The Kingdom and the Spirit

In what way is the kingdom of God manifested in the time between the first and second coming of Jesus Christ? This question has been a prime preoccupation in discussions concerning the kingdom or reign of God. In this investigation we shall take a first step towards an answer by examining the nature of the kingdom. Secondly, we will demonstrate the relationship between the kingdom of God and the Spirit of God in Biblical teaching.

A cursory reading of the Gospels will show that the central message of the preaching of Jesus was the advent of the kingdom of God. He begun His public ministry by proclaiming, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mk. 1:15)¹ This message, according to Mark, is the “gospel of God” (Mk. 1:14). Luke records that the teaching on the kingdom dominated Jesus’ instruction even in the gap between His resurrection and ascension (Acts 1:3).

While there is a consensus among Biblical scholars that this was the focus of Jesus’ teaching, there has been considerable debate concerning the nature of the kingdom. Some, such as Johannes Weiss and Albert Schweitzer² have said that Jesus’ teaching was totally concerned with a future, eschatological kingdom. The kingdom would come in the near future and would be a wholly supernatural event. This position has come to be known as “consistent eschatology.”

On the other hand, some exegetes such as C.H. Dodd and T.W. Manson³ have argued that the kingdom in Jesus’ understanding was wholly a present reality and not a future hope. For Manson, the kingdom was the reign of God in the soul of the individual who does the will of God. Dodd contends that in the ministry of Jesus the transcendent reign of God broke into history. Both of the scholars minimize the future or eschatological aspect of the kingdom in the teaching of Jesus. This interpretation has come to be known as “realized eschatology.”

Between these two perspectives we find a number of scholars who have recognized that the kingdom has both a present and future aspect in Jesus’ preaching.⁴ God will exercise His reign in the future, but He has also already begun to do so in the ministry of Jesus. For example, Jesus taught His disciples to pray for the coming of the kingdom (Mt. 6:10), indicating that He understood the kingdom as a future reality. Jesus also spoke of a future time when He would drink the fruit of the vine with the disciples in His “Father’s kingdom” (Mt 26:29; see also Mk. 14:25; Lk. 22: l8, 28-30). The coming of the kingdom was to be an event preceded by the great tribulation (Lk. 21:31), and its advent would coincide with the coming of the Son of Man with power and glory (Lk. 21:27). All these passages indicate that the kingdom of God was, according to Jesus a future reality.

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).

In the first chapter of Acts, before the ascension of Jesus, His disciples put to Him the question concerning the time of the coming of the kingdom. The form of their question betrays their less than complete understanding of Jesus’ teaching on this subject, since they still conceived of the kingdom in national and political terms: “Lord is it at this time that You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Jesus’ reply seems to evade the issue of the kingdom, since He indicates that they are not to be party to the knowledge of God’s timing (1:7-8). But then He goes on to speak of the coming of the Holy Spirit and the accompanying power for witness. How does Jesus answer their question? His reply has two parts. First, He denies that they can know the timing of the full, final restoration of God’s political rule on this earth. But secondly, He says in effect that the kingdoms power that will be present at this time will come with the Holy Spirit. Hence God’s rule is not coming at this time in the political sphere, but it is coming at this time in the power of the Spirit.

Further on in Acts 2, Peter associates Christ’s exaltation to the position of King with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit: “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear” (Acts 2:33; see also 2:34-36). The implication is that Christ, as King, extends His power and authority through the Spirit. The presence of the kingdom in this age is demonstrated through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Given this union between the kingdom and the Spirit in the gospels and Acts, we are not surprised to find the same relationship in the Pauline corpus. In Romans 14:17 Paul indicates that “the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” The present reality of the kingdom is demonstrated by the production of moral virtue in the believer through the Holy Spirit (cf. Gal. 5:22, 23). Where the Spirit is active, there the reign of God is present. Similarly, the apostle tells the Corinthian church that “the kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20). The “power” he refers to is probably that of the Holy Spirit (2:4), which elsewhere in the letter is simply called “the power of God” (1:18; 2:5) or “the power of our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:4; 1:24).

Another aspect of the Pauline teaching on the Holy Spirit is that the Spirit is called the “pledge (arrabon) of our inheritance” (Eph. 1:14: 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5). Arrabon signifies the payment of part of what is due, which serves as a pledge of the full payment which is to follow. The Spirit is the first installment of the full inheritance of the believer. A similar concept is found in Romans 8:23 where Paul says that we have “the first fruits (aparchen) of the Spirit.” This term has to do with the first reaping taken from the harvest Both of these words indicate that the Spirit’s presence is the first part of the greater gift of God and that it, in itself, is of one piece with that greater gift. As Dunn rightly says. “This is the power of the new age, this is the eschatological Spirit. The Spirit was the presentness of future blessing.”¹⁰ The Spirit’s presence in this age is nothing less than the first in-breaking of the future kingdom of God. The believer experiences the power of the future kingdom now through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

This line of thought is not unique to Paul. The author of Hebrews speaks of the present taste of in ure power in Hebrews 6: 4-5. Some “have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come.” The “age to come” was equivalent in Jewish thinking with “the kingdom of God.”¹¹ Here the Holy Spirit is closely associated with the present experience of God’s kingly power.

According to Jewish expectation, the outpouring of the Spirit was considered to be one of the prime blessings of the new age, the kingdom of God.¹² The coming of the Spirit was therefore a sure sign of the presence of the kingdom. Though the final triumph of God’s reign is yet future, the power of that eternal kingdom is now present among His people. Through the Spirit the King accomplishes His purpose in the overthrow of demonic forces and the bringing in of salvation. “Where the Spirit is there is the kingdom.”¹³

What are the implications of this understanding of the relationship between the kingdom of God and the Spirit of God? First of all, to deny the Holy Spirit an active role in the life of the local church is to reject the rule of God. To say that the powerful manifestations of the Spirit were for another era is to say that God brought in the initial manifestation of the kingdom, and then reversed that which He had inaugurated.

Secondly, the presence of the kingdom through the power of the Spirit is a guard against defeatism in the church. The progress of the gospel in the world and the outworking of its message in the corporate life of the church and the personal life of the individual were never dependent upon the mere accumulation and use of intellectual, social, emotional and material resources! If the church or individual depends on these alone, defeatism is the natural result, since the need invariably goes beyond the resources. However, the presence of the Spirit and His attendant power is that which makes effective whatever effort is expended for the service of the kingdom. It is the presence of the kingdom’s power that delivers the church from a defeatist approach to service and growth.

Third, this view of the relationship between the Spirit and the kingdom of God keeps us from a triumphalism which regards all the future blessings of the kingdom as present. In the midst of the tremendous power and presence of the Spirit, suffering and pain are also to be found. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, “being full of the Holy Spirit” saw a vision of the risen Christ and was immediately stoned to death for his witness (Acts 7:54-60). Paul’s preaching on the kingdom was wedded with a theology of suffering. He states to the Galatian believers, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). The presence of the Spirit is no guarantee that the down side of life in this age will be avoided.

Fourth, the kingdom of God in its present dimension stands in juxtaposition to the kingdom of darkness, and presents a challenge to the powers of this age. The Christian, as one who has crossed over into the kingdom of God (Col. 1:13), has become engaged in the conflict between the kingdoms (Eph. 6:10 ff.). Paul states clearly that the one engaged in such a conflict cannot rely upon his own weak ken or ability but rather must trust in the power of God (2 Cor. 10:3,4). Without the power of the kingdom, the Spirit of God, there can be no victory in this conflict. As the church pushes forward in obedience to the Great Commission, there is Satanic opposition (e.g. Acts 13:6-12). As the church seeks to establish kingdom values in the lives of men there is Satanic temptation and resistance (e.g. Acts 5:1-11). On these fronts the church cannot afford to minimize the effective power of the kingdom, the Spirit of God.

 

PR

 

Notes

¹ All Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible.

² Johannes Weiss, Jesus’ Proclamation of the Kingdom of God (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971); Albert Schweitzer, The Quest for the Historical Jesus (London: Adam & Charles Black, 1911).

³ C. H. Dodd, The Parables of the Kingdom (London: Nisber, 1935); T. W. Manson, The Teaching of Jesus (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1945).

⁴ George Eldon Ladd, Jesus and the Kingdom (Grand Rapids: Wm. B Eerdmans, 1964); Oscar Cullman, Christ and Time (London: SCM Press, 1951).

⁵ This translation of entos humon is to be preferred over “within you” (KJV). See I. H. Marshall, The Gospel of Luke (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1978), p. 655.

⁶ This is a clear example of the pesher form of exegesis which assumes the fulfillment of prophetic hopes. See Richard Longenecker, Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1975).

⁷ Perhaps the clearest exponent of this reality is George Eldon Ladd, op. cit.

⁸ Cf. Lk. 11:23, where that evangelist translates Jesus’ thought with the expression “the finger of God.” In the Old Testament the “hand of God” and “Spirit of God” meant essentially the same thing (I Chr. 28:12, 19; Ezek. 8:3).

⁹ On the Jewish expectation of the kingdom of God see Sigmund Mowinckel, He That Cometh, trans. by G. W. Anderson (New York, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1956).

¹⁰ James D. G. Dunn, Jesus and the Spirit (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975), p. 311.

¹¹ George Eldon Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans 1974) p.47 ff.

¹² Dunn, op. cit., p. 47.

¹³ Ibid., p.49.

 

“The Kingdom and the Spirit” originally appeared in Issue 3 (Summer 1986) of Basileia: A Journal of Theology for Worshipping Churches published by Christian Life College in Mt. Prospect, Ill. Used by permission.