L3: Christ, Kingdom, and Covenants
Christ and Kingdom, pt.1
In the first lesson, we established our question: "Who is Jesus?"
And we gave an initial answer to that question: "Jesus is our Lord and Messiah, God the Son Incarnate."
In the second lesson, we began looking at how the Bible itself defines Jesus as both Lord and Messiah, God the Son Incarnate, fully God and fully man.¹ The Author intended us to read the Bible as one, unified story about Jesus with four acts: (a) Creation, (b) Fall, (c) Redemption, and (d) Consummation. When we read the Bible this way, then we must conclude that Jesus is God the Son Incarnate. For the Bible's story and teaching to be true and coherent, this is the only possible answer. Through its overall story, the Bible demands that we worship Jesus as our Lord and Messiah, God the Son Incarnate.
In this third lesson, we will continue looking at how the Bible defines Jesus. The Bible's goal and its path to that goal further define Jesus’s identity and explain his work. One pair of authors summarizes the Bible's goal and path as “kingdom through covenant.”² Together, the Bible's goal and its path to that goal demand that we worship Jesus, not as a demi-god or a noble teacher, but as our Lord and Messiah, God the Son Incarnate.
In this step and the next, we will focus on how the goal of the Bible reveals Jesus's identity.
Kingdom: The Goal of the Bible
Last lesson, we borrowed from Graeme Goldsworthy to describe the goal of the Bible as God's Kingdom:
- God’s people
- in God’s place
- with God’s king.
The Big Picture Story BibleThis children's book wonderfully captures the Bible's story within this biblical framework of God's people in God's place with God's king. It is a great resource for all ages.
God’s Kingdom is the people and place where God reigns as King. And this is essential because it is the difference between life and death. At my house, we teach each other about God's kingdom with these questions and answers based on Psalm 2:
Kiss his son, or he will be angry
and your way will lead to your destruction,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Psalm 2:12
Question: Where do we find life?
Answer: With Jesus as our King.
Question: Where do we find death?
Answer: When we reject Jesus as our King.
God’s kingdom is where he blesses his people with his presence through Jesus. This goal of God's kingdom is all throughout the Bible:
- Creation: We see the seed of God’s kingdom in the deep goodness of Eden.
- Fall: We mourn the loss of God’s kingdom in the despair and darkness of the Fall.
- Redemption: We celebrate the restoration of God’s kingdom through Jesus.
- Consummation: We hope for the final coming of God’s kingdom when Jesus returns.
Now God's kingdom can feel like an abstract goal: “That’s great that this is God’s goal, but what does this mean for today? People are suffering. This world is breaking. What does God’s kingdom have to do with today? Why should I care?”
There are at least three ways in which we can see our need (and find desire) for God’s kingdom:
1. This cursed and broken world reveals that we need God’s kingdom and makes us long for it.
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. —Romans 8:18-23
When Adam rejected God as his King, he brought death and suffering upon the world. When God cursed the world (Rom 8:20), he intended to show us that we both need and want him as our King. Death and suffering and evil are all around us. We see them all around us. We feel them in our own hearts. We carry them in our bodies. By the Spirit, the brokenness of this world makes us groan: “Your Kingdom come!” The brokenness of this cursed world reveals that we need and want Jesus's kingdom to come.
I saw this work out in my own life when my grandmother died. My grandmother was one of my best friends. When she died, I felt and understood the deep brokenness of this cursed world in a new and weightier way. Her death is not something I can fix. I cannot bring her back. No human on this earth can bring her back. No one and nothing in this world can restore her. The grief of her passing is a burden that I will carry all my life. As I carry this burden of grief, I find myself crying out like I never have before: "Come, Lord Jesus." In the in-between moments of my day, I find myself praying more meaningfully: "Our Father, who is in heaven...your kingdom come!"
Life in this cursed world ought to make us long for Jesus to fully and finally bring God's kingdom, where we will finally have rest from the griefs and burdens of life in this cursed world.
How does this cursed and broken world make you long for God's kingdom?
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2. The goodness amid this cursed and broken world provides pictures of God's kingdom. it, too, ought to make us long for it.
Even in a cursed world like ours that is so full of evil and suffering, God has preserved some goodness. There are so many examples that we can think of: the joy of a child’s birth, the deep goodness of a lifelong friendship, the love of a faithful marriage, the satisfaction of a good day's work, the beauty found in nature, the rest and wonder of a good story, and the sweetness of ice cream.
Every good gift in creation comes from God and communicates the goodness of his reign in Christ even amid the brokenness of our cursed world.
Can you think of examples of God's deep goodness even amid the brokenness of our world? How do these make you long for God's kingdom?
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3. In the past, present, and future work of Jesus, we see the long-awaited coming of God’s good kingdom.
After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news! —Mark 1:15
When Jesus came, God’s kingdom came. How is that? Because Jesus is the King. When the Promised King showed up in Galilee, so too did God’s promised kingdom of life and love and laughter.
Let’s this more about what God's kingdom has brought.
(1) Read Luke 4:14-21 (2) Highlight the purposes of Jesus's comingOptional
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When King Jesus came, he brought God’s kingdom. His coming brought joy and good news for God’s people, who had been enslaved by sin and oppressed by death under the dominion of darkness. He brought: (1) good news for the poor, (2) freedom for prisoners, (3) recovery of sight for the blind, (4) liberation for the oppressed, and (5) the joyous favor of the Lord. Through Jesus, God freed us from sin and he freed us for Christ (Col 1:13-14).
As we keep reading in Luke, we see Jesus free a demon-possessed man (Luke 4:31-36), heal the sick (Luke 4:38-41), preach the good news of the kingdom (Luke 4:42-44), and forgive sins (Luke 5:17-32). Ultimately, his kingdom-work climaxes in his death and resurrection. Through the cross of Christ, the Father "rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins" (Col 1:13-14).
We do not see the joy of God’s promised kingdom only in the past work of Christ. We see it in his ongoing work. When Jesus went up into heaven, he poured out the promised Holy Spirit, the Spirit of life and blessing. Jesus’s work continues now by the Spirit through his Word in the church. And we see the joy of his Kingdom as the gospel bears fruit and multiplies across the whole world (Col 1:5–8).
Finally, we see the joy of the Kingdom in the future work of Christ. When he returns, he will fully and finally establish God’s Kingdom, where he will reign among us as God the Son Incarnate.
1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away!” —Revelation 21:1-4