| Jesus and the End-Time The Kingdom and the End-Time The Fulfillment of the Kingdom |
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order; Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. "For God has put all things in subjection under his feet." But when it says, "All things are put in subjection under him," it is plain that he is excepted who put all things under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things under him, that God may be everything to everyone. 1 Corinthians 15:20-28In order to understand the fulfillment of the kingdom we must begin where God began, with Adam. Adam at the beginning has much to do with the fulfillment of the Kingdom at the very end. For where you end-biologically, historically, philosophically, spiritually-has a great deal to do with where you begin and what you begin with. You cannot, for example, begin as a worm and end as a man. You can become a giant or a genius among worms, but you cannot escape your wormhood. God began with man-with Adam, as Paul calls him. Since mankind has that auspicious beginning, there is at least the possibility of a significant end: that we will end where we began, with God. At the creation God made man in his own image and gave to him "dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth" (Genesis 1:27, 28). That is quite a gift. God then planted a garden in Eden and placed Adam in it to "till it and keep it" (Genesis 2:15). He also planted in the garden the "tree of life" (Genesis 2:9). SO at the beginning Adam had a paradise that provided all his needs, he had dominion over the living creatures of the earth, and he had access to a tree that provided him with life forever. (Do not get confused here: the tree of life was forbidden to Adam only after his fall, not before. While he was in the garden it was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that was forbidden to him.) But for all Adam had, still he was not king. Robert Farrar Capon claims that Adam was the first king and priest, but his point must not be pressed too far.1 Insofar as Adam had dominion, he resembled a king; insofar as he was the steward of the garden, he resembled a priest (both steward and priest are offerers of the works of their hands). But the Bible calls Adam neither king nor priest-not in Hebrew, not in Greek. The word translated "dominion" means "being first" or "having control over." It denotes a function, while the words translated "king" and "kingdom" denote royal power and dignity. I do not believe the choice of words was incidental. It did not occur to the biblical writers that Adam was a king, because to them God was king. Later on, kingship became an issue with the people of Israel; after some 250 years of nationhood under the leadership of Moses, Joshua, and the Judges, they demanded a king so that they would be like their neighboring nations. The story is important, and I cannot tell it better than the Scripture does. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him, "Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint for us a king to govern us like all the nations." But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to govern us." And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, "Hearken to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them" (1 Samuel 8:4-7).So beginning wit Saul there were earthly kings. But it was a second choice, and the Lord did not abdicate in favor of Saul. When the earthly kingdom finally breathed its last, there was still the Lord saying through his prophet Ezekiel, "As I live, says the Lord God, surely with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I will be king over you" (Ezekiel 20:33) God was king, is king, will be king. Then what was Adam? He was man, the first citizen of the kingdom of God, and that was the greatest glory he could achieve. In Shaw's Arms and the Man, the Swiss hero is challenged by the parents of the heroine. They believe he is a poor man who will be unable to provide for her as she has become accustomed. But Appearances to the contrary, he is actually very rich; so he recites a list of his possessions. It is so impressive that the girl's father is awestruck and asks, "Are you the emperor of Switzerland?" The hero's answer could serve as the response of every son and daughter of Adam: "My rank is the highest known in Switzerland: I am a free citizen."2 Adam went wrong because he was not content with that. He wanted to be like God. One could say without too much risk of misinterpretation that Adam tried to seize the kingdom. And failed. That leads us to Paul's discussion of the fulfillment of the kingdom in 1 Corinthians 15: "For as by a man came death." "As in Adam all die." The consequence of Adam's rebellion is that it put him and all his descendants in bondage to sin and death. God remained King, but Adam had given his allegiance to other masters, and his rebellion was inflamed further through his descendants. God was not helpless while this was happening: he saved Noah out of the flood, he called Abraham, he led the people of Israel out of Egypt, he raised up judges and kings and priests and prophets; but the kingdom of Israel was not the Kingdom of God. God did not reestablish his Kingdom on earth until Jesus was lifted up on a cross to draw all men to himself. That was the decisive battle, and his resurrection was the victory. "For as by a man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." Death is defeated; it is not yet destroyed. As long as the world continues we will still be injured, we will still sicken, we will still die. But death itself is vanquished, and when the close of the age comes, death will end. No more needs to be done. Because Christ lives, we will live. "But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. In defeating death and promising its destruction, Christ has restored to us the freedom of Adam. His establishment of the kingdom means the restoration of things as they ought to be. We cannot be more than God intended Adam to be, but we will not be less. Then comes the end. The language of Paul is complicated and cannot even be paraphrased without loss to its meaning, so we will focus on the two points that are clear in it. When Christ finishes his work, he will yield it all to the Father; then God may be everything to everyone. In the biblical scheme man will end where he began, with God. The yielding of Christ to the Father stresses one Kingdom. There is one God and one Kingdom; the work of Christ was and is the work of God. But this does not detract from the enormous variety in God's Kingdom. It is a free realm. In The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis, the heroes and heroines find themselves in a beautiful land where the fruit trees are laden with exotic and luscious fruits. Everyone raised his hand to pick the fruit he best liked the look of, and then everyone paused for a second. The fruit was so beautiful that each felt, "It can't be for me…surely we're not allowed to pluck it."The key word is may. God may be everything. The verb is subjunctive in Greek as it is in English, meaning that whatever happens is conditional; it is the free choice of the Kingdom's people to focus their attention on God and worship him. There is no silly pantheism here, as though we were to become part of God. In the fulfillment of the Kingdom God restores his creation; he doesn't swallow it up. Pantheism is the doctrine that holds everything to be God, rejecting by implication the freedom of any single person or thing to be unique. For a long time I was fascinated by Tennyson's famous lines, until I realized he had to be wrong: Flower in the crannied wallWhat you would really know, "root and all and all in all," is a great deal about that flower-and about other flowers like it. But you would not know God. God may be everything to everyone, but he will not take away the uniqueness of each thing he has created. He is himself the fulfillment of his Kingdom and he becomes everything to us when we, like Christ, yield everything to him. For some this may not be a satisfactory fulfillment of the Kingdom. We offer no detailed description of heaven. Only the assurance that God himself is enough. We trust him for the details. We have trusted Jesus, and we trust his Father; to say that the Kingdom in its fulfillment will be exactly what God intended all along ought to be more than enough. Glen Wiberg tells the following in Called to Be His People: There is an old legend about a saint encountering an angel walking down the road with a torch in one hand and a pail of water in the other. When asked what they were for, he replied, "The torch is to burn down the castles of heaven and the water is to put out the flames of hell and then we shall see who really loves God."5Each must decide for himself whether God is enough. 1 Robert Farrar Capon, An Offering of Uncles, Sheed and Ward, 1967, p.16. 2 Bernard Shaw, Arms and the Man, Penguin Books, 1952, p. 77. 3 C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Collier Books, 1970, p. 137. 4 Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Flower in the Crannied Wall," in English Literature and its Backgrounds, Volume 2, Dryden Press, 1949, p. 482. 5 Glen V. Wiberg, Called to Be His People, Covenant Press, 1970, p. 318. » Next Page — The Beginning of the Last Days » Table of Contents » Home |