[Index] [Previous] [Next]
1.3.3 - A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age
The Origin of Christianity
Jesus - His Parables Speak of a Present Kingdom
But the combination of the idea of God's fatherhood, the fruit of Jesus' own religious experience, with conception of the kingdom of God, which he owed to his Jewish birth and training, led him gradually, perhaps, but inevitably, to regard that kingdom as a present and not simply a future thing. -- See the parables of the wheat and the tares, of the leaven and of the mustard seed, of the hid treasure, of the pearl, and of the net, recorded in Matt 13. Compare also Matt. 11:11-12, 12:28, Mark 7:34; and Luke 17:20-21. It is noticeable that these utterances do not belong to any particular period of Jesus' life. So far as we are able to judge, he spoke thus at various times, both early and late. He must have realized from the beginning to the end of his ministry that the kingdom that he preached was a present reality, for conscious fellowship with God was already possible.
If the realization on man's part of his filial relation to his father God, with all that it implies, is the chief blessing of the Messianic kingdom, if it is indeed the only blessing which the Messiah feels himself called to mediate, it cannot be that the kingdom is wholly future and will come into existence only after the close of the present eon. For others may realize even here and now, its supreme privilege, as it has been already realized by the Messiah himself.
Thus bringing to his brethren the Gospel of God's fatherly love, and awakening in their hearts an answering love and devotion, Jesus felt that the kingdom was really come. And he saw in those who accepted his message, and associated themselves with him as his disciples, not simply heirs of a future inheritance, but citizens of a kingdom already set up on earth.
In thus regarding the kingdom as a present reality, Jesus departed in a most decisive way from the conceptions entertained by his countrymen. In fact, nowhere is the vital difference between his view and theirs revealed more clearly than here. Others might regard righteousness, and even fellowship with God, as the supreme blessing of the kingdom, but no one else, so far as we know, took the step taken by Jesus and declared that kingdom already here.
Used by permission of the publisher.
[Index] [Previous] [Next]