The Coming Kingdom?! - Part 1
Lately I’ve been reflecting on the in-breaking, coming Kingdom which Jesus inaugurated. What exactly does this ‘Kingdom’ entail? What does it look like? Paul states that Jesus’s world-renewing resurrection event confirmed that everything He said and did beforehand was legitimate, especially attesting to His identity as God’s son and His mission of redemption [Romans 1:4, 1 Corinthians 15:14-17]. In addition, His resurrection reveals the reality that Jesus is the risen King of all Creation having
defeated death, hell, and the devil.
So how is His Kingdom manifested or realized in our world today? Christians of all stripes have varying ideas of what this looks like. Some have decided that Christians claiming seats of cultural power to effect legislative change can usher in Christ’s Kingdom; while others state that the coming Kingdom is primarily evidenced in miraculous signs and wonders.
Consider this... if Heaven is, in fact, the ‘sphere of God’s affective will’ (Willard) where His desires and designs for reality are realized, and human beings who are created in His image (with a mandate for ‘godly’ stewardship) grow this Kingdom as they submit their wills to His, then the Kingdom is ultimately advanced through its citizens. However, we may be tempted to believe that this Kingdom growth primarily looks like specific works that we do (legislation, miracles, etc.), when in fact it begins with our own lives as God’s New Creation works of art - God’s ‘poetry’ (poiema, Eph. 2:10). Our lives then, not what we do, are the first sign of Christ’s coming Kingdom. This is what is often referred to as ‘Christlikeness’ and it’s ultimately the work of the Word and Spirit within us, as we do life in healthy Christian community.
Understanding this dynamic, we need not look further than the LORD’s Prayer, or ‘Our Father’, as a paradigm for ushering in Christ’s Kingdom. When Jesus’s disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray, He gave them the famous format and flow most of us know so well:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.…”
-Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:1–4, ESV
It’s striking how for so many years I prayed this guide to prayer assuming that the LORD would somehow make His Kingdom manifest somehow apart from me, just because I asked Him to. It was only after many years of following Jesus that I realized that He intended to usher in His Kingdom through me. In essence, when I pray, I should always be willing to become the answer to the prayer I’m offering up. This is how the Kingdom advances- through our daily lives.
Next month we’ll lean into how our own lives, and our relationships with others, are ‘first fruits’ and billboard to the watching world that something new is afoot which is strangely familiar.. like a welcoming invitation from a familiar, but far-off land.
What’s your first thought when you consider that we, the Body of Christ, are the LORD’s primary plan, via the Word and the Spirit, for ushering in Christ’s Kingdom?
How would your prayers change if you prayed with an awareness of ‘volunteering’ to become the answer to your prayer, as the LORD called and empowered you to do so?
