God is making the world a better place, which is to say, God’s work is “new creation.” The church is the citizenship of that new creation and at the same time called to be God’s ambassadors to summon the world into the better place, into reconciliation with God and others. Eg 2 Cor 5:17-21 and Romans 10:14-15.
How so?
1. The church is to embrace the kingdom
2. The church is to embody the kingdom
3. The church is to proclaim that kingdom
Notice this features of a NT kingdom theology that brings to the surface what #1 (embrace the kingdom) means, and in our next two posts we’ll dip into #2 and #3:
1. We have entered into a new era in world history: Matt 4:17
2. We have entered into a new world reality: 2 Cor 5:17
3. We have entered into a new life: Col 2:12; 3:1
4. We have entered into a new social reality and set of relationships: 2 Cor 5:16; Gal 3:28; Eph 1:13-15; 2:21-22
5. We have entered into a new way of living: Col 2:10; 1 John 1:7; 1 Thess 5:4-5
6. We have entered into a new status: Phil 3:20
7. We have entered into God’s abundant blessings: Mark 10:29-30; Gal 1:4
“We cannot accept forgiveness of sins and an eternal afterlife without embracing the abundant life and new world that God has called us into even now in the body of Christ” (84).
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