Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition - Mentor's Guide

M E N T O R N O T E S / 1 0 5

The Kingdom of God God’s Reign Inaugurated

L E S S O N 1

Welcome to the Mentor’s Guide for Lesson 1, The Kingdom of God: God’s Reign Inaugurated . The goal of this lesson is to provide your students with a biblical framework to understand what God is doing in human history, and prepare them to be able witnesses of Christ and his Kingdom. This lesson is designed to show the students how God’s reign has been infiltrating the world since the time of the Fall; God has not abandoned his creation, but has covenanted to bring to himself a people who would be his forever, through the salvific work of his Son, Jesus Christ. Adopting the mindset and disposition of a warrior, God covenanted with Abraham to bless all the families of the earth through his line, and thus, God determined to restore his reign to the earth. God renewed the covenant through the patriarchs, his people Israel, through the tribe of Judah and the family of David. Finally, in the fullness of time, Jesus of Nazareth appeared, whose presence represents the realization of the Kingdom on earth. Through his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, the rule of God has come in power. While the consummation of the Kingdom is still future, at the Second Coming of Christ, the Kingdom of God has come in the person of Jesus. This high theology represents the teaching aims of this lesson, God’s Reign Inaugurated . Please notice again in the objectives that these truths are clearly stated. As usual, your responsibility as Mentor is to emphasize these concepts throughout the lesson, especially during the discussions and interaction with the students. The more you can highlight the objectives throughout the class period, the better the chances are that they will understand and grasp the magnitude of these objectives. The theme of today’s lesson is the inauguration of the Kingdom of God, not in terms of a single event, but in the sense of an unfolding vision, with the presence of Jesus Christ representing the culmination of the Kingdom’s announcement. In a real sense, God began the announcement of his rule restored to earth with the proto-evangelium , the first telling of the Good News in Genesis 3.15. In the announcement that the serpent’s head would be crushed by the Seed of the woman, God announced his resolve to bring order and beauty back to the earth, which was marred through the rebellion and disobedience of humankind and the great

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T h e o l o g y a n d E t h i c s

& 2 page 179 Devotion