Âé¶čAV

Pitting Jesus against Paul used to be a hobby of liberal Protestants.  As this story has it, Jesus proclaimed a kingdom of wide-scale world-transformation, while Paul proclaimed a gospel of personal salvation. The liberal Catholic writer Alfred Loissy once quipped that Jesus announced a kingdom, but instead it was a church that came.  So on one side is Jesus, with his invitation to humanity to participate in his kingdom by bringing peace and justice, and on the other side is Paul who spoke instead of the church and personal salvation by belonging to it.

Today, however, it has become a critical question in evangelical circles.  In the latest , New Testament scholar Scot McKnight relates, “Many of us have made a move from Paul to Jesus, and an increasing tension remains among evangelicals about who gets to set the terms: Jesus or Paul?  In other words, will we center our gospel teaching and living on ‘the kingdom’ or ‘justification by faith?’”  In short, “Evangelicalism is facing a crisis about the relationship of Jesus to Paul, and many today are choosing sides.”

This conundrum shouldn’t surprise us.  Evangelicalism—especially its Anglo-American variety—is a confluence of Reformation, Anabaptist, and pietist streams.  Even the Reformation is largely mediated through pietism in the land that Bonhoeffer dubbed “Protestantism without the Reformation.”  So it’s no wonder that the Reformation gets saddled with all sorts of views that are actually more accurate descriptions of pietism.  Many of us were raised in pietistic backgrounds, where the kingdom of God was basically heaven and you get there by dying.  So a lot of younger Christians are reacting against this sort of privatized spirituality. Some are rediscovering the Reformation, but most are drawn toward Anabaptistism—that other stream that has shaped American evangelicalism, at least indirectly.  â€œWhile some Protestants seem to let Jesus be Savior, but promote Paul to lord and teacher,” writes Brian McLaren in A Generous Orthodoxy, “Anabaptists have always interpreted Paul through Jesus, and not the reverse.  For them the Sermon on the Mount and the other words of Jesus represent the greatest treasure in the world.  Jesus’ teachings have been their standard” (206).

What are we to make of this contrast?

First, we should acknowledge the obvious fact that Jesus uses the term “justified” only once, in his parable of the tax-collector who cried out for mercy, while the Pharisee thanked God for his piety (Lk 18:14).  McKnight notes, “We could add Matthew 12:37, and perhaps Luke 10:29 and 16:15, but we can’t find much in the Gospels that shows Jesus thinking in terms of ‘justification by faith.’”

Second—and here’s where I’ll be camping out for the rest of this reflection, only a crude biblicism would determine the importance of a particular biblical teaching by a word-count.  Otherwise, we’d have no basis for a doctrine of the Trinity, the hypostatic union, or a host of other doctrines that are clearly revealed when we interpret Scripture in the light of Scripture.  The unfolding story of the Bible generates doctrines.  It is from the history of God’s covenant faithfulness to his people who call on his name that we learn that he is faithful, merciful, loving, and righteous.  â€œOriginal sin” summarizes what Scripture tells us about what happened when Adam, representing all of us, transgressed the covenant.  The doctrines of the incarnation and redemption don’t come to us first of all in ready-made propositions, but in events that are interpreted in the light of the history of promise and fulfillment.

God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt in the exodus was the founding event upon which God gave the nation his laws, institutions, doctrines, and sanctions to be observed.  Similarly, the Gospels relate the actual unfolding of the drama, while the Epistles unpack the significance of those events for us and for the world: in other words, the doctrine.  Of course, there is doctrine in the Gospels and there is narrative in the Epistles, but for the most part this generalization works.

So what happens when we look at the unfolding events that ground the new covenant in the drama of redemption?  Front-and-center is the kingdom, which remains the wider eschatological horizon for Paul as well as Jesus, as we will see.  There is an “already” and “not yet” aspect to the kingdom.  John the Baptist announced that “the kingdom of heaven is near” (Mt 3:2) and Jesus announced that it had arrived, as he healed the sick, raised the dead, and declared after the return of the seventy disciples from their mission, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning” (Lk 10:18).  â€œBut if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons,” Jesus said, “then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”  The strong man (Satan) has been bound, so that his house may be looted (Lk 11:20-22).  Above all, sinners and outcasts are being forgiven directly by Jesus, without any connection to the Temple machinery.  With Satan bound, the apostles are called to go into all the world and unlock the prison doors and free the captives.  They are given by Christ the keys of the kingdom, to bind and loose on earth what has been bound and loosed in heaven (Mat 16:19; 18:18; Jn 20:23).  This “binding and loosing”—the keys—is clearly identified by Jesus with the forgiveness of sins in those passages.

In his Olivet discourse, Jesus taught that he will come on the clouds of glory with all of his elect, but there are stages to be realized before this final event.  First, the Temple then standing will be completely destroyed (Mat 24:1-2), as indeed it was in 70 AD.  Then the disciples asked, “What will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?” (emphasis added).  Jesus replied that there will be imposters, coming in his name, leading many astray, along with wars, “but the end is not yet.”  â€œFor nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these are but the beginning of the birth pains” (Mat 24:4-8).  There will be persecution and martyrdom for his followers, with many deserting Christ’s flock.  â€œBut the one who endures to the end will be saved.  And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Mat 24:9-14, emphasis added).  On the last day, Jesus will return on the clouds of glory to “gather his elect” from the whole earth and to judge the living and the dead (Mat 24:29-31).  â€œBut concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”  It will come when people least expect it (Mat 24:36-44).

Contrary to the expectations of most of Jesus’ contemporaries (including John the Baptist and his own disciples), this single event will not happen all at once.  It will unfold in a series of fulfillments, and the space that we now occupy as the church today is the parenthesis in which the final judgment is postponed, so that the gospel of the kingdom can be proclaimed to the whole world. The exodus is past, but now is the era of conquest through the witness of the gospel to the ends of the earth.  Only when Jesus returns will the conquest be consummated as the kingdoms of this age are made the kingdom of our God and of his Christ.

So we must be careful not to fall into the same misunderstanding of the kingdom that was shared by Jesus’ contemporaries.  We want to see the kingdom in all of its visible power and glory.  We have seen harbingers of that day, with various healings and victories over the demonic forces in Jesus’ ministry, but we want to see fully realized here and now the consummation to which these signs pointed.  If necessary, we will bring about the consummation of this kingdom ourselves!  This is a danger that we have to resist, because it misunderstands that the most crucial vocation of the church in this present age is the proclamation of the gospel.  â€œBeing asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, [Jesus] answered them, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There!” for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you’” (Lk 17:20-21).

The kingdom of God in this present phase is primarily audible, not visible.  We hear the opening and shutting of the kingdom’s gates through the proclamation of the gospel, in the sacraments, and in discipline.  Taking no notice of the kingdom of God, the nations will be going about their daily business, engaging in violence and immorality as in the days of Lot, “eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building,” when Jesus will return suddenly (Lk 17:22-30).

United to Christ, the church shares now in his humiliation and suffering, but one day it will share in his glory.  In his resurrection, Christ has inaugurated the final resurrection of the dead.  He is the “firstfruits” of the whole harvest.  Already, the verdict of the last judgment is being rendered in the present.  Those who believe in Christ are already declared righteous and those who do not are already condemned (Jn 3:16-19, 36).  â€œThere is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:1).  The decisive verdict of the Last Day is already known for all who believe the gospel.  That is why we are inviting—indeed, pleading with—our neighbors to come to the wedding feast.

When we return to Jesus’ teaching and actions in the Gospels, we can see that everything that was promised through the prophets (including John the Baptist) is indeed part of the kingdom that Christ brings.  In fact, it is true that they belong to one and the same event.  However, it becomes clearer as the Gospels unfold that the manifestation of this kingdom occurs in two phases.  At present, this Spirit is raising those who are spiritually dead and giving them faith, uniting them to Christ for present justification and sanctification as well as future glorification.  The Spirit brings conviction of sin and unrighteousness, opening hearts to understand and to embrace Christ and all of his benefits.  Yet believers, like unbelievers, still suffer common ills as well as blessings.  They eventually die, but believers die with the hope of the resurrection in a renewed heavens and earth.  By his Word and Spirit, Christ is now gathering a people for himself.  Only when he returns, however, will the angel proclaim with a loud voice, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Rev 11:15).

Until then, the kingdom of the world is common, not holy.  It is “east of Eden.”  Even the work of Christians in their secular callings is a temporal gift of God’s common grace, not a means of cultivating, guarding, and keeping his holy sanctuary.  Thus, the Great Commission is qualitatively different from the mandate that God gave to Adam and Eve in the garden and to Israel in Canaan.  In fact, the Great Commission is given to the church only because the Last Adam has fulfilled that creation mandate, fulfilling all righteousness, bearing the curse, and being raised as the first-fruits of the new creation.  Now, the command to “be fruitful and multiply” is fulfilled by the Spirit through the raising of a worldwide spiritual family, the true offspring of Abraham. This is God’s holy commonwealth in this age (1 Pet 2:9-10), the true “Israel of God” (Gal 6:16).

No longer “at hand,” the kingdom is “here,” Jesus announces (Mk 1:15; Mat 11:5-6; Mat 12:28; Mat 13:1-46; Lk 11:5-6; Lk 11:20; Lk 17:20-23; Lk 15:4-32).  The king is present, inaugurating his kingdom.  At the same time, he speaks of its full realization in the future (Mat 6:10; Mat 16:28; Mk 9:1; Lk 6:20-26; Lk 9:27; Lk 11:2; Lk 13:28-29). The kingdom is coming, but also has come (Mt 12:28-29; Lk 11:20).

The manner in which the demons respond to Jesus shows his authority over them, but not just a raw power: it is his coming in his kingdom of grace and forgiveness that they fear most.  Satan and his emissaries are busiest not with plotting wars and oppression; these are symptoms of the sinful condition that human beings are capable of generating on their own.  However, Satan knows that if the Messiah fulfills his mission, and the elect not only believe but take this gospel to the nations, the curse is lifted, his head is crushed, and his kingdom is toppled.  All of Jesus’ miracles are pointers to this saving announcement; they are not ends in themselves.  The kingdom comes with words and deeds.  In the miracles, it is said that Satan has bound these people (viz. ,Lk 13:11, 16). Christ is breaking into Satan’s territory, setting history toward a different goal, bound to his own rather than to demonic powers.

In Luke 16:16, redemptive history is divided between the time of the law and the prophets and the time of the kingdom. N.T. scholar Herman Ridderbos writes in The Coming of the Kingdom,

Here the dispensation of the law and the prophets is opposed to the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom of God.  In other words, in the preaching of the gospel has been realized that which was only an expectation in the law and the prophets. This is why Jesus can call the disciples blessed not only for what they see, but also for what they hear. In this respect they were favored above the Old Testament believers even in their most important representatives (Mt 13:16-17; Lk 10:23-24). The preaching of the gospel s no less a proof than the miracles that the kingdom of heaven has come. (71)

Jesus is not just preaching a promise, but in his preaching inaugurates its fulfillment: “His word is not only a sign, it is charged with power
For the new and unprecedented thing here is not that forgiveness is being announced, but that it is being accomplished on earth.”

Christ’s Word brings the kingdom with it and it is founded in his blood.  Thus, only as prophet and priest is Jesus Christ also the king.  In all of his words and deed, Jesus is most self-conscious of his sacrificial death and resurrection.  He is purpose-driven to Golgotha.  It is his passion, his vocation, the whole point of his ministry.  This is clearly seen in the way in which he prepares the disciples for his crucifixion, followed by his institution of the Supper in the upper room, and in his high priestly prayer.

It’s not that the horizon of Jesus’ contemporaries was too broad, but that it was too narrow.  While they were settling merely for a messiah who would restore geo-political theocracy, Jesus Christ was bringing a universal dominion—not just overthrowing Gentile oppressors, but casting out the serpent from heaven and earth forever: “for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Lk 17:21).

Not surprisingly, then, the key sign of the Spirit’s descent at Pentecost was Peter’s proclamation of Christ, centering on his redeeming life, death, and resurrection; repentance and faith in Christ, along with baptism “for the forgiveness of your sins” (Ac 2:14-38). While individuals—“about three thousand souls” were “cut to the heart” by this message, repented, believed, and were baptized, they were organized by the Spirit into a human community. “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Ac 2:42). From this shared union with Christ, these pilgrims from faraway regions were so united with each other that the worshiping community itself was a witness to the world. “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Ac 2:47).  This is the kingdom!  In its present phase, the kingdom expands by grace and humility, in weakness before the world; yet it conquers the earth.

The forgiveness of sins and the new birth are at the heart of Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom.  Proclaimed first to the Jews, this gospel will be preached to all nations.  This is the fulfillment of the prophet vision of a remnant from every nation—even those nations that had persecuted Israel—seeking the Lord where he may be found.  â€œIn those days, ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you’” (Zech 8:23).

Jesus’ message of the kingdom as the forgiveness of sins and the dawning of the new creation was inseparable from his promise to build his church and to give his apostles the keys of the kingdom through the ministry of preaching, sacrament, and discipline. It comprises the elements of the Great Commission: preaching the gospel to the world, baptizing, and teaching them everything he commanded.

So Was Paul a “Kingdom” Preacher?

This motif of the kingdom was hardly lost in the apostolic era.  It was this gospel of the kingdom that Peter and the other apostles proclaimed immediately after Jesus’ ascension (Acts 2:14-36; Acts 3:12-16; Acts 17:2-3).  And this is also the heart of Paul’s message (1 Cor 15:3-4).  Paul begins his Letter to the Romans (in the first few verses) with a richly compact summary of the story (the drama) that he then unpacks in doctrine and doxology all the way to the “reasonable service” (discipleship) that flows from it.

The apostles typically interpreted these prophecies as being fulfilled now in Jesus Christ and his gathering of a remnant from Israel and the nations by his Spirit.  Amos 9 speaks of the final restoration of Israel, in concrete terms.  Yet James interprets this prophecy as now being fulfilled in the kingdom of Christ, through the ingathering of a remnant of the Gentiles into the true Israel (Acts 15:14-18).  James’ interpretation is typical of the Christocentric reading of the whole of Scripture that Jesus Christ himself taught his disciples (Lk 24:25–27; Lk 24:31–32; Lk 24:44–49).

Hebrews 1:1–4 hails the ascended Christ as “heir of all things” and the ruler of all, “though we do not yet see all things in subjection to him.” The ascension of Christ to the place of dominion and rule assures us that although we do not yet see everything in subjection to him, the kingdom is present and will one day be universally manifested. Contrasting the kingdom with the church is another way of saying that the main point of Jesus’ commission consists in our social action rather than in the public ministry of preaching, sacrament, and discipline.  In other words, it’s another way of saying that we are building the kingdom rather than receiving it; that the kingdom of God’s redeeming grace is actually a kingdom of our redeeming works.

If the preaching of the gospel, no less than the miracles, is the sign that the kingdom has come, Paul’s message and ministry can only serve as confirmation of the kingdom’s arrival.  All of the realities that the gospels announce as evidence of the messianic kingdom—judgment and justification, forgiveness, a new birth, the gift of the Spirit, and the gathering of a people for the end-time feast—are central in Paul’s preaching in Acts and in his letters. Only if we have a different sort of kingdom in mind will the kingdom motif be thought to have fallen off of Paul’s horizon.  Only if we mistake Sermon on the Mount for the gospel rather than for the law that Christ delivered specifically to his disciples can Jesus be set over against Paul.

Nor can Jesus and Paul be contrasted in terms of a this-worldly kingdom and an other-worldly realm.  Jesus announced the kingdom—more than that, founded and inaugurated the kingdom—that Paul and the other apostles proclaimed.  The kingdom was present even as Caesar remained Israel’s oppressor.  In fact, Jesus said famously concerning taxes, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mk 12:17).  Over against the Jewish authorities indicting him, Paul invoked his Roman citizenship by appealing his case to Caesar (Ac 25:11), yet he also submitted and called Christians to submit to secular authorities (Rom 13).  It is not a kingdom that arises from any place or program on earth but descends from heaven. Wherever the King is present, his kingdom is present also.  Yet he was present in weakness and humility, for us and for our salvation.  Before Pilate, Jesus affirmed that he was a king, but said, “My kingdom is not of this world.  If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews.  But my kingdom is not from the world” (Jn 18:36-37).

When he comes in glory, his kingdom will be glorious in power and might. Paul too teaches that the new creation/kingdom has been inaugurated in Christ’s conquest: the righteousness of God has been revealed from heaven (Rom 1:16-17), including justification of sinners and new birth, the Spirit and his gifts poured out (Rom 5:5).  In Matthew 28:18, the climax is that all kingdom authority is in Christ’s hands, which Paul also emphasizes (Rom 1:3-4; Eph 1:18-22; Phil 2:9-11; Col 1:15-20).  The “already” / “not yet” view of the kingdom that we find in Jesus’ teaching dominates Paul’s horizon, as well as that of the other apostles.  As the writer to the Hebrews declares, Jesus Christ is already now “heir of all things” (Heb 1:1-4).  Our riches today are the spoils of Christ’s triumph that are poured out by his Spirit upon people “from every tribe, kindred, tongue, and people,” being made into “a kingdom of priests to our God” (Rev 5:9).

Since Christ’s ascension and the descent of the Spirit at Pentecost, we have been living in “the/these last days” (Ac 2:17; 1 Tim 3:1; Heb 1:2; Jas. 5:3; 2 Pet 3:3; Jude 18; 1 Pet 1:20; 1 Jn 2:18), before the “last day” (Jn 6:39, 40, 44, 54; 11:24; 12:28).  Christ appeared “at the end of the ages” (Heb 9:26), yet spoke of “the coming age” that even now is breaking in upon us through preaching and sacrament (Heb 6:5).  Paul says that “the end of the ages has come” (1 Cor 10:11), yet “the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thes 5:2).  This is precisely how Jesus described his second coming in the Olivet discourse.  And one could hardly find better confirmation of Jesus’ promise that “this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Mat 24:14) than in Paul’s mission and message.

Paul understood Christ’s reign as “already” and “not yet”: “For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Cor 15:25–26).  The presence of the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge (Čč°ù°ùŽÇČúƍČÔ) of the consummation assures that what he has begun in us he will complete.  The Spirit brings the blessings of the age to come into the present, which not only fills us with unspeakable joy but also with unutterable longing for the “more” still up ahead (Rom 8:18-25).  Furthermore, the renewal of the whole creation has already begun with the new birth.  Not only our souls, but our bodies, and not only we but “the whole creation” will share in this “glorious liberation” (Rom 8:20-23).  â€œFor in this hope we were saved.”  Yet we do not yet see these full effects of Christ’s kingdom, Paul reminds us.  â€œBut if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience” (Rom 8:24-25). “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised
up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:1, 4-7).  We are chosen, justified, and adopted.  We are being sanctified.  And one day we will be glorified.

At present, the kingdom of Christ is not a geo-political, economic, or cultural force.  Just as Jesus said that his kingdom is not of this world, Paul writes, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12).  Our only weapons are the Spirit and the Word of the gospel.  Through faith in Christ we have “the breastplate of righteousness,” “the belt of truth,” “the shield of faith, and “shoes” ready to run with “the gospel of peace” (Eph 6:13-14).

Jesus’ announcement that he has bound the strong man so that the veil of unbelief may be torn from the eyes of Satan’s prisoners is elaborated by Paul (2 Cor 4:3).  Christ has triumphed over Satan at the cross (Col 2:13-15) and in his resurrection and ascension led captivity captive (Eph 4:8-10).  The apostles with one voice declare with their Lord that Christ is now reigning (1 Cor 15:25; Heb 1:3, 8, 13; 8:1; 10:12–13; Ac 2:24–25; 3:20–21).  For this reason, Jesus can assure his persecuted saints, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades” (Rev 1:17–18).

In this interim period, the kingdom advances alongside the suffering and even martyrdom of its witnesses. Yet Christ “will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (Heb 9:28; cf. 10:37).  The regeneration of fallen creation works in concentric circles, beginning with the inner person and then, at the consummation, including the resurrection of the body and the complete renewal of creation.  Wherever the New Testament treats the complex of Christ’s return, the resurrection, and the last judgment, no intervening raptures, resurrections, or judgments are mentioned.

The Gospel is the Kingdom and the Kingdom is the Gospel

The “gospel of the kingdom” (Mat 24:14) and the “keys of the kingdom” (Mat 16:19) are really synonymous.  They both refer to the proclamation of the forgiveness of sins and the renewal of all things that has begun even now with the in-gathering of outcasts to Zion.  Furthermore, both of these phrases are synonymous with the Great Commission.  If John the Baptist could proclaim with seriousness, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat 3:2), it is all the more urgent that we repent and believe now that the Messiah has come.  The foundation of this repentance is the forgiveness of sins, as John Calvin in Harmony of the Evangelists observed: “From this doctrine, as its source, is drawn the exhortation to repentance.  For John does not say, ‘Repent ye, and in this way the kingdom of heaven will afterwards be at hand;’ but first brings forward the grace of God, and then exhorts men to repent.  Hence it is evident that the foundation of repentance is the mercy of God, by which he restores the lost.”  Forgiveness is “first in order,” “
so it must be observed that pardon of sins is bestowed upon us in Christ, not that God may treat them with indulgence, but that he may heal us from our sins” (179).

Often as a corollary of the alleged Jesus/Paul contrast, there is a tendency sometimes today for Christians to talk about the gospel of the kingdom over against the gospel as the forgiveness of sins.  In other words, it is suggested that the kingdom itself (regarded as a gradual improvement of temporal conditions) is the gospel, more than the quest for personal salvation.  However, this was the mistake of Jesus’ contemporaries: namely, collapsing the kingdom of glory, manifested on the last day, into the kingdom of grace, which is present now.  As Calvin observes, in its present phase, the kingdom is the gospel and the gospel is the kingdom.  â€œNow the means is His Gospel.  Also that is why Jesus Christ spoke so often of the Gospel, calling it the Kingdom of God.  â€˜The Gospel of the Kingdom’ can also be translated ‘the Gospel, which is the Kingdom.’  It is not, then, without cause that the Gospel is called ‘the Kingdom of God.’
Jesus Christ always has some company wherever the Gospel is preached.  For He is not a King without subjects.”

CNN has its own list of headlines.  In the West, history is divided into periods: ancient, medieval, modern, and postmodern.  More recently, it has been said that the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 “changed everything.”  For believers, however, the most decisive turning point was the year 33, when a Jewish rabbi—the Messiah—was raised from the dead in Roman-occupied Palestine.  Vindicating his claim as God incarnate, Savior, and Lord the world, Jesus of Nazareth proved that these titles traditionally invoked by Caesar belonged exclusively to him.  This turning-point is not only celebrated but is deepened and widened in its effects every Lord’s Day.  Wherever this gospel is taken, a piece of heaven—the age to come—begins even now to dawn in the dusty corners of this passing evil age.

—

For more on a New Testament theology of Jesus and Paul, be sure to listen to these Âé¶čAV programs: