The Kingdom of God, Mentor Guide, MG02

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T H E K I N G D O M O F G O D

for its common good (Rom. 12.4-5; 1 Cor. 12.27). The Church is designated to be the true and one body of Christ in the world (Eph. 1.22-23; 4.12), with Jesus himself being the Head (authority and source) of the body (Eph. 5.23; Col. 1.18). As the body is utterly dependent upon the head for all of its life, growth, direction, and care (Col. 2.19), so is the Church of Jesus Christ organically connected and dependent upon him. The analogy of the body reveals clearly how the Church is more than a simple gathering, but the very place where those who share Christ’s DNA gather, relate, and grow. The Church is the very place where Jesus can be seen in the world; as his body, the Church is literally of the same bone and flesh as the Divine Warrior himself (a truth which is reaffirmed in the metaphor of the Bride in Ephesians 5.22-33). In the biblical understanding of matrimony, the husband and wife are said to be one flesh, and this is the same regarding Christ and the Church (Eph. 5.31-32). Both analogies speak powerfully and directly of the organic unity that Jesus of Nazareth has with his people. The logic of this cannot be overcome. If Jesus is the Sole Warrior who inaugurates and ushers in the reign of God with power, and if the Church is organically united to him by faith, then there also must be a direct relationship between the living presence of the Church and the actual life and power of the Kingdom. Wherever the true Church exists, there also must be evidence and sign of the Kingdom’s presence, life, and power.

Perhaps the greatest sign that the Church is the locus and agent of the Kingdom in the current era is the fact that the Holy Spirit indwells the people of God. No other single evidence of the Kingdom’s presence is as weighty or conclusive as this, as stated in Peter’s own testimony at Pentecost recorded in Acts 2. In Acts 2.14ff. Peter explains the powerful tongues phenomena on the day of Pentecost as a sign of the fulfillment of the prophecy in the book of Joel regarding the coming outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh in the final Messianic period (cf. Joel 2.28ff.). As a sign of the Kingdom’s presence in the Messianic age, this outpouring of the Spirit in the Church was a token of the grace of God bestowed upon Jew and Gentile alike (Acts 10.45; 11.15ff.). This gift of the Spirit, associated with the coming of the Shalom of God at the very end of time, can now be received through simple repentance and 7 Page 74 Outline Point II