‘From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. For all the Prophets and Law prophesied until John.’ [Matthew 11:12-13]
The preaching of John the Baptist is summarized as announcing the coming of the kingdom. ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ [Matthew 3:1-2]. Jesus began his preaching the same way by declaring the advent of the kingdom [Matthew 4:12-17]. He sent out the twelve disciples to preach the same message [Matthew 10:7]. The New Testament never speaks of the kingdom as being in existence before the coming of Messiah. Always it is described as something new, as being realized for the first time in the days of Jesus Christ.
John the Baptist announced the change. He is a noble milestone at the end of an era. Yet the prophet remains part of the former age and never quite enters the new. John is not in the kingdom; for ‘he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he’ [Matthew 11:11]. John is part of the Old Testament economy. ‘The prophets and the law’ were ‘until John’. There was none greater than John in that era for he came in the spirit and power of Elijah [Matthew 11:14]. John joined his voice with the old dispensation predictions of a coming Messiah; he was herald of the arrival; his finger pointed to the Lamb of God in the flesh. Even though playing a vital role in the coming of the kingdom, John continued to be part of the old order.
Newness of the kingdom alerts to newness of the covenant. A distinction between prophets and the law on one hand and the kingdom of God on the other accentuates differences between the testaments and distinctions between the covenants. What in the Old Testament is of perpetual obligation and to be applied today? What in the Old Covenant was discontinued with the coming of the kingdom?
The similarities and differences between the covenants are critical issues for the believer. The enemies of the kingdom are quick to point out the differences and to glory in their ignorance as if they had found a fatal flaw in the Bible. Some say the Scriptures are not reliable. If they cannot be trusted in matters of science, then how can they be trusted in anything that they teach? Since men are fallible, and since the books of the Bible were written by men and collected by men, how then can the Bible be the word of the living God?
Those who say there is no God are relentless in every age trying to refute His word. They are looking to justify their unbelief. Most of the time they are successful, ‘to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure’ [Titus 1:15].
The Hebrew prophets predicted the coming of the Holy One of Israel. The New Covenant has come just as they prophesied. Christ is building His church in every generation and every nation despite the hindrances of men. Under persecution the church flourishes. Church history is full of examples of men who set out to debunk Christianity only to find themselves conquered by the grace of God. Are all these men deceived? Are they somehow lacking in intelligence?
The problem is not with enough evidences; the scribes and Pharisees witnessed miracles before their eyes and still remained in unbelief. The problem is with man in his unregenerate state. In Adam we all are born into rebellion against God. In Christ men are ‘born again’ so they can see what was hidden from them in their blindness.
Some disparage the character of God, saying that God is barbaric for commanding lawbreakers to be executed by public stoning in the Old Testament. We thank God that the New Covenant has come putting an end to the Mosaic economy. Jesus did not advocate the harsh punishments instituted through Moses. With Christ we see the mercy of God unfolded toward sinners, ‘Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.’ What does this say about God and the covenants? There is no mercy in the absence of justice.
Christ concluded his kingdom parables with the statement that a man ‘instructed in the kingdom of God is like a head of a household, who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old’ [Matthew 13:52]. Christians must search the Scriptures to answer the questions of how the covenants relate to each other. We must always give preference to the words of Jesus Christ, since He has come to fulfill the law and the prophets. No doctrine should be held that is in conflict with His words, since ‘the Scripture cannot be broken’ [John 10:35].
The Pharisees rejected Christ because their hope was in a restoration of the glory days of the kingdom of Israel. They expected Messiah to conquer the Romans by force. In our day a similar error has crept into the church. There is wide spread expectation among Christians of a physical manifestation of the Mosaic system in the Holy Land. Under the banner of a ‘literal’ interpretation of the Scripture, this new teaching has associated the historic views of the church as contrary to the Scriptures. Those in the New Covenant who wish to resurrect an external, material kingdom patterned after Old Testament Israel do great harm to Christ’s teaching on the kingdom. In the following articles we will demonstrate from the Scriptures that this view is in conflict with the Lord and His Bible.
Seeing the kingdom from Christ’s perspective will equip us to stand against the enemies of the kingdom. We must understand that the kingdom of God has come in Christ and is advancing through gospel preaching just as He said.
In writing of the Day of the Lord the apostle Peter explains what keeps back the Lord from coming again in glory when every man will bow the knee and give account of his life before the High King of Heaven.
‘The Lord is not slow concerning His promise…but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance’ [II Peter 3:9].
The historic view of this passage held by the Reformed Church is foreign to most Protestants today. The kingdom will come visibly at the consummation after Christ has gathered ‘all whom [God] has given Him’ [John 17:2]; all who have repented and believed the gospel both Jew and Gentile; a multitude that no man can number from every nation. This world continues until all the elect enter into the kingdom.
[Credits to Walter Chantry's God's Righteous Kingdom]