The Arrival of God's Kingdom

Faith

Feb 28

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Editor’s note: S. M. Baugh is Professor Emeritus of New Testament, Westminster Seminary California.

Theologians today often talk about the kingdom of God being “already and not yet.” This is an attempt to express the New Testament’s teaching that the Son of God came to inaugurate the kingdom of God in this world at his incarnation “already” but that he will “not yet” consummate it until he returns at the end of this age. And by “kingdom of God” we mean the new creation, the new heavens and new earth pictured so clearly, for example, in Revelation 21-22. This kingdom being “already” is foundational for describing Christ’s work at his first advent, which has impacted cosmic history to its core.

When was the kingdom of God inaugurated?

To see that the kingdom of God has been inaugurated, take just one aspect of it as an example: the kingship of Jesus Christ over the new creation. By virtue of his work of redemption for his people, all authority in heaven and on earth is his (Matt. 28:18; Col. 2:10, 15) both in this age and in the world to come (Eph. 1:20-22; Phil. 2:9-11) such that he now “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3). At Christ’s triumphant ascent to his Father’s right hand in resurrection glory, he took his seat with his Father on his eternal throne (Rev. 3:21), from which life in abundance will flow eternally (John 10:10) as the center of the new creation (Rev. 22:1). This means that all who are united to Christ Jesus by faith in him are themselves caught up into new creation existence already: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17; cf. Eph. 2:10).

However, granted that the kingdom of God is “already” in some important ways, this raises the question of exactly when it was inaugurated. We read in the New Testament, for example, in places which summarize the proclamation of both John the Baptist and Jesus, that the kingdom of God had drawn near in their ministries (Matt. 3:1; 4:17; cf. Luke 10:9, 11). But when was it inaugurated? I had breakfast with the managing editor of Beautiful Christian Life recently, and she asked this excellent question. The following is a brief answer sketching out some key phases.

The King’s Birth

In his book on the Holy Spirit, the English puritan John Owen writes:

We have formerly declared the work of the Holy Spirit in preparing and forming the natural body of Christ. This was the beginning of the new creation.[1]

Owen is referring to the fact that both Matthew and Luke testify that the birth of Christ was effected by the Holy Spirit through the conception of the virgin Mary (Matt. 1:18, 20; Luke 1:35). And it is fair to say that where the Holy Spirit appears in the New Testament, we are dealing with some activity of new creation. And since the kingdom of God is the new creation, the Spirit was bringing in the kingdom of God at the conception and birth of Jesus.

The birth of Christ, then, was a kingdom event. The way to approach this is to observe that the kingdom of God at this point was focused upon the entrance of its messianic king:

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:30-33; cf. Luke 8:28)

The Baptism of Jesus

Baptism for believers itself is a complex spiritual event, but only because it is rooted in Christ’s own baptism, which was his inauguration into his earthly ministry culminating in his death for his people. For example, Jesus spoke of his impending death on the cross as his baptism (Luke 12:50). And Paul speaks of our baptism as union with Christ’s death:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death. (Rom. 6:3-4)

At Christ’s baptism, the Spirit descended upon him (Mark 1:10), symbolizing his anointing for his Spirit-filled ministry. And his earthly ministry focused on his atoning death on the cross (e.g., Mark 10:45) culminating in his resurrection from the dead through the Spirit (Rom. 1:4). At his baptism, then, the kingdom of God was drawing nearer.

The Earthly Words and Works of Jesus

The nature of Christ’s kingdom work for his people was demonstrated both by his teaching and actions with royal power. For example, he grants to his people possession of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:3, 10), constituting an eternal inheritance in an imperishable new creation (Heb. 9:15; 12:26-28; 1 Pet. 1:4). This teaching stunned Jesus’ hearers because it came to them through royal, divine authority (Matt. 7:28-29).

And as a sign of his authority to accomplish his word, Jesus worked through the power of the Holy Spirit, which demonstrated that he was bringing in life from death and its enslavement to the devil and his minions for children of wrath (Eph. 2:1-3; Heb. 2:14-15). As the Lord himself said: “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matt. 12:28; cf. Luke 11:20).

The Cross

When Christ Jesus died on the cross, he put death to death (Rom. 6:9) and entered into the glory of the new creation in consequence (Luke 23:43; John 17:1-5). What is more, his death made our Lord the mediator of the new, eternal covenant, which acts as the constitutional basis of our eternal inheritance of the kingdom of God (Heb. 9:14-15; Matt. 25:34).

The cross, then, is the pivotal event for the installation of the kingdom of God. The king has earned his new creational dominion at his Father’s right hand by suffering the wrath due for the sins of his people. This point is made in Hebrews 2 where, after quoting Psalm 8 about the dominion of the human race over God’s first creation, the author goes on to say that we don’t see our dominion at present but we do see the head of the new creation of God,

…namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (Heb. 2:9)

This crowning “with glory and honor” becomes the main theme of the worship of the resurrected Lamb at the scene of his enthronement over all creation in Revelation (Rev. 5:9-14).

Pentecost

After his resurrection, Jesus told his eleven remaining disciples that he held authority over all creation (Matt. 28:16, 18). The kingdom of God had acquired its king, who then charged the apostles with gaining new citizens for him from throughout his earthly realm. Yet the Lord knew that this would overwhelm his shaky followers (Matt. 28:17), so he assured them that they would not go out alone but that he would be with them “even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). This stunning promise is not new, for Jesus had promised earlier that he would not leave his people as orphans but he would come to us through the person of the Holy Spirit (John 14:18-29).

Just before his departure to his heavenly throne, Jesus told the disciples to await the baptism of the Holy Spirit and power in Jerusalem (Acts 1:4-5, 8). They obeyed and were in the city with about 120 other followers (Acts 1:15) during the big harvest festival of Pentecost, which drew crowds of Jewish pilgrims “from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5-11). In other words, people from around the world witnessed the Spirit come upon this small band of Jesus’ people with “a sound like a mighty rushing wind” (Acts 2:2) and tongues of fire resting on each of these Galileans (Acts 2:3, 7), who then prophesied about God’s mighty works (Acts 2:3, 11).

The fire did not rest on the building but on Christ’s people, symbolizing that he was and is building his church from “living stones” into a mighty, worldwide temple for God’s own dwelling place in the Spirit in these last days (1 Cor. 3:16-17; Eph. 2:21-22; Heb. 1:2; 1 Pet. 2:5). Dennis Johnson rightly says from this: “Pentecost was a new creation.”[2] And as a new creation event, Pentecost marks the permanent establishment of the kingdom of God now until “the close of the age” when it will be consummated at Christ’s second coming: “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matt. 13:39, 43).

Conclusion

To describe the kingdom of God as “already” and “not yet” can be confusing and makes it seem like a mere riddle. But this is a way by which we attempt to express the real presence of God’s eternal, new creational kingdom in our age due to the finished work of Christ. We have looked at a few ways in which this initial installment of the kingdom is taught in the New Testament with a particular focus upon Christ’s kingship and rule in this age.

The fact is, the different facets of the kingdom of God can rightly be viewed as the central theme of all of Scripture, so there is much more to say. For now, though, we should come away from the knowledge of the kingdom’s presence throughout this age with greater assurance of our Lord’s sovereign care for his people as those to whom he has graciously granted the thrilling truth: “[F]or theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:3, 10). We are heirs of an imperishable inheritance kept in heaven for us and for which we ourselves are guarded in the power of God the Father in his Son through the Holy Spirit (1 Pet. 1:2-5).

S. M. Baugh, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary California. He is the author of Evangelical Exegetical Commentary: Ephesians and The Majesty on High: Introduction to the Kingdom of God in the New Testament. Dr. Baugh is a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and is currently ministering in the church in his home state of Oregon.