Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition

LESSON 4 | THE NT WITNESS TO CHRIST AND HIS KINGDOM: THE MESSIAH OPPOSED / 163

4. The teaching of Messiah Jesus represents the ethics of the Kingdom, Matt. 5-7.

5. The miracles of Messiah Jesus reveal to all his kingly authority and power to overcome the effects of the curse on God’s material creation, e.g., in Mark 2.8-12 where he demonstrates his authority to forgive and heal.

6. The exorcisms of Messiah Jesus represent the “binding of the strong man” as spoken in Luke 11.14-20.

7. The matchless character of Messiah reveals the Father’s own divine splendor and glory, John 1.14-18.

8. The death of Messiah represents the payment for our sin debt and its penalty, along with the defeat of Satan, as Paul says in Colossians 2.15, Christ made an open show and display of his victory on the cross, where our sin’s indebtedness and unrighteousness was paid in full.

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C. The Kingdom is Already, but Not Yet: two manifestations of the Kingdom of God.

1. In Jesus’ presence, the Kingdom was displayed, and the reign of God inaugurated. Through his death and resurrection, the rebellious prince, Satan, the great deceiver and blasphemer was wounded, crippled, bound, but his destruction comes later, cf. 1 John 3.8; Heb. 2.14-15; Col. 2.15. 2. At Christ’s Second Coming (what scholars call the Parousia [Greek for “Second Arrival”]) Satan will be finally destroyed, his rule finally put down, and the full manifestation of God’s kingly power will be revealed in the glorification of the saints, and in a restored heaven and earth, 1 Cor. 15.24-28.

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