God Glorified In Mans Dependence, Revised Edition (With Active Table of Contents)

The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume Two

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In his desolate home, shut away from the busy scenes of life and from active labor, John could commune with the King of kings and study more closely the manifestations of divine power in the book of nature and the pages of inspiration. The wonderful success which attended the preaching of the gospel by the apostles and their fellow laborers increased the hatred of the enemies of Christ. They made every effort to hinder its progress, and finally succeeded in enlisting the power of the Roman emperor against the Christians. A terrible persecution ensued, in which many of the followers of Christ were put to death.

The apostle John was now an aged man, but with great zeal and success he continued to preach the doctrine of Christ. He had a testimony of power, which his adversaries could not controvert, and which greatly encouraged his brethren. When the faith of the Christians would seem to waver under the fierce opposition they were forced to meet, the apostle would repeat, with great dignity, power, and eloquence, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;.

The bitterest hatred was kindled against John for his unwavering fidelity to the cause of Christ. He was the [71] last survivor of the disciples who are intimately connected with Jesus, and his enemies decided that his testimony must be silenced. If this could be accomplished, they thought the doctrine of Christ would not spread; and if treated with severity, it might soon die out of the world.

John was accordingly summoned to Rome to be tried for his faith. His doctrines were misstated. False witnesses accused him as a seditious person, publicly teaching theories which would subvert the nation. The apostle presented his faith in a clear and convincing manner, with such simplicity and candor that his words had a powerful effect.

His hearers were astonished at his wisdom and eloquence. But the more convincing his testimony, the deeper the hatred of those who opposed the truth. The emperor was filled with rage, and blasphemed the name of God and of Christ. He could not controvert the apostle's reasoning or match the power which attended the utterance of truth, and he determined to silence its faithful advocate. Here we see how hard the heart may become when obstinately set against the purposes of God. The foes of the church were determined to maintain their pride and power before the people.

By the emperor's decree, John was banished to the Isle of Patmos, condemned, as he tells us, "for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ" Revelation 1: But the enemies of Christ utterly failed in their purpose to silence His faithful witness. From his place of exile comes the apostle's voice, [72] reaching even to the end of time, proclaiming the most thrilling truths ever presented to mortals.

Patmos, a barren rocky island in the Aegean Sea, had been chosen by the Roman government as a place of banishment for criminals. But to the servant of God this gloomy abode proved to be the gate of heaven. He was shut away from the busy scenes of life and from active labor as an evangelist, but he was not excluded from the presence of God. In his desolate home he could commune with the King of kings and study more closely the manifestations of divine power in the book of nature and the pages of inspiration.

He delighted to meditate upon the great work of creation and to adore the power of the Divine Architect.

In former years his eyes had been greeted with the sight of wood-covered hills, green valleys, and fruitful plains; and in all the beauties of nature he had delighted to trace the wisdom and skill of the Creator. He was now surrounded with scenes that to many would appear gloomy and uninteresting. But to John it was otherwise. He could read the most important lessons in the wild, desolate rocks, the mysteries of the great deep, and the glories of the firmament.

To him all bore the impress of God's power and declared His glory. The apostle beheld around him the witnesses of the Flood, which deluged the earth because the inhabitants ventured to transgress the law of God. The rocks, thrown up from the great deep and from the earth by the breaking forth of the waters, brought vividly to his mind [73] the terrors of that awful outpouring of God's wrath. But while all that surrounded him below appeared desolate and barren, the blue heavens that bent above the apostle on lonely Patmos were as bright and beautiful as the skies above his own loved Jerusalem.

Let man once look upon the glory of the heavens in the night season and mark the work of God's power in the hosts thereof, and he is taught a lesson of the greatness of the Creator in contrast with his own littleness. If he has cherished pride and self-importance because of wealth, or talents, or personal attractions, let him go out in the beautiful night and look upon the starry heavens, and learn to humble his proud spirit in the presence of the Infinite One.

In the voice of many waters—deep calling unto deep—the prophet heard the voice of the Creator. The sea, lashed to fury by the merciless winds, represented to him the wrath of an offended God. The mighty waves, in their most terrible commotion restrained within the limits appointed by an invisible hand, spoke to John of an infinite power controlling the deep. And in contrast he saw and felt the folly of feeble mortals, but worms of the dust, who glory in their wisdom and strength and set their hearts against the Ruler of the universe, as though God were altogether such a one as themselves.

How blind and senseless is human pride! One hour of God's blessing in the sunshine and rain upon the earth will do more to change the face of nature than man with all his boasted knowledge and persevering efforts can accomplish during a lifetime. In the surroundings of his island home the exiled prophet read the manifestations of divine power, and in all the works of nature held communion with his God.

The most ardent longing of the soul after God, the most fervent prayers, went up to heaven from rocky Patmos. As John looked upon the rocks, he was reminded of Christ, the rock of his strength, in whose shelter he could hide without a fear. The Lord's day mentioned by John was the Sabbath, the day on which Jehovah rested after the great work of creation, and which He blessed and sanctified because He had rested upon it.

The Sabbath was as sacredly observed by John upon the Isle of Patmos as when he was among the people, preaching upon that day. By the barren rocks surrounding him, John was reminded of rocky Horeb, and how, when God spoke His law to the people there, He said, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy" Exodus The Son of God spoke to Moses from the mountain-top. God made the rocks His sanctuary. His temple was the everlasting hills. The Divine Legislator descended upon the rocky mountain to speak His law in the hearing of all the people, that they might be impressed by the grand and awful exhibition of His power and glory, and fear to transgress His commandments.

God spoke His law amid thunders and lightnings and the thick cloud upon the top of the mountain, and His voice was as the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud. The law of Jehovah [75] was unchangeable, and the tablets upon which He wrote that law were solid rock, signifying the immutability of His precepts. Rocky Horeb became a sacred place to all who loved and revered the law of God. While John was contemplating the scenes of Horeb, the Spirit of Him who sanctified the seventh day came upon him.

He contemplated the sin of Adam in transgressing the divine law, and the fearful result of that transgression. The infinite love of God, in giving His Son to redeem a lost race, seemed too great for language to express. As he presents it in his epistle he calls upon the church and the world to behold it. It was a mystery to John that God could give His Son to die for rebellious man.

And he was lost in amazement that the plan of salvation, devised at such a cost to Heaven, should be refused by those for whom the infinite sacrifice had been made. John was shut in with God. As he learned more of the divine character through the works of creation, his reverence for God increased.

He often asked himself, Why do not men, who are wholly dependent upon God, seek to be at peace with Him by willing obedience? He is infinite in wisdom, and there is no limit to His power. He controls the heavens with their numberless worlds. He preserves in perfect harmony the grandeur and [76] beauty of the things which He has created. But key to the groundwork for that golden age was the work of one in whom and through whom God was working and would work. If it has begun, then what does that mean for understanding the Kingdom in the New Testament and in its potential presence today? On one point all are agreed.

He preached the arrival of the messianic age and its activity of deliverance, contrasting the greatness of the Kingdom era with the era of the Baptist, which seemingly had now passed Luke 4: The word is compared to seed. The image extends in other parables to include the image of a Mustard Seed planted.

At the start, it is a tiny seed, but ends up as a tree where birds can rest. This cannot be a reference to the apocalyptic Kingdom of the end, for that Kingdom is decidedly great and comprehensive from its appearing with the Son of Man. The parable of the Leaven makes the same point in distinct imagery. All of this suggests that if the Kingdom has not come, it is very, very close.

It is so close that what the disciples are experiencing is what prophets and kings longed to experience, a clear allusion to the arrival of hoped for promise Luke The offer of forgiveness Jesus declares as present is one of the great hoped for blessings of the new era Jer. At the center of all of this activity was Jesus.

That Jesus could interpret Torah and even explain its scope, so that religious practice could change pointed to the arrival of a new era Matthew 5: Now it is true that not all the texts I have cited mention the Kingdom, but most do. The others are describing the delivering and teaching activity of the one through whom the promise comes.

In Judaism, the Kingdom was about the age to come or the messianic era. Remember that in the Hebrew Scriptures the term Kingdom of God does not appear, though it is a topic of many other related themes. Here the refusal to come to the celebration when it is announced does not lead to the postponing of the banquet, but to the inviting of others to fill it.

These texts show that at the heart of the Kingdom is the mediating of promised blessing and deliverance, an exercise of divine power and authority through a given Chosen, Anointed one, who also acts with unique authority. In the talk about the presence of the Kingdom, however, it is two texts that stand out the most in the discussion. It is in these texts that two key elements of the kingdom surface, one already made obvious by our survey, the other focusing on a key element that makes deliverance possible.

This reinforces a point he has already raised in his teaching in the rebuke about being able to read the weather but not the signs of the times Luke It also parallels the warning about the sign of his preaching being the only sign this wicked generation must respond to Luke The Kingdom does not come, in this phase, with such heavenly portents. This reading sounds like the romantic notions of nineteenth century scholars on the Kingdom. Such heart potential for them does not exist without a powerful work of God and the effect of his transforming presence.

Rather, the point is that the Kingdom, in a sense, is right in front of their face in Jesus. Such a reading highlights how Jesus is placed at the hub of Kingdom activity and fits with all the themes pointing in this direction just noted above. The second text is a famous passage where Jesus is defending himself against the charge that he casts out demons by the power of Beelzebul. The key here is the aorist form of the verb fqavnw.

It appears in the gospels only in this passage. It is not synonymous to the earlier declaration that the Kingdom of God has drawn near, using h[ggiken. Contextually a real exercise of divine power is being defended as visibly present. The image is reinforced immediately in both contexts by the parable of a man overcoming a strong man and plundering his possessions.

Jesus is describing what is taking place, not what has approached. In other words, the Jewish claim that Jesus does miracles by Satanic authority could not be more incorrect. This saying is significant for a series of reasons. First, it shows that the Kingdom is about divine deliverance through Jesus in the releasing of authority and power that overcomes the presence and influence of Satan. Jesus is able to exercise such authority now.

A second point is also important. The miracles themselves are not the point, but what they portray is. Such power had to be exercised and established if deliverance were to take place. So here lies the third point. The Kingdom manifests itself as part of a cosmic battle, expressed in dualistic terms, in which God through Jesus is defeating Satan, who himself is doing all he can to keep humanity opposed to God. With the coming of Jesus and the Kingdom inaugurated, eschatology has entered into the present. Future hope dawns as present reality, but with much more reality to come. The importance of this text can be highlighted by making an observation about its form as a miracle story-pronouncement account.

The miracles are not the point, but serve as evidence for and an illustration of a far more comprehensive deliverance that one day will extend across the entire creation. That hope had made an appearance through Jesus in the exercise of divine power that served as a kind of cosmic email and invitation to share in what God was doing through this chosen one.

So the Kingdom teaching of Jesus involved declarations about both his present ministry and the future tied to it. A Kingdom long viewed as strictly future and greatly anticipated was being pulled into the present and made initially available in an exercise of redemptive power that showed that the struggle was not merely with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers. Though it would come in comprehensive power one day, it was invading now in Jesus.

Humanity could experience that victory over Satan, both now and in the age to come. How would one know that Messiah had come and thus that this Kingdom promise was arriving? So the new era would be marked by a dispensing of the Spirit, a dispersal of enablement and a mark of incorporation into the redeemed community of God. The Kingdom is ultimately future, but its formation began with the powerful preaching and work of Jesus drawing citizens to the new rule he was in the process of establishing.

The remaining issues I shall cover more quickly as the basic foundation is now laid to address them. We would also suggest that the mediation of the Spirit through Jesus is evidence of the presence of this rule, as the giving of the Spirit is a key, messianic work. This idea is not explicit in the gospel material, but it will show up in Acts and the epistles.

More discussed is the issue of realm. First, several texts indicate that Israel or activity associated with Israel are an element in Kingdom teaching. I already have noted the choosing of the Twelve Matt. Jesus, though he does not directly answer the question of when, does not reject the premise of the question. In fact, two chapters later in Acts 3: One final text is associated with the celebratory banquet imagery.

When Jesus refuses the wine at the last supper and notes that he will not partake of the Passover again until he does so in the context of fulfillment in the Kingdom Luke Whatever additional elements there are to the Kingdom realm, and there are additional elements as we shall see, they do not preclude an element involving the old Israelite expression of hope. Other texts suggest the language of gathering to a specific place. My only point here is that this is standard Jewish imagery. It suggests that the surprising inclusion of Gentiles is in view, but not the entire exclusion of Israel.

After all, the disciples represented a remnant of the nation. Another key set of texts are Matthew Many treat these as parallels and point to the Matthean conflict imagery of men seeking to take the Kingdom by violence as key to both texts. The image is of a realm introduced into the world and as an object of contention and discussion within it.

Another unusual use is in Luke Here the thief on the cross asks to be remembered when Jesus comes into his Kingdom. The request, understood in normal Jewish terms, looks to the future. For he tells the thief that this very day he will be with Jesus in paradise. Though the reply does not use the term Kingdom, the idea of paradise is a part of that hope in Judaism. There is a sense where Jesus reveals a current, cosmic claim and dimension to the Kingdom where it comes to the issue of death. Finally stand the host of texts looking to the judgment of the end, where the Son of Man carries out the eschatological assessment of humanity.

I highlight one dimension of one text, the Matthean version of the Wheat and Darnel Matt. Thus, the Kingdom in terms of realm operates at several levels at once, depending on the context. The realm in terms of its comprehensive presence looks to the future and the comprehensive establishment of peace and fellowship, after a purging judgment. This realm appears to includes hopes of old from Israel, and yet it also looks to far more, a comprehensive exercise of authority over the whole of creation, including the blessing of many from outside of Israel. However, there is also a sense in which we can talk about a realm in the present.

It is the place where he is Head. It is a basis for taking the gospel into the world.

It justifies the preaching of the gospel of the authoritative Jesus to every tribe and nation. In my own view, it establishes an accountability for every person before the one true God and his chosen One, so that there is only one way to God. Responding to him brings one into this new realm, though in other contexts one can speak of entering or inheriting this Kingdom later, when it is ultimately fully realized.

The exceptional text with the thief on the cross shows that ultimately what is at stake is eternal presence and fellowship with God in unending and renewed life. But the Kingdom is bigger than the church. Its presence now is but a precursor to a more substantial presence in the future. Jesus will redeem and judge what is being claimed now, when the authority of the Son of Man will judge humanity and bless those who sit with him at the table. Then the Kingdom will fully show itself with traits the Scripture of Israel had long promised along with features of rule Jesus himself revealed.

In other worlds, Kingdom texts treat Israel, the church, the world and the cosmos as a whole, depending on which passage we are considering. In the gospels, one final issue remains, namely the connection between righteousness and the Kingdom, or what has been called the Kingdom and ethics. It is to this topic we now turn. In the end, the transformation associated with the in-breaking of the Kingdom is not merely an abstract exercise in theology or definition.

God's Plan is the Best

It is designed to impact life. Thus, the connection between Kingdom and living or Kingdom and ethics needs attention. Those who are his have acknowledged their need for God and his provision by faith alone. As a result, they have entered into an enduring relationship to God. That relationship entails a call from God on the life of the disciple.

Relationship to that rule is to be more important than family, possessions, vocation, even life itself. It is the greatness of the Kingdom that creates the totality of its call for faithfulness. To develop this area, I wish to examine four themes: I would wish to argue that any treatment of Kingdom that does move into this area has failed to appreciate a major goal of the Kingdom program as seen in the New Testament.

This preparation highlighted a preaching a baptism of repentance, a baptism that included a concrete call for turning expressed in practice toward others Luke 3: His work involved a call to reconciliation where people were implored to turn back to God. Included within this turning was a bringing of sons back to their fathers and the disobedient back to the wise Luke 1: Reconciliation with God shows itself in reconciliation with others.

Here there is a humility and dependence that is invoked. Such faith in God extends to a recognition that even daily needs are in his hands and that he will care for his own Matt. Faith ultimately is a humble recognition that one needs God and so moves to trust him, relying on his rule and provision. It was a cost to be fully counted and not enter into lightly or unadvisedly, to steal a phrase from the initiation of another important relationship Luke Thus, the call of many disciples notes how they left their nets or tax collection booths to follow him Mark 1: It means hating mammon Matt.

It involves a carrying of the cross, even daily, even at the risk of life Matt. The assumption in all of this is that the way will not be easy, nor is the road one of powerful triumph. Victory comes through suffering and rejection like that Jesus himself would experience. Jesus sought to reveal the whole program to the multitudes. He desired that they understand what the relationship with God they were entering into involved.

Sons and daughters respond to the Father. This following also entails a response from within. The list highlights those acts which defile as primarily associated with relational categories. The six antitheses of the Sermon on the Mount press the Law in this inward direction.

See a Problem?

This internal feature stands at the heart of Kingdom spirituality. That formation is spiritual because God calls and goes to work on the inner person, on our spirit, through His Spirit. This also is not a mere triumphalism, as Paul makes clear, since we groan for the completion of redemption in the salvation to come Rom. In the meantime, the call is to be faithful and walk by the Spirit. The child is to be like the Father. One dimension of this concept is the theme of reconciliation. In responding to the Baptist, people were accepting the call of God to be a reflection of him and his holiness.

What God would provide through the Messiah, as John noted, would be a grater baptism of the Spirit, one of the great provisions of the new era. Jesus makes the same point in the upper room John 14— Jesus holds up his own life as the example to be imitated Mark Such a character is revealed in the Beatitudes Matt. In fact, it is character like this which is salt and light in the world, reflecting the call of what the Kingdom citizen is to be Matt.

So the disciple is to show mercy Luke A major goal of the Kingdom was to produce children in kind, which is why the standard for character is so high and the demand of the Kingdom is so great Luke 6: Primary is vindication in judgment and unending relationship with God as represented in the image of the banquet table. The Father sees the sacrifice and honors it. Such is the promise of Jesus to an uncertain Peter who desperately asks who can be saved in the midst of a discussion about who can be saved if the rich are not able to enter the Kingdom Luke The reward noted in the Beatitudes also underscores that though there is suffering and sacrifice now, there will be great reward.

Here again an appreciation for what the future brings impacts how we see ourselves in the present and calls us to live in light of what the future will be. The future calls on us in the present to reflect as light what we are becoming and will be. The meek inherit the earth, but they also are to illuminate it. Viewed from the human perspective, it is the goal of the Kingdom to produce sons and daughters of God who are fruitful for him. It is the idea of the future exercise of responsibility for a faithful stewardship.

Only a few passages hint at this idea. It is suggested by the note of expanded responsibility in the parable of the talents Matt. The images do appear within the construct of the parable, but they seem to indicate something in relationship to reward for stewardship. The reward for the blessed servant in Luke It may also be indicated in the note whether to entrust more to a steward who is irresponsible in Luke The sum of this teaching suggests a period when the kingdom will still be at work in the exercise of its rule, themes that may relate to the idea of an intermediate kingdom.

It is time to pull together much of what has been said. So I now review the description of the Kingdom and noting especially what other terms intimately connect to it. This section is important, for it will provide the bridge to the rest of the New Testament teaching on the Kingdom. One of the difficult things about pointing to a concept being at work in association with a biblical term is being sure that the association is legitimate. In this section, I want to suggest other issues that connect to the Kingdom of God theme.

The effect of this is to expand the texts that relate to the Kingdom theme, but the justification for doing so needs attention, as some argue that tying the Kingdom to Messiah or to the present era reads into the text rather than reading from it. The inclusion of the work of Messiah within the scope of Kingdom teaching is challenged by some who wish to make reign language tied to the Christ exclusively future. To his Jewish audience, this association of messianic work with Kingdom work and presence would be entirely natural. One of the signs of the Kingdom, or the eschaton, would be the superior baptism that would indicate that the Messiah had come.

The allusion here for John, given that he speaks as one picking up the prophetic hope, would be the promise of the New Covenant. Here forgiveness and a work of God from within are promised. The imagery reflects the images of purity from Judaism. Only a washed and clean vessel can be a place that God inhabits.

God Glorified in Man's Dependence

So the provision of forgiveness and the washing that is pictured in it cleanses the vessel so God may enter in. It is precisely this promise with this conclusion that Peter preaches in the great sermon at Pentecost Acts 2: It is also back to this base event that Peter refers to determine that Gentiles are rightly included in the community by God Acts It is in this cluster of concepts one can find the concepts not only of Messiah and eschaton, but salvation and even gospel.

Here is the inaugural era of promise, which Jesus described as Kingdom. That book presents the work through the exalted Son both in terms of forgiveness, sonship, and Spirit enablement as the essence of the gospel, a reversal of the penalty and power of sin. Here the work of Jesus as the Christ brings pardon, deliverance, and sonship-citizenship, all regal works of messianic authority. The Kingdom, both in its inception where rescue takes place and at its culmination when victory becomes complete, is part of a great cosmic battle and reversal against sin and Satan.

That this kingdom program over which Christ is currently ruling 1 Cor. It is why the imagery of Revelation 21—22 and the new heaven and new earth looks back to the Garden of Eden and to the New Jerusalem. The book of Revelation is about the completion of the Kingdom program. In my view, this return includes setting up an intermediate kingdom before the new heaven and earth, because of the way I read Revelation It is here where the things said about Israel and her future role in a kingdom existing in the midst of the nations and within this history fit within the promise of God from both the Old Testament and the New.

For two reasons, much less of this national role is made in the New Testament. First, it is assumed as a given having already been revealed and treated in detail. Still it makes more hermeneutical sense for the theological unity of Scripture that the New Testament complements what God has committed himself to in promise in the Old. Seeing a hope for national Israel as well as for the nations with Christ functioning as her Messiah in the future kingdom program and at the same time affirming the fundamental unity of Jew and Gentile in Christ is a comprehensive approach to the difficult unity-diversity question that plagues our eschatological debates.

This approach to the kingdom plan is better than separating it into totally distinct programs as traditional dispensationalism does. The apostle maintains hope that one day all Israel will be saved in contrast to her current rejection of Jesus. It is to this great vindicating moment that the Kingdom is always aimed, so that the concept is always looking to that bright future that is the Kingdom come in full.

It is this cluster of concepts around the Kingdom on which the epistles draw as they make the point that the era of our rule with Christ has not yet come 1 Cor. It is why the author of Hebrews, while noting that all things are not yet submitted to the feet of man as God had promised in Ps. It is also why Peter using the language of Psalm As with the other tensions noted in the discussion of the Kingdom, this is not an either-or, but a both-and. The victory is obtained already, but the full manifestation of that victory awaits and is yet to come.

What Jesus has brought is only a foretaste of what is to come. In that realization is the explanation of why the term Kingdom becomes less prominent in the rest of the New Testament.

by Ellen G. White

It is to that question, I now turn. It has always been a point for discussion that the term Kingdom is not so prevalent in the epistolary materials.

For example, the term basileiva appears one hundred and twenty one times in the synoptics, but only five times in John, eight times in Acts, fourteen times in Paul, five times in the general epistles and nine times in Revelation. Some, including myself, have argued in the past that the reason for this involved hesitation about Kingdom language in a Roman context, but this really does not work as an explanation when Jesus is being confessed as Lord or Christ by the church. First, Kingdom is present in many other concepts that show up in this material, so that the concept is much more prevalent than mere lexical counting shows.

Analogies for this exist. In the Hebrew Scriptures, Kingdom is not that prominent a lexical term, but it is a central concept. By the time of the epistles, other christological terms covering the same ground became more common for reasons that still are not clear to us. However, the authority affirmed in the title was still prevalent in the early church, possibly because the alternatives had less ambiguity.

JONATHAN EDWARDS

So in the epistolary material, themes tied to deliverance operate as equivalents for the current realization of promise. For John, it involves his presentation of eternal life. Rather than proclaiming what had begun to come, the early church highlighted who brought it, personalizing the claim and making it more intimate. Second, it should also be noted that dividing the epistles from the gospels to make this observation is a somewhat artificial exercise. Though they treat earlier events in a pre-cross setting, they express theology as it was seen in the earliest communities.

If there is a place where Kingdom declaration should be prominent, it is here. The epistles as occasional documents treating internal issues in the community are less likely to make a point of something its readers have already embraced. Third, where Kingdom does appear explicitly, it fits the future-present emphases already noted above.

The Kingdom points to an entity coming in the future when the righteous shall be vindicated and unrighteousness judged by a returning, authoritative Jesus, winner of the cosmic battle so painfully evident in the presence of sin.

Doxology_The Works of Jonathan Edwards

Yet elements of inauguration show up in this usage. Nor does it consist of eating and drinking, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit Rom. Acts notes how Philip and Paul preach the Kingdom Acts 8: Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem Heb. We already noted above the citation in Col. We are part, even now, of a Kingdom program that one day will be manifested for all the world to see. We are his trophy case Eph.

We have a significant, lead role as witnesses of His way and presence. This brings me to the significance of Kingdom for the church, for the hope and essence of the Kingdom lead us into its ethical implications and call. From what has been said, the Kingdom is both distinct from and intimately associated with the church. The Kingdom is more than the church, but the church is contained within the Kingdom program.

The program both propels us toward the realization of full hope and pulls that future into the present as a glimpse of what is to come. So how do we as community fit in to that dialectic between present and future Kingdom? God has invested in the church. His investment is the indwelling Spirit, mediated through Christ and given in the context of forgiveness and promise, an eschatological down payment on the rest of the hope.

Satan and sin stand defeated, as the confident language of Romans 8 declares. In the age to come, the returning Son of Man will make all of this authority clear to the entire cosmos. Those who confess Jesus to be their Savior and Lord are recognizing this authority that God has invested in His mediator. If being prepared for the Kingdom community in the time of John the Baptist meant turning to God in the context of reconciliation and being reconciled with others, then the call of the indwelt community is to evidence the presence of such transformed relationships before a needy world.

This fundamental exhortation appears in a text like Ephesians 2: A major responsibility we have in witnessing to the world is that the quality of our own relationships, especially to one another, should show itself to be decidedly different from the world. Sacrifice and service stand at the heart of relational dynamics. If the world is to understand community in a context of loving God and relating to others, the place it should be most visible in this cosmos is in how those in His community relate to God, each other, and the world.

If we walk by the Spirit and manifest the fruit of the Spirit, then the world should be witness to a sneak preview of the way things will be in the end, an audio-visual incarnation of what God transforming lives means. A glimpse of the future will be pulled into the present to the glory of God. Thus, the quality of our own communities and their integrity should be priorities for the church.

As 1 Peter 1: Beloved, I beseech you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh that wage war against your soul. Maintain good conduct among the Gentiles, so that in case they speak against you as wrongdoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. So the Kingdom has come through the Son invading the world.

As Messiah we confess that he rules. And yet, the Kingdom comes one day through the returning Son of Man to vindicate the saints and render God just and His promises true. Then Satan and evil will be removed. Even so, come Lord Jesus. But in the meantime, give us the strength through your enablement to be light to show what the kingdom is and is like.

You have pulled the future into the present.

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