Announcing the Kingdom

The Story of God's Mission in the Bible

Arthur F. Glasser, Charles E. Van Engen, Dean S. Gilliland, Shawn B. Redford

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2003
• Print ISBN: 9780801026263
• eBook ISBN: 9781585583072
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Announcing the Kingdom provides a comprehensive survey of the biblical foundation of mission. It investigates the development of the kingdom of God theme in the Old Testament, describing what the concept tells us about God's mission in creation, the flood, and the covenant with Abraham. It then describes God's mission through the nation of Israel during the exodus, at Mt. Sinai, and through the kings of Israel. The book then examines God's mission as Israel is sent into exile and the stage is set for the Messiah's coming.
Finally, the book considers the fulfillment of the kingdom of God through Jesus Christ and the church. It examines Jesus' parables and ministry, his proclamation of God's kingdom among the nations, and the work of the Holy Spirit through the church.
Announcing the Kingdom is the product of Arthur Glasser's more than thirty years of teaching and has been used by thousands of students at Fuller Theological Seminary. Now revised by Glasser's colleagues, this study provides mission workers and students with a new understanding of their calling and its biblical foundation.

PART 1

GOD’ S
MISS ION
IN THE
BEGINNING

1

The Whole Bible
Is a Missionary Book

Introduction

The whole Bible, both Old and New Testaments, is a missionary book, the revelation of God’s purpose and action in mission in human history. The Old Testament was the Bible of the apostolic church. Because Jesus Christ accepted it as the Word of God, his disciples could not but follow his example. Although the Old Testament is the Word of God primarily to Israel, its value does not lie only in the way it anticipates the New Testament’s announcement of the Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world. It is in fact revelation in the same sense as the New Testament, for it reveals the mighty acts and gracious purposes of God on behalf of his people and the world he created for them. Both testaments are organically related in a dynamic and interactive relationship. In both, God acts through God’s Son. In his development of this interrelationship, George A. F. Knight states:

We might employ St. Paul’s declaration in 2 Cor. 5:19, . . . (alternating two words, to show) the essential contents of the Old Testament . . . : “God was in Israel, seeking to reconcile the world unto himself.” “In Israel” God did not succeed in redeeming the world. It remained for him to act “in Christ” in order finally to draw all (people) unto himself. (1959: 8)

On this basis we can say with confidence that “the central theme of the Old Testament is the revelation of the redemptive activity of God in and through the Son, Israel” (Knight 1959: 9). This means that all aspects of the Old Testament, particularly those concerning Israel, should be seen as related to God’s worldwide, redemptive purpose.

The Two Testaments: Continuity and Discontinuity

In this study our objective is to explore the emergence and development of the mission of God in both the Old and the New Testaments. In pursuing this goal we shall seek to identify with the writers of the New Testament who assumed the essential continuity between ancient Israel and the church. On the one hand, they saw the church as the people of God called to reach out to Gentiles as well as Jews. This calling began when the community of faith was first formed with God’s choosing Abraham and Sarah. On the other hand, in appropriating God’s gift of grace, the Jewish writers of the New Testament also saw significant discontinuity between themselves and the nation of Israel. The New Testament expression of the people of God was born at Pentecost not of the flesh (through physical descent) but of the Holy Spirit. “The Church is thus also regarded as the Community of the Resurrection” (Knight 1959: 350).

This being so, the New Testament people of God need the Old Testament— every word of it! Gentile Christians dare not assume that they have taken over all the promises God made to ancient Israel, leaving only curses on the Jewish people. In contrast, Christians must see themselves as having been grafted into the stock of Israel’s covenant relationship with God, to “share in the nourishing sap from the olive root” (Rom. 11:17), and this has been solely because of the grace of God. According to the Scriptures there is only one people of God, only one community of faith.

When Christians recognize that both the Old and the New Testaments are the Word of God, they bind themselves to the Scriptures in the deepest sense. This demands a deep concern with God’s creation and God’s rule, with the first things and the last things, with the divine image in all people and the law of God for all people, with holiness and sanctification, with civility and humanization, with ethos and culture, with society and marriage, with history and the state (Van Ruler 1971: 88).

Therefore, we challenge the appropriateness of words like “old” and “new” to distinguish the two sections of the Bible. Although these terms are biblical, they point up the need to be aware of the precise sense in which the “old covenant” is old and the “new covenant” is new. The tragedy is that all too frequently it is assumed that the “old” has been annulled by the “new” and that one can regard the “old” as merely preparatory or, at best, as “the law put in charge to lead us to Christ” (Gal. 3:24).

Jewish people are particularly offended by this designation of their Scriptures as “old.” Malachi, they would argue, is on their side when God speaks through him, saying, “I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed” (Mal. 3:6). Jews would also rightly contend that the covenant God ratified at Sinai is forever settled in heaven. It is eternal and unending. It is no wonder, then, that down through the centuries Judaism has utterly repudiated any idea of a “new” covenant that regards God’s earlier covenantal activity as “old.”

The phrase “old covenant” occurs only once in the New Testament (2 Cor. 3:14), and “new covenant” occurs six times (excluding Mark 14:24). What is more, the term new covenant appears in the Old Testament (for example, in Jer. 31:31). No real resolution is achieved by identifying the Old Testament as “law” and contrasting it with “grace” through quoting with finality John 1:17 (“The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ”). The revelation at Sinai was verbal in the fullest sense, and the eternal Word was fully incarnate in Jesus Christ. Both parts of the Bible are of the same essence. Together they constitute the Word of God. This Word of God, however, is characterized by the progressive unfolding of divine revelation, “for God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell” in Jesus Christ.

Interdependence of the Old and the New Testaments

The New Testament is incomprehensible without the Hebrew Scriptures, for it is intimately related in direct quotations and common themes, in terminology, and in the fullness with which it portrays the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Easter is both chronologically and theologically related to Passover as are Pentecost (Lev. 23:16) and First Fruits (Lev. 23:9–21). Indeed, at every level, ranging from assumptions to thought forms, idioms, and hopes, the New Testament is impossible to grasp apart from its Old Testament rootage. Hence, we endorse Knight’s suggestion, following 2 Corinthians 5:19, that the essence of the Old Testament is that “God was reconciling the world to himself.” In Israel, however, he could not succeed because of the failures of the people of Israel. It remained for him to act “in Christ” in order to draw all peoples to himself (1959: 8).

However, one cannot remain in the Old Testament without becoming restless and sensing a need for something that the Old Testament by itself cannot provide. This restlessness finds focus in the need to turn to the New Testament and rejoice in its record of the dawning of the messianic age. In the study of the Old Testament there is a longing for multiple assurances that all will be well in the end. There is hope that all creation will witness the final vindication of God, fully triumphant in the midst of his creation, having banished from it all that was contrary to God’s will. Furthermore, the Lord God will be gloriously satisfied when he receives something vastly different from the fitful obedience of a small remnant of Israel, admittedly only one small segment of the human race. He will then be loved and served by a people drawn from all the nations, eager to live under his direction and for his glory.

We must keep in mind that the Old Testament was given to the Israelites. As Christians we hear its message through Christ, who has given it to us. Indeed, we are obliged to refer each Old Testament text to the New Testament for a verdict, whether it is ratification, modification, or judgment. Again and again, however, we will find that many essential perspectives and features of our biblical faith are not explicitly developed in the New Testament because the Spirit of God has already adequately developed them in the Old Testament. This fact in itself helps establish the reality of the continuity of the people of God before Christ and after Christ. For instance, the Psalms guide us day by day in our worship, and the prophets make us conscious of our social responsibilities to our generation (Bright 1967: 204). But the surprises within the New Testament are essential to our understanding of how God will ultimately and completely fulfill the unrealized expectations of Old Testament faith. Christians find their rootage in both the Old Testament and the New.

The Old Testament is the backdrop for our heritage of faith—but before Christ (B.C.). It is the record of the dealings of our God with God’s people and is a revelation of his Word to them—but before Christ. It is filled with material that speaks to issues that confront the church in the New Testament as it breaks into new frontiers of missionary advance where people live in large measure in B.C. situations. These situations mirror the predicament that characterizes the human condition. As John Bright writes:

The Old Testament rightly heard, places me in my B.C. dilemma, shows me the wreckage of my B.C. hopes, and thereby creates in me the readiness to hear of some better hope—beyond all B.C. The proper conclusion of Israel’s history is Jesus Christ. (1967: 208–9)

A hermeneutic that silences parts of the Old Testament, or enables us to hear only its easy parts, or arbitrarily confines the total biblical revelation or any particular subject to New Testament passages, will not do. “Every Old Testament text, if rightly heard, has its word for us today” (Bright 1967: 212).

Because of the historical character of revelation, we find many ideas in the Old Testament that are not directly applicable to the people of God today. Some might even say that Jesus also gave some instructions to his disciples that no longer can or should be taken literally. There are those who contend that much in Scripture may be passed over with no resultant loss. This is far from true. Each and every section of Scripture, if permitted to speak for itself, will reveal lines of truth, such as law and grace, promise and exhortation. These themes are relevant to the people of God today in every culture and every circumstance of life. Toward the end of his ministry, the apostle Paul could confidently affirm that “all Scripture” (every part of the Old Testament corpus) is “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” because all is “God-breathed” (2 Tim. 3:16). He concluded that thereby the servant of God is “equipped for every good work” (v. 17).

The Old Testament as Expectation of the Kingdom

God’s right to reign and rule over all of creation and over all the peoples of the world must be unequivocally understood. This brings together the message of Old and New Testament narratives because the Kingdom of God is one of the central, overarching themes of the Bible. Although it is explicitly a New Testament theme, we are deeply persuaded that the Old Testament can also be understood from this perspective. In the Old Testament God discloses himself and his outgoing activity in a variety of ways. As Creator he established the world and filled it with his creatures. As Governor he watches over it for his good pleasure. As Redeemer he reveals his forgiving love for his people. And as Revealer he points the way to his ultimate purpose for them, as Isaiah vividly described:

Since you are precious and honored in my sight,
and because I love you,

I will give men in exchange for you,
and people in exchange for your life.

Do not be afraid, for I am with you;
I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.

I will say to the north, “Give them up!”
and to the south, “Do not hold them back.”

Bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth—

everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made. (43:4–7)

The Old Testament is replete with statements of this sort. There is a future for Israel, the people of God descended from the patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But this future is not unrelated to God’s redemptive purpose for the Gentile nations. Following the redemptive work of the Holy One of Israel, Isaiah also prophesied that there would come a day—the day of God—when the nations will be drawn to Zion:

Many peoples will come and say:

“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of
Jacob.

He will teach us his ways
so that we may walk in his paths.”

The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.

They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore. (2:3–4)

The apostle Paul centuries later confirmed this when he stated that God’s purpose was to “bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ” (Eph. 1:10). The Old Testament affirms again and again that God desires to destroy all evil and bring to an end every grief that plagues humankind. Without its contribution to our understanding of the eternal purpose of God with respect to individuals and nations, the New Testament portrayal of the “already,” the “not yet,” and the “consummation” of the Kingdom will appear incomplete. The revelation of the love of God in Christ cannot be fully grasped apart from the Old Testament. Even the lordship of Christ can be best understood when it is informed by Old Testament concepts of kingship.

God’s rule is both universal and covenantal. Since God created the heavens and the earth by his word and the first human couple in his image, it was inevitable that from that time onward God would exercise a loving and providential care over his creation. This can be described as his universal kingship. God is the source of all authority, and he has decreed that he will ultimately triumph over all things, particularly the nations: “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations” (Ps. 22:27–28). The New Testament also teaches the universal rule of God. Jesus Christ is described as “the ruler of kings on earth” who in the last day will be fully revealed as the Lord our God, the Almighty One who reigns (Rev. 1:5, 8; 19:6).

However, in the Old Testament we also find God’s kingly rule identified with a particular people with whom he established a special covenantal relationship— the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He constituted them as his peculiar possession after liberating them from Egyptian bondage and securing their willing acceptance of his covenant at Sinai (Exod. 19–20). From that time onward his moral governance over them embraced the pledge of guidance and provision, instruction and blessing. If they obeyed, they could count on his faithfulness to his covenantal commitment. If they became rebellious and disobedient, they could anticipate his chastening. Over the years he disclosed himself to them by “mighty acts” and “spoken words.” They came to understand that his rule was spiritual and irrevocable and included the guarantee of an imperishable national existence, a messianic expectation, and an eternal salvation to those who turned to him. When God prophesied through Daniel that “the saints of the Most High will receive the kingdom and will possess it forever . . . and ever” (7:18), he sent the Israelites’ minds soaring. Here was an unconditional promise of ultimate triumph under the banner of “one like a son of man” (7:13). He would enable them in the last day to share in God’s final victory. Understandably, the Jewish people have never forgotten this promise!

Hence, in the Old Testament it is not uncommon for God to be addressed by people as their King (Ps. 10:16). They regarded God as enthroned in their midst, dwelling between the cherubim in the innermost sanctuary of the tabernacle, and later in the Temple in Jerusalem (Num. 7:89; Isa. 37:16). His throne was “the mercy seat.” God’s presence there pledged his faithfulness to his covenant. They would triumph over their enemies!

There is both differentiation and intimate correlation between God’s universal rule and God’s kingly rule over God’s people. As Creator and Redeemer he will finally and fully triumph in human history. As a God who is faithful to his covenants, God will bring his people to their “golden age of salvation.” These are interrelated and in sequence. First, the Israel of God must be a redeemed people. Second, the nations that have long resisted God’s will must be totally divested of their pretensions, their autonomy, and their dominion. Third, the ruin and downfall of all God’s enemies are prerequisite to his being established as “King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev. 19:16). Fourth,...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Part 1: God’s Mission in the Beginning
• Part 2: God’s Mission through Israel
• Part 3: God’s Mission Among the Nations
• Part 4: God’s Mission through Jesus the Christ
• Part 5: God’s Mission through the Holy Spirit by the Church
• Part 6: God’s Mission Extends to the End of Time
• Works Cited