Kingdom Considerations — Already, Now, Not Yet

In the Lord’s prayer the petition, ‘Thy Kingdom come’ naturally leads to the petition, ‘Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.’ As such the fulfillment of the will of God is obviously regarded as one of the principal forms in which His kingship is realized.
G. Vos

The Teaching of Jesus — p. 105

It would be an odd thing for Jesus to teach His disciples to pray this prayer if there was never any intent for God’s Kingdom to come except for a sudden eschatological inbreaking. No, the premise behind the prayer is that the Kingdom that is being prayed to come will indeed come to fruition in space and time over the course of the years of human history.

The vision is that God’s people will be God’s agents to bear God’s Kingdom and in so doing to see it expanded into every corner of the globe and into every area of life.

The OT saw the Kingdom of God coming immediately and eschatologically, as if once it came that was all there was. When Jesus arrives bringing the Kingdom He communicates via His healings, casting out of demons, and exercising power over the natural realm, that there is an immediacy to the Kingdom — the Kingdom has come. However, Jesus also communicates that the Kingdom while coming in His person and ministry, also has an eschatological future that will find the present Kingdom that has come in Christ to be even more of the same. In the ministry of Christ, the seedling of the Kingdom has been planted and that seedling is expressive of the power of the Word. However, the seedling grows and grows, renewing and reforming and bringing life to wherever it roots so that in the end the Kingdom of God covers the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Another way of expressing this is that Jesus Himself in His coming brought with Him the long-anticipated age to come. That age to come has been given an outpost here with the life, ministry, and death of Christ. The purpose of the presently planted age to come though is to roll back the opposition that is this present wicked age. So, the Kingdom of God is where the age to come is located and that Kingdom of God is defeating the enemy and their luciferin Kingdoms in this present evil age.

This is why Paul can say to the Colossians, “You have been translated from the Kingdom of Darkness to the Kingdom of God’s dear Son whom He loves.” The converted have been removed from this present evil age and have been placed into the age to come. Of course, they remain on planet earth in their various locales but in those various locales and callings, they are now living in a new age and a new Kingdom and that new age and new Kingdom is present in principle and because it is present in principle it is progressively conquering all that stands in opposition to it. This is why we pray “Thy Kingdom come.”

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him.

One thought on “Kingdom Considerations — Already, Now, Not Yet”

  1. “already but not yet” is a theme that repeats itself in the Bible many times. Such as the Trinity, how three persons have co-aligned interests as one God. Or how righteousness was given to us by God before the foundation of the world yet we are born as sinners and become faithful through His grace. The biggest one I can think of is how God is perfect, good, holy, and blameless unable to tolerate evil yet completely orders and directs evil to the ultimate end of glorifying his name and bringing the saints to glory.

    God making these seemingly opposite and contradictory truths work together perfectly only adds to his Glory.

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