Now as George E. Ladd, Robert T. Henderson, Ralph P. Martin, Ronald J. Sider, N. T. Wright, and other NT scholars have shown[1], these OT and NT texts that prophesy both the coming of Messiah and the coming of God’s kingdom point to the fact of a three-stage unfolding or development of this kingdom—based on Jesus’s own teaching in the Gospels—which is best understood and expressed in terms of a kingdom that is “already present” in the life and ministry of Jesus and his Church, and “yet not fully manifested” in all its power and glory until Jesus returns at the end of history. Robert T. Henderson explains as follows:
Jesus and the New Testament writers speak of the kingdom of God in three different tenses: As having already come, as now present; and as yet to come. Other Christians today speak of the “already-but-not-yet kingdom.” When Jesus the Lord came he did in fact come to inaugurate his kingdom. That is his first advent. At the present time we are between the ages in the sense that while this present age is still with us, the age to come has come upon us so that the kingdom of God is dynamically present. But the kingdom is not consummated until Jesus returns. This understanding [of God’s kingdom] is critical...It gives us a sense of history, of calling and identity, of purpose and ultimate triumph.[2]
As we look further at what Isa. 61:1-4 and Joel 2:28-32 have to say about the Messiah and his work of liberation and healing, we see that after he suffers terrible things under the hands of his own people who reject him, the Messiah pours out the Holy Spirit upon his new community. And it is this community which not only continues to proclaim the coming of God’s kingdom, but which also continues to carry on a ministry of liberation, healing, and restoration, resulting in a new model of human society—human society as God always meant it to be. On this, Stephen C. Mott comments:
Because the church is a manifestation of the Reign of God, the norms that guide it must exemplify the highest vision of human community. It cannot leave to another group the effort to live wholly according to the teachings of Jesus. In the Pauline letters a direct consequence for the ethical life of the church is drawn from the fact that, as “the fullness of him who fills everything in everything” (Eph. 1:22-23), it is the instrument of Christ’s work. When “Christ is everything and in everything,” then all external distinctions of status cease to exist:
“Put on the new nature [literally, the new human being]…where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, Barbarian, Scythian [the savage par excellence], slave, free person,
but Christ is everything and in everything.” (Col. 3:9-11)
The unique character of this new nature derives from the fact that, when the body of
Christ (v. 15) truly acts as Christ’s body, it is totally ruled by him...In three passages Paul states that the putting on of Christ, the putting on of the new human being, or the creation of the new human being, abolishes status distinctions in the church: Colossians 3:9-11; Ephesians 2:14-16; and Galatians 3:27-28 (cf. Gal. 6:15 [“new creation”]).[3]
[1] Ladd, The Gospel of the Kingdom; Henderson, Joy To The World: Spreading the Good News of the Kingdom; Martin, Reconciliation: A Study of Paul’s Theology; Sider, One-Sided Christianity? Uniting the Church to Heal a Lost and Broken World; Wright, Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision.
[2] Robert T. Henderson. “The Gospel of the Kingdom of God,” Joy To The World: Spreading the Good News of the Kingdom (Zondervan, 1991), p. 41.
[3] Stephen C. Mott. “The Church as Counter-Community,” Biblical Ethics and Social Change, pp. 131-132.
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