New Testament scholars use is “already/not yet.” They say
that with the arrival of Jesus, God’s kingdom — His rule
in peoples’ hearts and over the earth — is already here, but
it is not yet fully here.
The most obvious way that Jesus inaugurated the
kingdom of God but did not complete it was with His
physical presence. Although Jesus could heal without
being close to the sick person, He only did so twice
(Matthew 8:5–13; 15:21–28). All the other times, Jesus
healed with a word or a touch, and the person had to be in
His presence. The four carriers knew that if their paralyzed
friend was going to be healed, they needed to get him to
Jesus, even if it meant ripping up the roof (Mark 2:1–12).
Jesus healed many in Capernaum, but the next day He left
to go to the other villages of Galilee (Mark 1:32–39). For
that time at least, the miracles in Capernaum stopped.
When Jesus came into the world for the first time, the
kingdom of God came with Him, but in a way, when Jesus
moved on from an area, it also left with Him too.
After Pentecost, when Jesus gave His Holy Spirit, it
became possible for Jesus, through His people, to be
present everywhere at once. God solved the problem
of Jesus’ physical limitations by allowing Jesus to live in
believers through the Holy Spirit. Because of the Holy
Spirit, the power of the kingdom of God to heal the sick,
free the demon-possessed, and even raise the dead, burst
the limits of one man’s presence. But even the mighty
empowerment of the Holy Spirit did not complete the
coming of the kingdom. At the same time that Jesus
explained how He would live through His disciples by the
Holy Spirit, He also told of going to prepare a place for
them, a work that He would not complete until He came
back to the world again (John 14-17).
The New Testament uses two word pictures to describe
the nearness, but not the hereness of the kingdom. The
first is engagement, and the second is pregnancy. In John
14, Jesus describes Himself as a bridegroom, who is not
pg. 12 — lightandlifemagazine.com
yet a husband. The bridegroom goes to prepare a place
for his bride. Then when he returns, they are married, and
he becomes her husband. In Galatians 4:19, Paul likens
himself to a pregnant woman who is in labor to bring
forth her child. In each case something has started, but
has not yet come to completion. Yes, things are already
different, but they are not yet as different as they are going
to be.
D-Day and V-E Day
In the 20th century, New Testament scholar Oscar
Cullmann discovered yet another word picture to describe
the already/not-yet nature of God’s kingdom. After he
lived through World War II, he said that as Christians
we live in God’s kingdom between D-Day and V-E Day.
D-Day was when the armies invaded France, and V-E
Day celebrated the victory in Europe the next spring. Yes,
the allies have landed and are on their way to inevitable
victory, but more men will die in the 11 months between
D-Day and V-E Day than died in the more than four years
before D-Day.
Because God’s kingdom is ejggizw, there is much
fighting yet to do. Many battles must be fought, and not
all of them will be won. Yes, the kingdom is triumphing:
“The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have
leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
and the good news is proclaimed to the poor” (Matthew
11:5). But the unspoken message is, “You, John, will die
in prison.” Certainly we will win the war, but we will
lose many battles along the way, and there will be heavy
casualties.
So we pray, “Thy kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10 KJV),
knowing that it is coming.
“He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is
found” (“Joy to the World” by Isaac Watts based on Psalm
98).
“They killed the most perfect
man the world had ever known
in the most painful and
shameful way the world had
ever known, but God turned it
into the glory of our salvation.”
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