The Kingdom and the Spirit

At the same time. Jesus clearly taught that in some sense the kingdom was present in His ministry. In Luke 17:20, 21 Jesus announces that the kingdom of God is “’in your midst.”⁵ The same gospel records the message of Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth (Lk. 4-16-21). He begins by citing Isaiah 61:1, 2, which concerns the coming of the kingdom, and concludes by stating, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”⁶ In a similar way He employs the messianic prophecy of Isaiah 35:5, 6 to describe His ministry (Mt. 11:2-6), clearly indicating that for Him the kingdom was more than simply a future hope. Now one could be touched by the power of the kingdom. Perhaps the clearest teaching on the presence of the kingdom is found in Luke 11:20, where Jesus affirms that the overthrow of demonic powers is a sure sign of the arrival of the reign of God: “But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

Hence in the teaching of Jesus the kingdom of God is at the same time a present reality and a future hope. At the present time God has begun to exercise His reign with the overthrow of Satanic power, the healing of sickness and the forgiveness of sin. But at the same time the evils of this are age allowed to continue until the return of the Son of Man with power and glory. We could say that the kingdom has already come with the salvation of Jesus Christ but it has not yet come in its full manifestation.⁷ As Paul states the matter in 1 Corinthians 15:25, “For He must reign [already] until He has put all His enemies under His feet [not yet].”

Given this understanding of the nature of the kingdom of God, we may proceed to examine the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the kingdom. The present author believes that God exercises His rule in this age before the second coming of Christ through the agency of the Holy Spirit. In other words, the presence of the Spirit is nothing less than the present manifestation of the kingdom of God.

In the teaching of Jesus this relationship between the kingdom and the Spirit is nowhere more vividly delineated than in Matthew 11:28: “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”⁸ The exercise of God’s power and authority through the Spirit signals the presence of the kingdom. The kingdom at this time does not come with political power, in accordance with expectations of certain segments of the Jewish nation;⁹ rather it comes in spiritual force and authority. This same fact is underlined elsewhere in the gospels where Jesus’ kingly mission is linked with the presence of the Spirit. In Luke 4:18, 19 (Isa. 61:1.2) the rule of God is exercised by the Messiah who says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me.” Similarly, Matthew associates Jesus’ royal mission with the Spirit’s presence: “I will put my Spirit upon Him. and He shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles” (Mt. 12:17-21, citing Isa. 42:1-4).

Tags: kingdom, spirit

Category: Spirit, Spring 1999