“God raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms; far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, not only in the present age but also in the one to come; and God placed all things under His feet for the church which is His Body.” (Eph 1:20-23)
We have looked for the last two weeks at the importance of Psalm 110:1 in the New Testament, which was the single most significant Hebrew scripture in the minds of the New Testament community. The references to Jesus being at God’s right hand expressed their complete confidence in the rule and authority of Yeshua as the risen Messiah. I referred in passing to the whole concept of authority being central to the New Testament terminology regarding Gospel and Church, which we will examine in more detail over the next few weeks.1
An insistence on the authority of the risen Messiah raises an obvious question – what does this mean in practice? The world seems to carry on much the same as before, so in what way is His authority being exercised? Scholars speak of an ‘already but not yet’ element to New Testament eschatology, which corresponds to the “until I make” of Psalm 110:1. It implies an ongoing process which has begun but has yet to reach fruition.
Authority in New Testament thought
Authority is a big feature of New Testament thinking. We think of Jesus’ encounter with the Roman centurion, where Jesus said He had not encountered such faith among the Jewish people as He did in this Gentile. (Matt 8:5-13)
Principally that happened because authority was the man’s stock in trade, he knew how it functioned. He describes himself as coming “under authority”. Because of the authority he represented, he could give orders which were instantly obeyed. Likewise, his faith in Jesus was based on what he had heard of Jesus’ authority in action, and his expectation was based on his understanding of how authority functioned. He could recognise it when he saw it.
As Donald Guthrie comments “As an officer he was habitually snapping out orders to his subordinates and expecting prompt unquestioning obedience … He had implicit faith that Jesus' authority over disease was just as real and efficient as was his own authority over men”.2
The New Testament understands that the Risen Messiah’s authority is delegated to, and exercised through, the church. Not solely through the church, of course. New Testament writers make it abundantly clear that Messiah is head over all creation. John says, “through Him all things were made” (Jn 1:3), and Hebrews tells us that the Son “through whom [God] made the universe” is even now “sustaining all things by His powerful word … at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven” (Heb 1:2-3).
The New Testament understands that the Risen Messiah’s authority is delegated to and exercised through the church.
Yet in Ephesians, Paul expounds Messiah’s exalted place of spiritual authority, insisting it is “for the Church”, emphasising “which is His body”, meaning His hands and feet to carry out His will and purpose. The prose is expansive. God “raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion … and God placed all things under His feet, and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body.” (Eph 1:20-23) Further on in Ephesians, Paul enlarges this to describe how Messiah’s authority works through the Body (Eph 4:10-13), and that it will entail standing against opposing spiritual authorities, the “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph 6:12).
Similarly, in Colossians 1:16-18, we see Messiah's pre-eminence over “thrones or powers or rulers or authorities” because “all things were created by Him and for Him; He is before all things and in Him all things hold together”; then Paul immediately links Messiah’s authority to the church, insisting that “He is the head of the body, the church”. The church is emphatically identified as the focus and channel for the authority of the Risen Messiah.
We find the same emphasis in Matthew 28:18, where Jesus instructs His followers on their future mission. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me; therefore go”. The word “therefore” implies that the authority given to Jesus is to be exercised through His followers. Their work is under His authority. The NT writings continually assume this delegated authority. The authority which Messiah has been given by being seated “at the right hand” is to be exercised through the church.
Authority and the Kingdom
It is hardly necessary to assert that the term ‘kingdom’ has a prominent place in Christian terminology.3 Indeed “more than any other phrase in the Synoptic Gospels, ‘the kingdom of God’ describes the essential feature of Jesus’ mission”.4 The Jewish expectation of a Messianic kingdom in Jesus’ time was widespread, but quite varied as to what it might mean.5
In general terms the expectation either involved the Land of Israel (with a political emphasis) or the Temple (so a more spiritual emphasis) or both; or alternatively was viewed as Messiah instituting God’s wider rule of justice and peace over the nations.6 Jesus proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom, while refusing to conform to existing assumptions of what that might mean.7
It is significant that “The Hebrew word behind ‘kingdom’ refers to an ancient idiom referring to the reign and authority of a king; a rich, multifaceted idiom used by the rabbis. A simple way of translating ‘kingdom of God’ would be God’s reign, or how God reigns, or those whom God reigns over”.8
Luke says that Jesus’ mission was to “proclaim the gospel of the kingdom of God” (Lk 4:43), and further on describes Him as “proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God” (Lk 8:1). Then at the end of Acts, Luke describes how Paul “explained the matter to them, testifying to the kingdom of God” (Acts 28:23 NRSV), and finishes his account of the apostolic mission with Paul “proclaiming the kingdom of God” (Acts 28:31 NRSV). So, in both Luke’s Gospel and in Acts, we find Luke repeating the phrase ‘the kingdom of God’. Luke is asserting a deliberate and conscious continuity between the ministries of Jesus and Paul.
At the beginning of his gospel, Mark explains that “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, saying … the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:14 RSV). We find exactly the same connection in Matthew where Jesus says, “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world” (Matt 24:14). In fact, Matthew only uses the term ‘gospel’ four times, and in three of these links it directly to the kingdom, by referring to the ‘gospel of the kingdom’.
It is significant that Luke and the others consciously link the idea of gospel to the concept of kingdom. Luke’s phrase the “proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God” is striking and deliberate. It is used to apply to Jesus’ pre-resurrection ministry, where the term ‘gospel’ cannot be about Jesus’ death, or atoning sacrifice, or many of the other post-resurrection theological tags we would nowadays normally associate with the word gospel.
The gospel, says Luke, is about the kingdom.
The gospel, says Luke, is about the kingdom. He vividly illustrates what he thinks this means in Luke 4 where he depicts Jesus identifying His ministry as a fulfilment of Isaiah 61. “He has anointed me to bring good news [gospel] to the poor, to proclaim release to captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free” (Lk 4:18 NRSV).
Later when John the Baptist sends messengers to ask Jesus to affirm his Messianic claims, Luke records Jesus’ reply: “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard, the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news [gospel] brought to them” (Lk 7:22 NRSV). In other words, says Jesus (and Luke), Isaiah 61 is being fulfilled.9 The Messiah is not only demonstrating His kingdom power, but fulfilling the Messianic mission foreseen by Isaiah.
James Dunn identifies ‘the kingdom of God’ as “the central motif of Jesus’ teaching” in Luke, and considers that “Luke goes out of his way to indicate that the ‘kingdom of God’ continued to be a feature of earliest Christian preaching and teaching. Particularly noticeable is the fact that Acts 1:3 forms an inclusio with Acts 28:31; the final note of Paul’s preaching (‘proclaiming the kingdom of God’) matches the chief and last topic of Jesus’ instruction.”10
It seems Luke was determined to make some emphatic points about the kingdom. Jesus’ ministry was about the kingdom; the kingdom had come or at least begun to come; the kingdom was demonstrated by power; the gospel and the kingdom were bound up together as part of the same package; and the same kingdom which Jesus proclaimed continued to be proclaimed by Paul.
Next week, we will look at authority and how it relates to the gospel, and to the Church.
Notes
1 This article is based on my Olive Press Research Paper No 28, which can be found on the website of CMJ UK. https://www.cmj.org.uk/olive-press-research-papers
2 Donald Guthrie, ‘Jesus the Messiah’ (Zondervan 1972) p 96
3 James Dunn has an extensive section on the Kingdom of God in ‘Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making Vol 1’ (Eerdmans 2003) pp 383-465
4 James Edwards, ‘The Gospel According to Luke: Pillar NTC’ (Eerdmans / Apollos 2015) p149
5 See for example Brad Young, ‘Jesus The Jewish Theologian’ (Hendrickson 1995) pp 59-62
6 See RT France, ‘The Gospel of Matthew NICNT’ (Eerdmand 2007) p103
7 For insights into how Jesus’ understanding of the kingdom inter-acted with Jewish and Rabbinical ideas of His time see David Flusser, ‘The Sage From Galilee’ (Eerdmans 2007) pp 76-96
8 Ann Spangler & Lois Tverberg, ‘Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus’ (Zondervan 2009) p183 (also 180-195)
9 Edwards, ‘Luke: Pillar NTC’ p 132
10 James Dunn, ‘Beginning From Jerusalem: Christianity in the Making Vol 2’ (Eerdmans 2009) p143