The Kingdom of God, Student Workbook, SW02

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

9. As a sign of Jesus’ authority and Headship, how does the ascension contribute to our understanding that in Jesus, the Kingdom has been inaugurated?

This lesson focuses upon the critical ways that the Old and New Testaments give witness that the Kingdom of God has been inaugurated, through God’s covenant promise to Abraham and the Patriarchs, through the tribe of Judah and family of David, and finally in the person of Jesus Christ, who as Christus Victum (i.e. through his death on the cross) and Christus Victor (i.e. through his resurrection and ascension) has ushered in this present age the Kingdom of God. God from the beginning committed himself to overturn the affects of the Fall by becoming a Warrior against his enemies, opposing the serpent while providing grace for the Seed of the woman who would come and conquer his enemies. The proto-evangelium (cf. Gen. 3.15) represents the first and most decisive declaration of the triune God’s commitment to defeat his enemy, the serpent, through the Seed of the woman, whomwe now know to be Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord of all. God as Divine Warrior made a covenant with Abraham to bless all the families of the earth through his Seed, which we know to be Jesus of Nazareth. God renewed his covenant promise from Abraham, to Isaac and Jacob, to the people of Israel, to the tribe of Judah, to the family of David, and finally through Jesus Christ, who has realized the Kingdom in a final sense through his person and work. In Jesus of Nazareth, the covenant promises of Abraham and the prophetic promises of the Old Testament witness to Messiah have been fulfilled. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Messianic promise. In Jesus’s life and ministry, the authority and power of God’s reign has been inaugurated and manifested. Although much of the Kingdom’s fulfillment is future, the Kingdom already has been demonstrated in the incarnation of Jesus on earth.

Summary of Key Concepts

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