responds to His calling with repentance and faith. We bring nothing to the table but our need. Jesus has done it all. We are His workmanship, judged innocent by His death, judged righteous by His life.
There is still more good news. We are not merely by the good news of His atonement made citizens of that kingdom we are called to seek. We are not merely judged righteous by His righteousness that we were called to seek. We are by the same Spirit made kings and queens with Him. We are not just subjects but rulers. We are seated even now with Him in the heavenly places. Our calling is to believe these promises. Our calling is to be of good cheer, for He has already overcome the world (John 16:33). We do not wait for His kingdom to come, for it is here. Instead, we strive to make it ever more visible, as we make all things subject to His glorious reign.
Optimism is not foolishness for the believer, because hope has invaded history. The future has apocalyptically erupted in the present in the death and resurrection of the Messiah. The new creation has been propelled forward, as a man has been raised from the dead. Furthermore, a community of people have been incorporated into this risen man, and share in his future-present life. The church is thus the signpost of new creation; the gathering of people whose existence points to the way things will be.Quoted from Christians in Context: from orthodoxy to orthopraxy.: Viewing the Present in Light of the Future
And this city, corrupt and broken, is not as it one day will be. God will make all things new, including the created order. Justice will prevail, Jesus will be king, and all will kneel to him as Lord. Reconciliation will be universal and eternal.
The future will not be an endless repetition of the present. The future has already arrived in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and in the constitution of his church. And these events remind us that all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.
I want to view the present through the grid of God's future. If I know that God's righteousness will ultimately and inevitably be demonstrated, then despair is needless and foolish.
- George E. Ladd, The Presence of the Future: The Eschatology of Biblical Realism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974); 337-338.Indeed, the church is an eschatological community not only because it witnesses to God's future victory but because its mission is to display the life of the eschatological Kingdom in the present evil age. The very existence of the church is designed to be a witness to the world of the triumph of God's kingdom accomplished in Jesus.
As regards the kingdom of God? Theologians such as Ladd say that the kingdom is both present and absent, but this basically means we focus on the absent! But I didn’t come to understand the kingdom through theologians. I came to the understanding when I was a young Baptist Minister. I noticed that I spent a lot of my time trying to get people to come and hear me, and other ministers did the same. But when I looked at Jesus his problem was getting away from people! So I said there has to be something different here. So I found what every scholar will tell you, that Jesus’ message was the kingdom of God. He proclaimed it, he manifested it and he taught it. When he sent out his disciples, he didn’t send them out to teach (that’s the hard part), but to proclaim and manifest (the easy part!) It was very powerful. …
When you look at the Bible you see that the kingdom of God is God acting. It is the range of God’s effective will. When I pray ‘thy kingdom come, thy will be done’ I am praying first that God’s will may be done in my own life and then around me. This is the open door for his teachings, for it is his effective will that I bless and don’t curse, that I let my yes be yes and my no be no, that I not be motivated by anger and contempt etc … (as outlined in the Sermon on the Mount). So as someone who is living in the kingdom, I am praying that this may become a true expression of who I am by inner transformation. Discipleship is learning how to do that.
"For just as spring break is a taste of summer time in the midst of the semester, so also the kingdom of God is present in the midst of history, as we taste of its blessings now, and look forward to the summer time of God’s kingdom when Christ returns, the Holy City the New Jerusalem descends, and the whole creation is restored in new heavens and the new earth. Amen, come Lord Jesus.”
- David Naugle, “The Gospel of the Kingdom of God” (A chapel talk delivered at Dallas Baptist University on April 2, 2004)
"With the coming of the Spirit, the church has a foretaste of the salvation of the kingdom: the kingdom "banquet" has been prepared by the work of Christ, but it waits for a future time, when all the guests have been assembled (Luke 14:15-24). Yet those who follow Christ have already begun to taste the power of salvation that will accomplish there renewal of all things. As the church enjoys this foretaste of the banquet to come, it becomes the prime exhibit of what the future kingdom will look like. Think here of a film preview, a few minutes of actual footage from a film not yet released. This trailer is shown so that the potential audience can catch a glimpse of what the whole film will look like once it is ready to be shown in its entirety. One important function of the church is thus to be a picture, a brief representation, a sample of what the future in God's kingdom will be."-Hat Tip: Take Your Vitamin Z: The Church is Like A Movie Preview
Craig G. Bartholomew and Michael W. Goheen The Drama of Scripture, p. 200.
"There are countless models and handbooks available on church membership recruitment, but there is little to instruct the average American Christian in how to announce the reign of God.”
David Lowes Watson, “Christ All in All: The Recovery of the Gospel for Evangelism in the United States” in The Church Between Gospel & Culture
Hat Tip: Missional Church Network
For a good book on proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, try Breakthrough: Discovering the Kingdom by Derek Morphew. It's listed in my Shelfari bookcase in the right column of this blog.
I’m suggesting that spiritually empty, poorly led and poorly taught evangelicals are mistaking the Kingdom of God on earth for the victory of their political and cultural preferences. The Culture War is a poor replacement for the mission of the church as a Jesus shaped community, pointing to the eschatological Kingdom of God.
The Gospel is about what God has accomplished through the person and work of Jesus Christ. This is big news. It involves rescue from judgment for sin and a restored relationship with God, and his restoration of creation.Couldn't have said it better. The Gospel is about Jesus, and what He has done for us. So now I (we) need to say this to to all those who need to hear it, because it really is good news!
The Gospel is good news about what God has done, never about what we must do or have done. It's good news, not good advice.
The Gospel is:
* good news for the poor and victims of injustice because God (not us) has acted
* about individual salvation and the restoration of the cosmos
* about individual salvation and the kingdom (reign) of God
The Gospel is not:
* what we do to promote justice
* about loving God or loving our neighbors, because this is both Law and a right response to the Gospel (what we do), but it is not the Gospel (what God has done)
Our efforts to promote justice, obey God, and love others are necessary implications of the Gospel, but they are not the Gospel itself. It is wrong to ignore the implications; it is also wrong to confuse the them with the Gospel.
God is uniting all that's been torn apart in Christ (Ephesians 1:10). That is Gospel. We work to unite what's broken around us. That's not Gospel; that is our response to the Gospel.
The Gospel is all about what God has done, not what we are doing.
The Kingdom of God, though, is an explosively veiled inbreaking into the present world order of the reign of Jesus himself as emperor of the cosmos. It ought then to change the way we see ourselves, and our place in this age and in the one to come.
A Kingdom apathy leads to carnality, the very kind of carnality we see in so many of our listless, unevangelistic, divided churches. At the same time, a "Kingdom only" mentality can seek to transform the present order into the Kingdom of God through means other than the power of Christ. That leads, as it turns out, to carnality too. Ultimately, the Kingdom comes not by messianic zeal but by the zeal of the Messiah.
“The term has recently been translated as ‘good news.’ That sounds attractive, but it falls far short of the order of magnitude of what is actually meant by the word evangelion. This term figures in the vocabulary of the Roman emperors, who understood themselves as lords, saviors, and redeemers of the world…. The idea was that what comes from the emperor is a saving message, that it is not just a piece of news, but a changing of the world for the better.
“When the Evangelists adopt this word, and it thereby becomes the generic name for their writings, what they mean to tell us is this: What the emperors, who pretend to be gods, illegitimately claim, really occurs here - a message endowed with plenary authority, a message that is not just talk but reality…. the Gospel is not just informative speech, but performative speech - not just the imparting of information, but action, efficacious power that enters into the world to save and transform. Mark speaks of the ‘Gospel of God,’ the point being that it is not the emperors who can save the world, but God. And it is here that God’s word, which is at once word and deed, appears; it is here that what the emperors merely assert, but cannot actually perform, truly takes place. For here it is the real Lord of the world - the Living God - who goes into action.
“The core of the Gospel is this: The Kingdom of God is at hand.“
Did you guess who said it?
Pope Benedict XVI!
One of the primary differences between a spirituality of desperation and a spirituality of Kingdom living is that life in the Kingdom is a matter of experiencing the Holy Spirit in normal life, and there is not a constant need to create situations where God proves himself by interventions and messages or Christians constantly must assert their certainty about matters where certainty isn’t required or even possible.
Kingdom living doesn’t live in a desperate mindset, afraid that atheism, secularism or Islam will “win” while Christians lose. Kingdom living doesn’t try to create an alternative universe where every intellectual issue is dealt with by adopting a Christian alternative, i.e. Christian math, Christian biology, Christian experts, Christian everything. (And trust me, I’m not just talking about Protestants or Fundamentalists here.)......
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I just want to make the point that the Holy Spirit shapes us like Jesus, that his Kingdom has his character and his character is one of Kingdom living that is expressed in the work of the Holy Spirit in normal life and normal callings. In Kingdom living, we don’t need to demand God prove himself or require others to buy into the various kind of props we’ve built and pills we’ve taken to keep our faith intact.
Listen: If you faith is falling apart in the world in which you live, the answer is Jesus and the Holy Spirit, not more Christian radio, more miracles and more people shouting at you and the rest of us. Find a community that leads you to live your life in the Kingdom and don’t fall into the ditches of this crisis or that crisis. Replace a spirituality of desperation with the peace, love and joy of the Holy Spirit in the here and now of your life.
