The Kingdom of God is good news because it reverses the effects of sin. What are the effects of sin?
1. Loss of grace on the individual level resulting in dehumanization as seen in sexism, racism, materialism, and an assortment of other ism’s all of which tend toward humanity’s devolution.
2. Environmental chaos. Without humans exercising effective stewardship over the earth, the earth is in captivity to futility. The earth simply cannot cooperate with broken humans.
3. Nationalism. Arbitrary boundary lines turn companions into competitors. . . or better yet, warriors.
The effects of sin are recorded early in Genesis. In ch. 3 we’re informed that the result of sin in Eve’s case would be difficulty in child birth and sexism. Yes, that’s right. She didn’t suffer “under” Adam in Eden. It was only after sin that the fact is stated clearly, “Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” There was nothing prior to sin to suggest that Adam was to rule over Eve. Together they exercised dominion over all creation. In fact, Adam couldn’t do it by himself, spurring on the creation of Eve. Male and female were created in the image of God (Gn.1). Vs. 28 indicates that God blessed THEM (not just HIM), and charged them to “fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” For those who believe that men have a moral right to dominate women, I suggest you reread the story and learn that men have an immoral desire to dominate women. Under the present circumstances wherein sin has taken up residence in the structures of the world, men continue with the monstrous drive to dominate even the one who is their created equal.
So after sin, the quest for domination of an ugly sort entered the picture. There’s obviously nothing wrong with domination or dominion if in God’s grace; e.g., human dominion over creation, each of us submitted to the other within a framework of grace, etc. Howerver, everything is wrong with dominion that flows out of selfishness and contempt. Cain looks more like a monster in Genesis 4 than a man. He kills his brother because of petty jealousy. And we’ve been killing each other ever since. It’s the effect of sin. We’re created with the pulse to dominate. Sin warps the pulse by ripping it from the grip of God.
But it gets worse. God cursed the ground because of man’s sin. Environmental chaos, a reality unimaginable in Eden, now defines earth. Everything from H1n1 to earthquakes is the result of human failure to wisely care for God’s creation. Sickness, death, disasters of all sorts–they all manifest the effect of our sin.
And finally, nationalism rears its ugly head in Genesis 11. The demise of authentic humanness continues from Genesis 4 all the way to Genesis 11 where the apex of God’s creation decided it would build a tower. And for what reason? The text states, “. . . let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
The Kingdom of God is good news because it reverses the effects of sin. What are the effects of sin?
- Loss of grace on the individual level resulting in dehumanization as seen in sexism, racism, materialism, and an assortment of other ism’s all of which tend toward humanity’s devolution.
- Environmental chaos. Without humans exercising effective stewardship over the earth, the earth is in captivity to futility. The earth simply cannot cooperate with broken humans.
- Nationalism. Arbitrary boundary lines turn companions into competitors. . . or better yet, warriors.
The effects of sin are recorded early in Genesis. In ch. 3 we’re informed that the result of sin in Eve’s case would be difficulty in child birth and sexism. Yes, that’s right. She didn’t suffer “under” Adam in Eden. It was only after sin that the fact is stated clearly, “Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” There was nothing prior to sin to suggest that Adam was to rule over Eve. Together they exercised dominion over all creation. In fact, Adam couldn’t do it by himself, spurring on the creation of Eve. Male and female were created in the image of God (Gn.1). Vs. 28 indicates that God blessed THEM (not just HIM), and charged them to “fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” For those who believe that men have a moral right to dominate women, I suggest you reread the story and learn that men have an immoral desire to dominate women. Under the present circumstances wherein sin has taken up residence in the structures of the world, men continue with the monstrous drive to dominate even the one who is their created equal.
So after sin, the quest for domination of an ugly sort entered the picture. There’s obviously nothing wrong with domination or dominion if in God’s grace; e.g., human dominion over creation, each of us submitted to the other within a framework of grace, etc. Howerver, everything is wrong with dominion that flows out of selfishness and contempt. Cain looks more like a monster in Genesis 4 than a man. He kills his brother because of petty jealousy. And we’ve been killing each other ever since. It’s the effect of sin. We’re created with the pulse to dominate. Sin warps the pulse by ripping it from the grip of God.
But it gets worse. God cursed the ground because of man’s sin. Environmental chaos, a reality unimaginable in Eden, now defines earth. Everything from H1n1 to earthquakes is the result of human failure to wisely care for God’s creation. Sickness, death, disasters of all sorts–they all manifest the effect of our sin.
And finally, nationalism rears its ugly head in Genesis 11. The demise of authentic humanness continues from Genesis 4 all the way to Genesis 11 where the apex of God’s creation decided it would build a tower. And for what reason? The text states, “. . . let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”
Humanity was imploding. Without any acknowledgment of God people were consumed with their own greatness. They weren’t concerned about the creation or fulfilling their God-given responsibility. They wanted nothing more than to build a tall building (at what cost to the environment?) so that they could get a great name for themselves. Because we bear God’s image, because humans are so extraordinary, it was evident to God that unless He intervened humanity would continue it’s downward spiral up a worthless tower. People were dispersed and given different languages in order to to reverse the trend. But the little groups soon started competing for a great name.
The 20th century has shown us what graceless humans tend to do with power and imagination. How many millions of people were killed last century so that someone could get a great name–men like Stalin, Hitler, Mao Ze-Dong, Leopold II, Ismail Enver, Pol Pot, etc?
Now then, the Kingdom of God is good news because it will reverse all the above effects of sin. God promised Abraham in Genesis 12 that through him, through his seed, He would bless all the families of the earth. That’s the long-standing covenant, the gospel clearly described by Paul in Gal. 3.7f, that gives the world a glimmer of real hope. The Kingdom of God isn’t some marginalized religious experience, pushed away over in the corner, packed inside pointy buildings filled with wimpy people scared to death to crawl out from under their steeples. That’s not the Kingdom of God. Whatever it is, it’s little more than a parody of what Jesus intended for the new humanity He was innaugurating.
The church and the kingdom are not the same thing. The church identifies God’s called-out people. The Kingdom of God is His sphere of influence, His dominion, His power; it’s where His will is done. You don’t need me to tell you that there are plenty of churches that express no symptoms of a Kingdom relationship. If you want an old and obvious example there’s Laodicia, identified by the Lord Himself as a church, but one that was not depending on Kingdom resources and wasn’t capable on any level of aiding the King in the reversal of the curse.
The Kingdom of God is where His will is being done. It is where brand new humans of a different sort are latching on to the gospel of Is. 61, the gospel Jesus preached and lived, and who are therefore working in concert with God not to get a great name for themselves or (God forbid) their church, but who are embracing the long-lost mantle placed on Adam’s shoulders, and finally worn with dignity by the new Adam, the son of God–Jesus.
I’ll write in more detail about the salvation of the world in Christ and through His kingdom in the upcoming days and weeks (Lord willing).