Vacation time has interrupted my progress through N.T. Wright’s sermon Whatever did St. Paul do with the Kingdom of God. In today’s post we finally begin to deal with Paul and his view of the kingdom.
The Book of Acts provides a secondary summary (cf. Acts 19:8, 20:25, 28:23, 28:31) in which it would seem that preaching the kingdom was what Paul was basically about. However, methodologically it is better to see what Paul himself says in reference to the kingdom.
The heart of Paul’s view is found in 1Co 15:20-28.
- Here Paul is not introducing the topic of kingdom but rather dealing with something that has been part of his teaching (cf. 1Co 4:20, 6:9-10).
- Echoes of the theme of creation and re-creation from Ge 1-3 are evident wherein creation’s order is re-established though humans who have been made right.
- Christ’s coming (v. 23) is not about believers being snatched away to join Jesus in heaven but rather Jesus royally returning to establish God’s kingdom in fullness.
- Paul alludes to Ps 110 (v. 25) and Ps 8 (v. 27) making the point that with the coming of the exalted Messiah human beings will realize their created destiny of being in authority over all creation. From this Paul constructs his understanding that Jesus is reigning in the present. His resurrection attests publicly to his lordship and his ascension puts him in the place from which he will rule over the earth.
- Jesus present reign is not total; he must overthrow or better understood nullify (cf. Col 1) the evil which his enemies commit, making them completely subject to him.
- Death too will be overthrown by the re-creation of a new embodied world and the raising of God’s people to imperishable embodied life.
This is the kingdom of God in Paul, namely that for now Jesus rules from heaven, calling the world to account. In the end, Jesus will win the victory against all enemies, particularly death and then hand the kingdom over to God who will rule all in all.
