The Gospel of the Kingdom of God

Table of Contents

           Introduction
           The Old Testament basis for the Gospel terminology
           The kingdom of God
	      The kingdom of God in the concrete sense
              The kingdom of God in the abstract sense
           The coming of the kingdom
              "The kingdom of God is among you" (Luke 17:21) 
              Acts 1:6-7
           The second coming of Jesus Christ    
              The Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven 
              The revelation of Christ with his mighty angels in flaming fire
              Revelation 19
           Salvation and judgement in plain terms
              The apostle Paul on salvation
           A personal coming of Christ
           Appendix:The origin of the expression "the son of man" as a self-title of Jesus
           Notes

Introduction

The Gospel preached by John the Baptist, Jesus and his disciples according to the New Testament is the good news of the coming of the kingdom of God. The word “gospel” in the New Testament translates the Greek word euangelion, which means “good news.” It is customary in Christian literature to define the Christian Gospel as “the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.” [1] While that is essentially true, it does not exhaust the content of the Gospel as presented in the Bible, for the Gospel also concerns judgement. On his first reported visit to a synagogue in Nazareth during his ministry, Jesus unrolled the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and read as follows:

The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has annointed me to bring good news [Gr. euangelisasthai, “to announce good news”] to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour [and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn]. (Luke 4:18-19, cf. Isaiah 61:1-2)

Jesus stopped reading after the words “the Lord’s favour.” The part of Isaiah 61:2 which he left unread is indicated within square brackets above. Evidently, the good news is not only about salvation but also about the judgement to come as also repeatedly affirmed throughout the New Testament (cf. Romans 2:16; Revelation 11:17ff; 14:6ff). Salvation and judgement (concepts to be explained later in the article) are, as it were, two sides of the same coin.

The Gospel according to Mark calls the preaching of John the Baptist the “beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ” (1:1). John came preaching in the desert, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven [Gr. basileia tōn ouranōn, which here means “the reign of heaven” (see below)] is near” (Matthew 3:1-2). [2] After his baptism, Jesus preached the same message (4:17). In the parallel in Mark 1:15 we have Jesus preaching, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel.” As is self-evident in a comparison of the two parallel passages in Matthew and Mark above, the expressions “the kingdom of heaven” and “the kingdom of God” are functionally identical as used in the New Testament.

The good news about the nearness of the kingdom of God is one form that the proclamation of the Christian Gospel assumes. The Gospel is also verbalized as the “coming” of “the son of man,” viz., Jesus Christ (see Appendix for the origin of the expression “the son of man” as a self-title of Jesus). Mark’s account of the Transfiguration is immediately preceded by the following words of Jesus: “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who standing here who shall not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power” (Mark 9:1). [3] The words “the kingdom of God after it has come with power” in Mark are paralleled in Matthew and Luke by the words “the son of man coming in his kingdom” (Matthew 16:28) and “the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:27).

This coming of Jesus Christ, stated in the New Testament to take place at “the end of the age,” when all things are consummated, is mentioned elsewhere in the NT and also called the Parousia (Matthew 24:3, 27, 37, 39; 1 Corinthians 15:23; 1 Thessalonians 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23; 2 Thessalonians 2:1; 2:8; James 5:7, 8; 2 Peter 1:16; 3:4; 1 John 2:28) and “revelation” (“of Jesus Christ,” 1 Peter 1:7; “of his glory,” 1 Peter 4:13). [4] It is commonly called the “second coming of Christ” in Christian literature.

The Gospel is the mystery hidden for ages and now revealed to the saints. Its content is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:26-27; 2 Corinthians 4:4). The Gospel is fulfilled when Christ’s glory is revealed in the NT Church (1 Peter 4:13; 5:1). This glory is God’s own moral glory, which the NT Christians hoped to realize in the Church (Romans 3:23; 5:2). For this reason the Gospel is also called “the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Though the preaching of John was indeed the first public proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus, it is taught in a cryptic form throughout the pages of the Old Testmament. The author of Hebrews writes, “For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also …” (Hebrews 4:2). The Israelites of Moses’ day had the Gospel preached to them in type. The good news was the rest that God had prepared for them in the promised land but through their lack of faith in God and disobedience, they could not enter it. The Gospel is first revealed in the Old Testament in the words of the Lord God to the serpent, according to which the offspring of Eve, who typifies the NT Church, was to crush the head of the serpent, which represents Satan (Genesis 3:15, the “Protovangelium,” cf. John 12:31; Romans 16:20). This refers to the judgement aspect of the Gospel. The Gospel is also the focal point of much of Old Testament prophecy.

The Old Testament basis for the Gospel terminology

While virtually the entire Old Testament provides the basis for the Christian Gospel, there are certain passages in it which announce the coming of God’s reign as a good news for His people and so directly underlie the Gospel terminology.

Seeing in vision the messengers who announce to Jerusalem the glad tidings of God’s deliverance of his people from their captivity in Babylon, Isaiah writes, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns'” (Isaiah 52:7). In the original historical context, God “reigns” by displaying his dominion and sovereignty over the world in delivering his people from their captivity in Babylon and returning them to their own land, Israel. The word translated “the one bringing good news” in the Hebrew OT becomes in the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament) euangelizomenos agatha, “one bringing glad tidings of good things.” euangelizomenos is a participial form of the verb euangelizein (“to announce good news”). euangelion, the NT Greek word for ‘gospel,’ is cognate with euangelizein. The words translated “Your God reigns” in the Hebrew become in the Septuagint basileusei sou ho theos, “Your God shall reign.”

Employing a plural participial form of this Greek verb euangelizomein, the apostle Paul adapts a part of Isaiah 52:7 and applies it to the preachers of the Christian gospel thus: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings [euangelizomenōn] of good things” (Romans 10:15). Here we can detect another OT source for the Greek NT’s designation for the gospel, euangelion (we have already seen one source for euangelion in the Introduction above in Jesus’ quotation of Isaiah 61:1 via the Septuagint). basileia in ho basileia tou theou (“the kingdom/reign of God”) is the substantive form of the verb basileuei, “he reigns,” which we observed in Isaiah 52:7 in the preceding para. This substantive form is used in its abstract sense of “reign” in the term hē basileia tou theou, “the reign of God,” in NT proclamations of the gospel. One can now easily see how the Greek NT terminology for the gospel (Gr. euangelion) of the kingdom (Gr. basileia, meaning ‘reign’ here) of God is derived. (There are many other references to this eschatologial reign of God in the OT, esp. in the Psalms.) This reign, the NT Christians proclaimed, was near, for God was soon going to display his dominion and power by vanquishing his foes spiritually and delivering his people from their bondage to the Babylon of sin, viz., the world of imperial Rome.

The kingdom of God

Since the Gospel concerns the good news about the coming kingdom of God, a correct understanding of the expression “kingdom of God” (Gr. basileia tou theou) as used in the Bible is essential to a correct understanding of the good news.

As with other teachings, New Testament teachings about the kingdom of God are ultimately derived from the Old Testament and, though the exact phrase “kingdom of God” itself does not occur therein, the concept itself is found, especially in the book of Psalms and the Prophets. The word “kingdom” is represented in the OT by malkuth (Hebrew) and malkutha (Aramaic). The corresponding word in the New Testament is basileia. Depending on the context, all three words can bear either a concrete or an abstract sense.

The kingdom of God in the concrete sense

In the concrete sense, the kingdom of God is the community of God’s people who have God as their king. For example, Revelation 1:6: “… [A]nd he has made us a kingdom [Gr. basileia], priests to his God and father…” (also see Revelation 5:10). The New Testament church is the kingdom of God in the concrete sense. When the people of Israel came out of Egypt, God desired that they should be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” to him (Exodus 19:26). The New Testament church, the antitype of the OT nation Israel, is the true “priesthood” and “holy nation,” offering spiritual sacrifices (1 Peter 2:5,9). Jesus identified his Church with the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:18-19) and he ruled over it as God’s vicegerent. The parable of the weeds and the parable of the good and the bad fish show that in the midst of the righteous that constitute the kingdom of heaven on earth there are evil men (Matthew 13:36-43; 47-50. Note that the phrase “in the midst of the righteous” in v. 49 corresponds to the phrase “out of his kingdom” in v. 41). The kingdom of God existed in the first century, for the tax collectors and harlots were entering the kingdom of God before the religious leaders of Jesus’ day (Mt. 21:31). In Matthew 16:18-19, when Jesus says to Peter that he will build his Church on “this rock” and that he will give him “the keys of the kingdom,” he is equating the Church with the kingdom.

The references to the kingdom in the foregoing paragraph concern the kingdom in its present, earthly aspect. There is a also a future aspect to the kingdom. It is a place which Christians must enter through tribulation (Acts 14:22). This is the eternal kingdom of God which flesh and blood, i.e., physical human beings, cannot inherit (1 Corinthians 15:50). An entrance is provided into this eternal kingdom to those who strive to make their election and calling sure (2 Peter 1:10-11). Only the redeemed in their resurrected state can inherit it. Those who practise works of the flesh will not inherit it (Galatians 5:21). The sheep inherit it as their reward on the day of judgement (Matthew 25:34). The redeemed will be united with the resurrected Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the prophets in that kingdom (Matthew 8:11; Luke 13:28-29). Abraham looked forward to one day being in the city of God, heavenly Jerusalem, whose foundations are the apostles and the (NT) prophets, with Christ himself as the cornerstone (Hebrews 11:10; 12:22; Ephesians 2:20; Revelation 21:14).

The kingdom of God in the abstract sense

In the abstract sense, the kingdom of God refers to God’s general dominion over his creation, including human beings (Daniel 4:34) or, what is of more immediate importance to the religious faith of the Bible, the theocratic reign or rule which God exercises over His people and, through them, the world. Yahweh was the king of the people of Israel (1 Samuel 12:12) and, in their hey day, Solomon sat on “the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel” as God’s vicegerent (1 Chronicles 22:9; 28:5) and “ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and as far as the border of Egypt” (1 Kings 4:21). The enemies of Israel were subdued or vanquished. The Old Testament prophets foresaw the day when Yahweh would reign over all nations in a new way (e.g., 1 Chronicles 16:31; Psalm 47; 96:10; Isaiah 52:7; Micah 4:7).

At the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel said to Mary, “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom [=reign] will have no end” (Luke 1:31-33). Jesus, scion of David and his antitype, was destined to rule over the Church, the spiritual house of Jacob, as God’s vicegerent. He became king of New Israel at his resurrection, when he was exalted to be Lord and sat on the right hand of God (Acts 2:34-36; cf. Psalm 110:1). He did not reign alone: his followers reigned on earth with him as they were a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9 [from the Septuagint of Exodus 19:6 (Heb. “kingdom of priests”)]; Revelation 1:6; 5:10). The saints sat on thrones and reigned on earth with Christ, “the ruler of the kings of the earth” (Revelation 1:5; here “kings” referring to Christ’s followers), for a metaphorical thousand years (Revelation 20:4; cf. Psalm 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8).

The parables of the mustard seed and of the yeast teach the gradual growth of the rule or reign of God (Matthew 13:31-33). Jesus himself is the mustard seed, “the smallest of all the seeds,” which becomes a tree in which birds of the sky come and nest in it branches. From its small beginning, which is Jesus, the reign of God was to grow to extend to the whole (Roman) world, just as Nebuchadnezzar’s dominion extended to “the ends of the earth” (= Babylonian empire, Daniel 4:20-22, where Nebuchadnezzar’s dominion is similarly likened to a fruitful tree which provides food for all and under which wild animals live and in whose branches birds live). Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed is essentially the same as Ezekiel’s prophetic parable of the tender cedar sprig (Ezekiel 17:22-24), with the mustard seed substituted for the tender cedar sprig.

Earthly kings rule by their economic and military power. According to the Old Testament, at the time of king Solomon, when the kingdom of Israel reached its greatest territorial expanse, it also reached its zenith in splendour and wealth, possessed formidable military power and enjoyed peace. The sources of wealth included tribute from vassal states and commerce. This golden period of material prosperity and peace in Israel is held out in the Prophets as a type of the future (spiritual) kingdom of God under the Messiah (Isaiah 54:12; 60; 61 et al; cf. Revelation 21-22).

The periods when Joshua was judge of the people of Israel and David was king were characterized by intensive and successful military activity. Israelites entered Canaan, the promised land, under Joshua and subjugated it, though parts of the land still remained unconquered until the time of King David. As the prophets of old cryptically indicated and the New Testament writers taught, the history of Israel was basically a prophetic allegory of Jesus and his Church, and the battles waged by the people of Israel against their enemies, especially under the leadership of Joshua and David, were a type of the spiritual battles that God’s New People, the Church, were to wage before they entered their promised land, which is the eternal kingdom of God.

Yahweh battling on behalf of His people is a recurrent theme found in the Old Testament. In the history of Israel, the battles are literal, with Yahweh’s people fighting in faith and Him giving them victory. But in numerous passages, especially in the Psalms and the Prophets, the language transcends the literal and the reference is to future battles to be fought in a different realm—the spiritual. For example, Isaiah foresaw the day when Yahweh would put on the garments and armour of a warrior and fight to save His true people from their enemies and wreak vengeance on them (Isaiah 59:16ff). By referring to metaphorical garments and armour, the prophet makes clear that the deliverance and vengeance are spiritual.

The New Testament understands the battles of the Old Testament people of God to foreshadow the spiritual battles waged by God’s new people, the Christians. For example, the Isaianic passage referred to above together with others are alluded to by the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians (6:13ff), where he exhorts his readers to put on the “full armour” of God and stand firm with, among other things, their waist girded with truth (originally said of the Messiah in Isaiah 11:5), a breastplate of righteousness in place and a helmet of salvation on (cf. Isaiah 59:17). A breastplate and a helmet are defensive armour. Paul also urges his readers to take up “the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God.” The phrase “word of God” as used in the technical sense in the New Testament, as here, refers to the Christian Gospel. A sword is an offensive weapon and so this metaphor points to the judgemental and retributive aspect of the Gospel (which we have already noticed earlier). A sword as a metaphor for the Gospel is based on such OT passages as Psalm 149:6, which speaks of Yahweh’s people inflicting “vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples” with a “double-edged sword in their hands” (cf. Hebrews 5:12; Revelation 2:12). (It is instructive to note that, in the passages referred to above, this “holy war” is said to be waged by three different parties: Yahweh, the Messiah and Yahweh’s people. This point, though it may seem an inconsistency at first sight, is a key for a correct understanding of the biblical doctrines on salvation and judgement, which are treated below.) Affirming the spiritual nature of Christian warfare, Paul says, “[T]he weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses…” (2 Corinthians 10:4). Paul exhorts Timothy to “fight the good fight” (1 Timothy 1:18). The New Testament sees this warfare as being against not human beings but demonic forces, who are the real rulers of this world and use unbelievers as their proxies (Ephesians 6:10-12; Revelation 9).

Jesus’ reign, which began at the resurrection when he sat on the right of hand of God (Psalm 110:1), was to continue until he had put all his enemies under his feet (1 Corinthians 15:25; Heb. 2:5ff). The enemies of Christ whom he (or God) puts under his feet are those whom he subdues, i.e., all the elect , who were formerly his enemies spiritually (cf. Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21). The enemies are not subdued that they might be destroyed, as many commentators hold. [5]

The saints, who are dead to sins, live and reign through righteousness (Romans 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24), which is their glory and wealth (cf. Isaiah 62:2). This righteousness, which is their glory, is identical with the glory of the Lord (Isaiah 58:8; Note the synonymous parallelism between “your righteousness” and “the glory of the Lord” in this verse). The glory of the Lord that accompanied the Israelites in the desert and was present in the Tabernacle and later the Temple actually represented the moral glory of God that was to fill first Jesus and then his followers! The saints, “the kings of the earth,” bring their glory into God’s temple, the NT church (Revelation 21:26). They are clothed with the fine linen of righteous deeds (Revelation 19:8). The reign of God is realized through the pursuit and achievement of “righteousness, peace and joy in the holy spirit” (Romans 14:17).

The coming of the kingdom

As we have seen above, the kingdom of God in the sense of the reign of God is in practical terms accomplished through the exercise of the spiritual power available in Christ by his followers. A spectacular display of this spiritual power during two climactic events in the life of the Church is described as the “coming” of this kingdom. The first “coming” took place during the martyrdom of Christians under the Roman emperor Nero in AD 64 (Revelation 5:9-11; 12:10-11; 13:3; cf. Isaiah 19). [6] But “the coming of the kingdom” par excellence is seen in biblical prophecy and teachings as taking place during the martyrdom under Domitian, the eleventh Roman emperor (AD 81-96), which also marks the final victory of the New Testament Church (the kingdom of God in a concrete sense) in their collective spiritual battle against the world (the kingdom of Satan) and its conquest using weapons of righteousness. This is coincidental with the second coming of Christ, which is the culmination of the infilling of Christ’s spirit, the reproduction of his life and the revelation of his full glory in his church. (As explained later in the article, this was immediately followed by a “personal” coming of Jesus to resurrect and translate his followers [1 Thessalonians 4:16]. (Hence all prophesied eschatological events of the Bible occurred and the NT Church era ended before the end of the first century!)

At the blowing of the seventh trumpet, when all things are consummated, loud voices in heaven proclaim, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah” (Revelation 11:15); and the twenty four elders fall on their faces before God and sing, “[Y[ou have taken your great power and reigned” (Revelation 11:16). Both the loud voices and the twenty four elders represent the NT Church. The ark of God is then said to be seen in God’s temple (v. 19), symbolising God’s full presence among His people in spirit. The reign of God has arrived in power!

“The kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:21)

When asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied: “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say lo here, or lo there; for behold the kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17:20-21). The kingdom of God was present among them in the form of Jesus, since the reign of God through His Church was to be manifested in power when the full glory of Christ was realized within it (cf. Colossians 1:27). This identification of the reign of God with Jesus is supported by his words to his disciples in the immediately following verse: “The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man [i.e., his revelation, cf. v. 30] and you will not see it” (v. 22).

In the light of the view expressed above that the eschatological coming of the kingdom (= coming of the Son of Man) is associated with a martyrdom in the NT church that parallels and reproduces Jesus’ own martyrdom, his allusion to it in v. 25, “But first [the Son of Man] must endure much suffering and be rejected by this generation,” assumes more relevance in its context. Additionally, his warning words in v. 33, “Those who try to make their life secure will lose it, but those who lose their life will keep it,” confirm that his coming is indeed is associated with a persecution of the Church.

Acts 1:6-7

When asked by the disciples, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority…” (Acts 1:6-7). This ties in with his words in the Olivet Discourse in relation to his coming: “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Matthews 24:36), suggesting that the restoration of the kingdom is coincident with the coming of the Son of Man.

The background to the disciples question is the prophesied restoration of the kingdom of Israel in the Prophets. Israel reached its zenith of political and economic power under king Solomon, after whose death the nation divided into two kingdoms, which were subsequently subjugated by foreign powers (Assyria and Babylon in that order) with their inhabitants exiled. The prophets looked forward to a time when Israelites of both kingdoms would return to their homeland, form a united kingdom under one king and live in peace and prosperity as in the days of Solomon. Micah prophesied, “And you, O tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, the former dominion shall come, the kingdom [“royal power” (Complete Jewish Bible), “kingship” (NIV)] of the daughter of Jerusalem” (Micah 4:8, RSV). And in that day, “each man will sit under his grapevine and under his fig tree with no one to frighten him” (4:4, cf. 1 Kings 4:24-25). Israel was at that time subject to Roman rule.

The disciples’ question in Acts 1:6 was evidently prompted by Jesus’ statement in the preceding verse: “[B]ut you will be baptized with the holy spirit not many days from now” (v. 5) with the causal relationship between the two verses indicated by the causal conjunction “therefore” (Gr. oun) introducing the latter. The disciples were aware that an outpouring of the spirit was associated with the Messianic kingdom (cf. Joel 3:1-2) and their words “at this time” echo Jesus’ words “not many days hence” in v. 5. We are not informed whether the disciples understood the restoration of the kingdom to Israel to take place in a spiritual sense or they still shared the hopes of their fellow Jews of a temporal kingdom to be erected by the Messiah. We are told that prior to this Jesus had spoken to them about the kingdom of God during a period of forty days, so it is safe to say that, however defective their concept of the kingdom of God may have been at this stage (the words “at this time” suggest this), it must have been more spiritual than that of the non-Christian Jews. In any case, Jesus corrects them only as to time and no conclusion can be drawn, as some students of the Bible who subscribe to the concept of a future temporal Messianic kingdom think, from his not objecting to the words “restore the kingdom to Israel,” since they are open to both a spiritual and a literal interpretation. In the teaching of the New Testament, the Israel of God, the Church, has the kingdom restored to her when she has dominion over all nations (spiritually) and the restitution of all things takes place (Galatians 6:16; Acts 3:21).

The second coming of Jesus Christ

As mentioned above, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is also verbalized in the NT as an eschatological “coming” of Christ resulting in salvation for some and condemnation to others. Though the exact expression “second coming” is not found in the NT, it is based on NT teaching: “so also the Christ is offered once to take away the sins of many; and unto those that wait for him without sin he shall appear the second time unto [salvation]” (Hebrew 9:28, Jubilee Bible 2000). This event is referred to in a variety of ways in the NT. The son of man comes in “the glory of his father with his angels” (16:27). He comes in “the glory of his father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38). He comes in “his glory, and the glory of his father and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:26). He comes in his kingdom (= royal power, Matthew 16:28). He comes in the clouds of the sky with power and great glory (Matthew 4:30). Jesus comes with all his saints (= holy ones, 1 Thessalonians 3:13). He is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire (2 Thessalonians 1:7). He comes to be glorified in his saints (2 Thessalonians 1:10). The “angels” referred to in these passages are none other than Jesus faithful followers. [7]

As with the message about the coming reign of God, the message about the second coming of Christ is also rooted in OT revelations. Isaiah 40 contains one such. The context is the future captivity of the kingdom of Judah in Babylon. Through the prophet God gives a message of comfort to his people. Having pardoned their sins, God will make an end of their captivity and bring them back to their land. God will shepherd the returning exiles on their homeward journey. A “herald of good tidings” (Septuagint: ho euangelizomenos) announces to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God! See, the Yahweh God comes with his might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him …” (Isaiah 40:9-10). Yahweh’s reward for his victory over Babylon is the people whom he has redeemed from there and he is bringing with him to Israel (cf. v. 11). In the New Exodus which the prophet envisions “the way of the Lord” (v. 3) is not the way from Mt. Sinai to the land of promise but the way of the wilderness from Euphrates to Israel. As at the first exodus, “the glory of the Lord” go with the returnees (v. 5). The voice that cries out (v. 3) is enfleshed in the NT in John the Baptist (Matthew 3:3; Mark 1:1-3), who exhorted his fellow countrymen to prepare the way of Christ, who, as the image of God (Colossians 1:15), is the representive of Yahweh. He comes with his reward (Revelation 22:12), the people whom he redeemed from their Babylon of sin with his blood (1:5). At the end of it all, the victorious Christ stands with the redeemed on Mount Zion (Revelation 14:1), which is the heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22) and their habitation.

This coming of Jesus is not a personal, visible coming of Jesus and is to be distinguished from a “personal” coming described in two passages in the NT (see below). Rather, it is a coming of Jesus in spirit into his church which results in their salvation and the condemnation of the world of unbelievers. Jesus said, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3). “[W]here I am” is Jesus’ spiritual state, to which a true worshipper of God is exalted as he walks with God. One who is where Jesus is beholds his glory (John 17:24). Jesus spoke of his coming again in the holy spirit (John 14:16-20, 26; 15:26; 16:7-15). “The Lord is the spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:17). The spirit takes the spiritual things of Christ and shows it to his disciples (John 16:15). Jesus and his father come and live in the disciples in spirit (John 14:23). The culmination of the process of Jesus coming in spirit into his church is the eschatological second coming of Christ, which is coincident with the final coming of the kingdom as explained above.

Acts 1:10-11 alludes to Jesus’ coming in spirit into his Church. Zechariah 14:2 describes a day of tribulation for Jerusalem. In its most literal terms the prediction concerning the tribulation was fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 (Luke 21:24, cf. Zechariah 12:3 [LXX]). Having a dual application, the prophecy of the tribulation extends also to the Church, the heavenly Jerusalem (cf. Acts 14:22; Revelation 7:14; 11:2; Galatians 4:26). It is on behalf of the inhabitants of heavenly Jerusalem that the Lord (spiritually) fights against those nations that persecute them (Zechariah 14:3, 12ff), not those of earthly Jerusalem. On “that day” of Yahweh (v. 4), that is, the day of the Lord, His metaphorical feet stand on the spiritual Mount of Olives (“Mount Zion” in Revelation 14:1), to which Acts 1:10-11 alludes. On that day, living waters, symbolizing the holy spirit, flow out of Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea (Dead Sea) and the other half toward the western sea (Mediterranean Sea), symbolizing the salvation of the whole world. This process of the spirit of Yahweh (= spirit of Jesus) coming into his people begins on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) and culminates on the last day. The two halves into which the Mount of Olives splits (Zechariah 14:4), one toward the north and the other toward the south, represent, respectively, the northern and southern halves of the restored kingdom of Israel, that is the NT church, consisting of Jews and Gentiles.

Let us now consider three other ways in which the second coming of Jesus is described in the NT.

(1) The Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven

In a vision, the prophet Daniel sees “one like a son of man” coming in the clouds heaven, being presented before the “Ancient One” and given dominion over nations (Daniel 7:13-14). The angelic interpretation of the vision makes clear that the son of man represents “the saints of the Most High” (cf. vv. 18, 27). The New Testament, esp. book of Revelation, reveals “the saints of the Most High” to be the New Testament Church saints (compare Revelation 1:7 with 11:12, where the two witnesses represent the Church, consisting of Jews and Gentiles).

At conversion, the true believer is raised from the dead spiritually and exalted to heaven to sit with God in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus to rule with him (Ephesians 2:6). It is the culmination and completion of this process for the entire church at the climactic moment of the martyrdom under the “little horn,” i.e., Domitian, that is symbolically described in Daniel 7 as “the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven” in order to receive “dominion,” “glory” and a “kingdom” (in the abstract sense). The Church received the kingdom at that time in the sense of Jesus’ answer to his disciples’ question in Acts 1:6 (see discussion above). At this climactic moment, the Church collectively became the Son of Man in his full glory.

In the book of Revelation, the words “he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him” (1:7) are shown to have their fulfillment in the Two Witnesses going up to heaven in a cloud, with their enemies, who consist of all “nations, tribes and tongues,” beholding them (11:12, cf. v. 9). The Two Witnesses represent the twofold composition of the Church (Jews and Gentiles).

Thus, rightly interpreted, the coming of Christ “in the clouds of heaven” as presented in the scriptures is not a personal, visible coming as widely believed and taught in Christendom, but a result of the coming of Christ in spirit into his Church presented in a metaphorical way. Furthermore, the “coming of the son of man in the clouds of heaven” is not a descension or a return to earth from heaven, as the “second coming” is usually conceived, but an ascension to heaven from earth!

(2) The revelation of Christ with his mighty angels in flaming fire

In a passage offering encouragement, Paul writes to persecuted, suffering fellow Christians in Thessalonica that on the day that Jesus is “revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire” they will be granted relief and their enemies will suffer retribution (2 Thessalonians 1:6-8). This is a coming in judgement and principally based on Isaiah 66:15. The context in Isaiah is Israelites have been brought from their captivity in Babylon and are living in peace in their own land. But a time comes when their enemies gather against the nation to attack it. The Lord comes and rebukes them with flames of fire. In Paul’s epistle the Lord (Yahweh) is represented by Jesus.

(3) Revelation 19

Revelation 19 depicts Jesus descending from heaven in judgement seated on a white horse. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood. From his mouth proceeds a sharp sword, which with he smites the nations (cf. Isaiah 66:15). It would be absurd to construe these and other details in the description of Jesus coming in judgement literally. Horses are instruments of war and a white horse is an emblem of victory and conquest. “… Persian kings after a signal victory … rode on white horses. … The Roman generals used to ride white horses at the head of their armies, and their triumphal chariots were drawn by white horses.” [8] The sword that proceeds out of his mouth is the sword of the spirit, the word of God (Ephesians 6:17), and so he is called in the description itself (Revelation 19:13). Jesus is dipped in the blood of his enemies whom he has (spiritually) vanquished (v. 13, cf. Isaiah 63:1-6). He is called “the king of kings” and “the lord of lords” (Revelation 19:16), and the heavenly cavalry that descend with him on white horses clothed in white, pure linen for the great spiritual battle are his followers (v. 14; cf. 17:14).

Salvation and judgement in plain terms

In practical terms, in the teaching of the New Testament the deliverance or salvation of Christians is effected by rescuing them from their sins through the empowering example of Jesus (Hebrews 9:14; 1 Peter 2:21), who, as the New Moses and Joshua, leads his people from their Egypt of sin (imperial Rome) and safely brings them to the Promised Land. Jesus was so named, for he would save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). [9] “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness…” (1 Peter 2:24). (Note that the expressly stated purpose of bearing “our sins in his body” is not to bear them vicariously [penal substitution] but that “we might die to sin and live to righteousness.”) Through Jesus’ death, God “condemned sin the flesh,” in order that the righteous requirement of the Law (as set out in the moral laws of the Mosaic code) might be fulfilled in his followers (Romans 8:3-4). In the teaching of the NT, humans, both Jews and Gentiles, have fallen short of “the glory of God” (Romans 3:24), i.e., God’s moral excellence, and the Gospel is an invitation for them to attain this glory by keeping their focus on Jesus and emulating him, who is the image and glory of God (Romans 5:2; 8:29-30; 1 Corinthians 11:7; 2 Corinthians 3:18; 4:6; Colossians 1:27; 1 Thessalonians 2:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:14). It is impossible to achieve this end without faith in God, for he who attempts to keep God’s law without it is doomed to failure (Romans 3:9ff). Hebrews 11 lists some of the Old Testament faithful who achieved humanly impossible, mighty deeds through faith. Similarly, through faith in God and the powerful example He has given in Christ, Christians are able to keep His commandments, which by their own power alone they are unable to do.

The coming of Christ in spirit into his church results in his (moral/ethical) glory filling his church, the great hope and expectation of the Church (cf. Romans 5:2; Colossians 1:27; 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 2:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:14; Revelation 15:8). Empowered by the example of Jesus and through faith, the saints keep the righteous requirements of the law (Romans 8:3-4).

Judgement is according to works (Romans 2:6ff). Each man’s works are measured against the moral glory or the standard of righteousness displayed in Jesus (Romans 2:16). The saints judge the world because the glory of Jesus was manifested in his Church (1 Corinthians 6:2). For the principal of a doer of God’s law judging one who is not a doer, see Romans 2:27. Since the Church derives this glory from Christ, it is Christ who judges (e.g., John 5:27). But this glory ultimately emanates from God, so it is God who judges (e.g., Romans 14:10 and innumerable OT passages). Thus God in Christ in the Church judges the world.

Judgement through Christ through the Church is entirely spiritual in nature with no literal reality. The description of Jesus’ coming in judgement in Revelation 19, discussed above, serves to confirm this. The same spiritual eschatological judgement is presented in the pages of the New Testament using language and metaphors borrowed from the Old Testament, including the Great White Throne judgement and the lake of fire of Revelation 20 and the battle described in Revelation 19. Though schematically presented in Revelation 19 as a future point event taking place at the time of the persecution under Domitian, this spiritual battle in reality is played out throughout the period of the NT church in the same way, for example, the spiritual exodus of NT believers takes place throughout the duration of the Church, though its type, the historical exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, took place in one day. The Old Testament provides many such types which found their spiritual fulfillment in Christ and the New Testament Church. [10]

The apostle Paul on salvation

Paul’s teaching that men are not justified by “works of law” but by grace through faith (e.g., Romans 3:28; Ephesians 2:8) is much misunderstood. Many misread Paul to mean that Christians are not bound to keep God’s commandments or at least that keeping or not keeping them has no impact on their salvation. This is not correct. Were it so, then those passages in which he stresses the importance of keeping God’s (moral) commandments and even makes inheritance of the eternal kingdom conditional on observing them (e.g., Galatians 5:21) would constitute a contradiction.

In the book of Romans, after the concatenation of quotations from the Old Testament which expose the Jews’ utter moral bankruptcy (Romans 3:10-18), Paul concludes, “Therefore by works of the law no human being is justified, for by the law is the knowledge of sin” (v. 20). Paul is not saying that men cannot be justified in the sight of God however well they keep God’s law, but that they do not perform the requirements of the law well enough to be justified. The Jews’ track record amply demonstrated that. By “law” Paul here refers to the written laws of the Old
Covenant. As he had said earlier, it is not the hearers of the law by the doers who are justified (2:13; cf. Philippians 2:3). If the uncircumcised Gentiles keep the requirements of the law, they are considered “circumcised” in God’s sight (2:26). Though the Jews punctiliously observed the ceremonial aspects of the law, as Jesus himself once observed (Matthew 23:23), they fell far short of God’s moral law, the proper observance of which alone imparts true righteousness to human beings [11]. The Old Testament is full of prophets railing against the moral bankruptcy of the Israelites. Both Jews and Gentiles fell short of the (moral) glory of God (Romans 3:22).

According to Paul, the purpose of the law is to impart knowledge of sin and to act as a guardian until Christ came (Romans 3:20; 7:7ff; Galatians 3:24). It is powerless by itself to make men righteous because it is weakened by their sinful nature (Romans 8:3). Into this hopeless situation God graciously sent the man Jesus, who partook of the same sinful flesh as his fellow men and “judged sin in the flesh” (ibid.), i.e., defeated sin in his body by his obedience to God’s law even unto death, so that “the righteous requirements of the law [the moral law] might be fulfilled” in those who believed in him (v. 4). By his obedience to God unto death he set the perfect example for men to emulate. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, that we might live to sin and live to righteousness; for by his wounds you were healed” (1 Peter 2:21-24). The New Testament writers see Jesus’ suffering and death as having a reforming effect on believing men and women. The shed blood of Jesus purifies the conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14) and so atones for the believers’ sins. The ingredients the law lacked to enable men to meet its demands, viz., the inspiring example of Jesus and faith in God, supply the necessary power to true worshippers of God to keep His commandments to a level that finds acceptance with Him. What is required of a Christian is not consistently perfect obedience to God but faithful obedience that always strives to imitate Jesus’ obedience. A Christian’s goal is ultimately to conform to the (moral) image of Christ (Romans 8:29).

A “personal” coming of Christ

The NT teaches two types of coming of Christ. Of these the non-personal coming, which is dealt with in this article in detail, receives the most frequent mention in the NT. The other type of coming is a personal coming of Jesus that occurs at the end of the age following the non-personal coming when he “comes” to resurrect the dead Christians and translate the living. There are two passages in the New Testament which refer to this.

The first is found in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17. Claiming to write by “the word of the Lord,” Paul declares that “the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,” after which “the dead in Christ” will be raised first and then the living Christians will be raptured. Note that the Lord descends from heaven in contrast to the ascension associated with his coming “in the clouds of heaven.” The emphasizing pronoun “himself” (Gr. autos) possibly supports the interpretation of a personal coming of Jesus in distinction to the non-personal coming of Jesus taught elsewhere in the Scriptures. The expression “by the word of the Lord” (Gr. en logō tou kuriou), frequently found in the Old Testament introducing revelations from God, denotes that what follows is a special revelation received from the Lord by the NT Church. This personal descension of Jesus to resurrect and rapture the redeemed is immediately preceded by his parousia (v. 15), with which it should not be confused.

The second passage is Philippians 3:20-21: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory ….” Though dwelling in heaven in spirit, Christians live on earth in a physical body. Jesus comes from heaven to earth to transform their bodies so that they have a glorious spirit body like his.

Incidentally, the language used in describing the various comings of Christ should be taken figuratively and anthropomorphically. Heaven is not a literal place located in space but is symbolic for the dwelling place or realm of God who is higher than men as heaven is higher than earth. Accordingly, expressions such as “descend,” “coming (in the clouds)” should be taken figuratively.

Appendix

The origin of the expression “the son of man” as a self-title of Jesus

As reported in the Gospels, the expression “the son of man” is Jesus’ most characteristic form of indirect self-reference. The origin of this self-designation of Jesus is to be found in the vision of Daniel 7. In a dream Daniel see four beasts come up out of the sea in succession, representing, in order, the Babylonian, Med-Persian, Greek and Roman Empires. Thereafter Daniel sees “one like a son of man” coming with the clouds of heaven and being presented to the Ancient of Days, i.e., God, to be given “dominion” “glory” and “kingdom,” i.e., authority or sovereignty (vv. 13-14). In the interpretation of this vision, Daniel is told that the “one like a son of man” represents “the people of the saints of the Most High” (v.27), which is a fifth kingdom, the kingdom of God, which is represented by a man in contrast with the beasts symbolizing the preceding four kingdoms to indicate the “humane” nature of the kingdom of God (cf. Daniel 7:4, referring to the humanisation of Nebuchadnezzar following his divine chastisement in Daniel 4). Since the first four kingdoms, too, were ruled and peopled by humans, not animals, the “son of man” must represent, from God’s point of view, the ideal and perfect man, who was Jesus.

Notes

1. So Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, s.v. “Gospel,” 1986 edition.
2. “In Contemporary English, the word kingdom most commonly refers to the realm or territorial unit over which a monarch reigns, including the people who are under the monarch’s rule. Earlier, however, the word could also mean “kingship”–that is, the reign or rule itself–and this is the predominant sense of Greek basileia … in the expression “the kingdom of God” (Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, s.v. “kingdom of God [of heaven],” 2011 edition). This abstract sense is clear in the Bible, for example, in Revelation 17:17, which says that the ten kings of the earth “give their kingdom [=their power to rule] to the beast” (NASB). The abstract sense is also seen in Revelation 12:10: “Now has come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ.” The words “salvation,” “power,” “kingdom” and “authority” occur in this verse as near synonyms. Note that the fact that “kingdom” is grouped with three words which definitely bear abstract senses point to “kingdom,” too, having an abstract sense here.
3. Mark sees the coming of the kingdom of God as a completed event—hence the use of elēluthian, perfect active participle of the Greek verb erchomai, “to come.”
4. Parousia, though commonly translated “coming,” is properly rendered “arrival” or “presence.” The writers of the NT saw no real difference between this word and the word “coming” (from the Gr. word erchomai) as used in reference to Christ’s second coming, for they used these two words interchangeably in referring to that event. If there is any difference, parousia emphasises the final result of Jesus’ coming in a way that “coming” does not.
5. Among the arguments for this view, the most basic is the fact that the words “put everything under his feet” in 1 Corinthians 15:25 are quoted from Psalm 8:6, which alludes to the dominion of stewardship, not tyrany, is entrusted to Adam and Eve by God as related in Genesis 1:26-28.
6. Doubtless, it was with this oncoming martyrdom in mind that Paul, writing in about AD 57, prophesied to the Roman Christians, “The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet,” alluding to Genesis 3:15.
7. The word “angel” is sometimes used in the New Testasment to refer to Christian believers in their heavenly existence in spirit. The angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man are none other than his followers (John 1:51). Stephen’s face resembled that of an angel when he gave his defence before the Sanhedrin (Acts 6:15). Compare Matthew 18:10 with 5:8. In the heavenly court scene in Revelation 4 the twenty four elders and the four living creatures represent the presence of the Church in heaven in spirit.
8. J. George Schmucker, The Prophetic History of the Christian Religion Explained, (Baltimore: Schaffer and Maund, 1817), p. 178.
9. The name Jesus used in the English New Testament comes from the Latin form of the Greek name Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous), which represents the Hebrew Bible name יֵשׁוּעַ (Yēshûa‘, “Jeshua” in English Bibles [Ezra 2:2; Nehemiah 7:7]). Yēshûa‘, in turn, was a shortened and later Hebrew form of the name יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yəhôshua‘, “Joshua” in English Bibles). Yəhôshua‘ is a compound name consisting of two elements. The first is the prefix “Yəhô-“, which is an abbreviation of the Tetragrammaton (YHWH, Yahweh), God’s personal name in the OT. The second element is a form of the Hebrew verb יָשַׁע (yāsha‘), which means to deliver, save, or rescue. Thus, etymologically, the name Yəhôshua‘/Yēshûa‘/Jesus conveys the idea that the Lord (YHWH) delivers (his people).
10. There are other examples in the Scriptures for the dual presentation of spiritual truths both as a present reality and a future event. Human marriage is used as a metaphor for the relationship between Christ and his Church, which is based on the metaphorical description of Yahweh as the husband of Israel of the OT, his wife (e.g., Jeremiah 2:2; 3:6-8, 14). At conversion, each member of the Church, the New Israel, is joined to Yahweh in spirit through Christ—the present reality. But the marriage of Christ to his Church as a whole takes place at the time of the end when the full number of the Church is joined to him in spirit—a future event (1 Corinthians 6:15-17; Ephesians 5:25-33; Revelation 19:6-8).
11. The Old Covenant contains basically three types of law: civil, ceremonial and moral. The civil (or judicial) laws are those relating to the civil government of the people of Israel and the ceremonial laws concern regulations of an external, ritualistic nature, esp. those which were associated with the temple. Examples for the latter are circumcision and sacrificial laws. These two types of law were abrogated by the New Covenant. The former because New Israel, the Church, was not a political entity and as such the civil laws could not be applied. The latter because the ceremonial laws were only a “shadow of things to come” (Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 10:1) and only symbolic of what was to be spiritually fulfilled in Christ and his Church. They had no intrinsic worth. This left only the moral law, which are the ethical commandments, focused especially in the ten commandments (excepting the fourth), which are of abiding value. They are affirmed in the New Testament and Christians are repeatedly enjoined to their observance to attain true holiness. They are what Paul called the “righteous requirements of the law” (Romans 8:4) and what Jesus referred to as “the law” in Matthew 5:17-18 (“commandments” in v. 19) and para.