We have followed this theme of remnants and apostates throughout the Bible. We have seen how throughout the Old Testament, the people of God were a small minority that was persecuted and rejected by both those who rejected YHWH and many who professed to belong to YHWH but lived in wickedness. In the days of Noah, a single family was spared. In the days of Abraham, a single family was called out. In the days of Elijah, only 7000 Jews remained faithful to YHWH. This theme also holds true in the New Covenant.
Tag: Kingdom of God
The New Covenant and Antithesis: Part 5 – Kingdom Ethics – Non-Violence, Restoration and Reconciliation
We have already seen how God established a system of retributive justice to govern the created order in the Noahic Covenant. This is an outworking of the very nature of God, which is Justice. Since God is Just, every act of injustice and unrighteousness must be punished by Him. This punishment is proportional to the injustice or unrighteousness committed (Gen 9:6). This was the principle God established for the governing of His kingdom on earth in the Old Covenant (Ex 21:23-25, Lev 24:18-21, Deut 19:21). However, Christ Himself declares that this principle of justice does not characterise the citizens of the kingdom of God in the New Covenant (Matt 5:38-42).
The New Covenant and Antithesis: Part 4 – Kingdom Ethics – Power, Stability and Money
The Old Covenant Israelite theocracy was typological of the heavenly kingdom. In that covenant we see that the Lord made several promises of earthly prosperity to His people, if they were obedient to Him - “And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee” (Deut 28:11). We have also seen how all of these earthly blessings were typological pointers of the eternal blessings we have in Christ, with the apostle Paul saying that all the promises of God are yea and Amen in Christ (2 Cor 1:20). They were thus typological of kingdom blessings and not an end in and of themselves. Since the kingdom of God is not of this world and doesn’t claim worldly territory, worldly wealth no longer serves as a covenant blessing to its citizens. Christ Himself teaches this when He declares, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's” (Mk 2:17). The implications of that statement are important to understand. Christ isn’t saying that worldly wealth is an intrinsic evil but He is declaring that it is not something that is part of His kingdom.
The New Covenant and Antithesis: Part 1 – Pilgrim Identity
The Lord instructs His disciples on their antithesis from the world in saying - “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19). It is because the Christian does not belong to this world, that its citizens hate him. According to our Lord, this hatred is to be an expected aspect of the Christian life and not one that we will see abated in this present age. In fact Christ emphasises this pilgrim separation in His prayer for His people (John 17:14-16). The Christian is not of the world even as their king is not of the world (John 17:16). Looking at this through a kingdom lens helps us understand why Christ emphasises that both He and His people are not of this world. It aligns with the theme that the Scriptures have drawn out so far, that the world belongs to Satan and is under a curse, awaiting destruction.
A Brief Look at Biblical Gospel Presentations
Christ’s perfection of the role of Priest-King is best demonstrated in His triumph over Satan and the forces of darkness. In fact John notes that the purpose of Christ’s incarnation was that he might destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8). The Gospel message is not about a legal transaction. There is a temptation, particularly in the West to view the Gospel as primarily being a legal transaction between Jesus and the Father to save people. However, the Gospel is primarily a kingdom message that tells a cosmic story of the triumph of the Anointed One of God, over His enemies. The narrative of the Scriptures can be described as the glorious tale of the preeminence of Christ and His victory over His enemies. The kingdom of God will prevail while the kingdom of Satan will be destroyed.
Understanding the Great Commission
We read about the Great Commission in Matt 28:18-20, where Christ says - “18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” The Dominionist reading of the Text goes like this - Since Christ has been given all authority, Satan has been divested all his authority. Therefore, it is the duty of the church to invade his kingdom and establish itself over the earth. Christ’s statement that His kingdom is not of the earth refers to its origins in heaven and not to its purpose in this age. Since the Great Commission calls for the Church to teach all nations to observe all of God’s commandments, one of the ends of the proclamation of the Gospel is the transformation of societies and establishment of righteous laws. On the surface this sounds like a coherent understanding of the passage. Yet, this departs from the themes and motifs that have already been revealed in the Old Testament and are further revealed in the New Testament.
Christ the Substance of the Davidic Covenant
So far we have seen how Jesus Christ fulfils the covenants God made with Adam, Abraham and Moses. There is one more covenant that we looked at. This unconditional covenant made with David would see his descendant rule an everlasting kingdom. In his discourse to the Galatian church we have already seen how Paul interprets Old Testament passages of promise in the context of the Abrahamic covenant (Gal 3:16-19). Using his hermeneutic, a reading of 1 Chron 17:11-14 would show that the Seed mentioned in the passage does not refer to Solomon or any other flesh and blood descendant of David but rather Jesus Christ.
The Inauguration of Christ’s Kingdom
Let us use some of these Apostolic methods of interpreting Biblical prophecy to understand when Christ’s Kingdom began. If we understand when this Kingdom of God was inaugurated we can devote ourselves to studying Christ Himself as the substance of Scriptures and how that ought to affect our lives. Placing the inauguration of Christ’s kingdom is critical to understanding where we are today and where we are headed. Is the Kingdom of God a future event? Or is it something that has already been inaugurated?
Babel and the Abrahamic Promises
The Great Flood had cleansed the world of all creatures except for Noah, his household and two of every kind of creature. The aftermath of the deluge was God’s covenant with Noah and his descendants to preserve the world and natural order until its final destruction. Humanity however, had not learnt its lesson. Rather than accept the curse, their fate, cease from their sins and await God’s redemption, they would now seek to engage in a project to build their own Eden, a temple by which they could make a name for themselves. This carnal impulse to establish utopian religious and civilizational projects in this age is typified by the Tower of Babel. In it we see both the continuation of the disinheritance of Adam’s race and the beginnings of God’s plan of redemption for Adam’s race.
Deo Vicit Mundum 