Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Road to Emmaus
You know the story. Jesus had unexpectedly been crucified just two days ago. Two discouraged guys were headed home from Jerusalem. Walking along, they encountered a guy who asked about their long faces. When they explained the disaster and confusion of stories emerging, "beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself." After rebuking them: 'How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?' [Luke 24:26-27]
This always bugged me. Why didn't Luke get those two guys to give a summary of Jesus' talk? I'd really like to hear it. He recorded parables and the nativity story and all that. Couldn't he give me the Old Testament overview, too? Argh!
But, of course, we get the whole New Testament. I know.
Still, one of my hungers has been for a better way of seeing the Old Testament, a way to capture the gist and purpose. I want to look at it like Jesus did.
Recently I've been reading another Graeme Goldsworthy book. This one is "Gospel and Kingdom." This is a "biblical theology" view of the Scriptures, a look at all the pieces from one central organizing principle. For Goldsworthy, that is the Gospel ("the Messiah had to suffer and then enter his glory!") and the Kingdom ("It is at hand!"). I first encountered this approach to the Scriptures a year or so ago, in another Goldsworthy book of more complicated style. This one is more accessible. I'm sure I've mentioned him, but I thought I'd share again a perspective that is working like leaven in my theology and thinking in general.
If Moses and the Prophets (the whole OT) spoke of the Messiah, then when I read and preach I need to see that message first. The OT isn't just a source book for moral examples. It is the first part of the full story of God establishing His Kingdom through Jesus. The Exodus is clearly a part of the Gospel story and points us to faith in Christ to enter a Promised Land. But so is David's defeat of Goliath and his failure with Bathsheba. They teach us first about the Gospel of our True King and only after we are sent to the Cross can we come back to them with "Kingdom eyes" to see moral lessons.
Or, at least that is where I am in my thinking today as I process Goldsworthy's insights.
I invite you to read the following passage. It's a whole chapter, but I think the author broke it up into small bits on purpose. It's really not that long.
This always bugged me. Why didn't Luke get those two guys to give a summary of Jesus' talk? I'd really like to hear it. He recorded parables and the nativity story and all that. Couldn't he give me the Old Testament overview, too? Argh!
But, of course, we get the whole New Testament. I know.
Still, one of my hungers has been for a better way of seeing the Old Testament, a way to capture the gist and purpose. I want to look at it like Jesus did.
Recently I've been reading another Graeme Goldsworthy book. This one is "Gospel and Kingdom." This is a "biblical theology" view of the Scriptures, a look at all the pieces from one central organizing principle. For Goldsworthy, that is the Gospel ("the Messiah had to suffer and then enter his glory!") and the Kingdom ("It is at hand!"). I first encountered this approach to the Scriptures a year or so ago, in another Goldsworthy book of more complicated style. This one is more accessible. I'm sure I've mentioned him, but I thought I'd share again a perspective that is working like leaven in my theology and thinking in general.
If Moses and the Prophets (the whole OT) spoke of the Messiah, then when I read and preach I need to see that message first. The OT isn't just a source book for moral examples. It is the first part of the full story of God establishing His Kingdom through Jesus. The Exodus is clearly a part of the Gospel story and points us to faith in Christ to enter a Promised Land. But so is David's defeat of Goliath and his failure with Bathsheba. They teach us first about the Gospel of our True King and only after we are sent to the Cross can we come back to them with "Kingdom eyes" to see moral lessons.
Or, at least that is where I am in my thinking today as I process Goldsworthy's insights.
I invite you to read the following passage. It's a whole chapter, but I think the author broke it up into small bits on purpose. It's really not that long.
Chapter Five
The Covenant and the
Kingdom of God
The Covenant
The creation of man in the image of God distinguished man
from the animals. Man is not the end of a chain of evolution for he is
qualitatively distinct from the animals. Man was created in fellowship with God
and with dominion over the rest of the created order. Thus there is a unique
relationship between God and man. However, we cannot ignore the similarity
between man and the animals - man is never more than a creature and, as such,
totally dependent upon the Creator. For instance the word of God to Adam
forbidding him to eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil expresses
the fact that man, the creature, is bound by the limits of his creaturehood. There
are real limits set by the Creator. As such they are expressions of the
sovereignty of God - of his absolute lordship. But this Lord is good and he
establishes his creature-man in a relationship which brings both rule and blessing.
God is king, man his subject. And the place where all this happens is the very
best place of all - it is the garden paradise of Eden.
The Heart of the
Problem
Man’s sin is his attempt to renounce his creaturehood and to
assert his independence of God, the Creator. The consequent judgment (in the
'fall' of man) establishes a break in the relationship between man and God. The
world becomes a fallen world for fallen man to live in (see Romans 8: 19-20).
But just as a fallen creation still reflects God’s glory (Psalm 19: 1, Romans
1: 20) so man still reflects something of God’s image. One aspect of the mercy
of God is that he reveals a gracious attitude towards fallen man. Even in the
Fall, God’s grace permits the world to continue, and sustains an order in which
man may live and multiply.
The measure of God's grace is not only the ‘common grace’
shown in the ongoing universe; it is seen in the declaration of the purpose to
redeem a people to be the people of God. The relationship between God and man
as it once existed in Eden provides some indication of God’s intention for his
new race of people.
The Covenant with
Abraham
Leaving aside for the moment the question of what is revealed
between the fall of man and the beginnings of the Hebrew nation (in Genesis 4-11),
we now examine the call of Abraham. God's promise to Abraham, expressed in
Genesis 12 and subsequent chapters, provides one of the central themes of the
Bible. The form of the promise described as covenant is essentially an agreement
between parties. But this is no ordinary human covenant involving mutual
consent of equals, but a lordly covenant dispensed by the gracious act of a God
greatly offended and sinned against. The covenant is an agreement in the sense
that the recipient must agree to any terms that may be proposed. But before all
else we must see this covenant as one of grace - undeserved favor. God’s
promises to Abraham involved:
(a) A people who are his
descendants,
(b) A land in which they will
live,
(c) A relationship with God in
that they shall be God's people.
This covenant relationship, then, consists in being called
the people of God. Every later expression of this relationship stems from the
original covenant. We discover that this promise to the forefathers of Israel
(Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) becomes the basis of the relationship of all the
people of God in the Bible. Even in the New Testament the concept of being the
children of Abraham is transferred to those who by faith embrace the gospel
(Galatians 3: 29). Every Christian is a son or daughter of Abraham! Later we
shall look at the different areas where the covenant is given distinct expression
in the Old Testament.
The Kingdom of God
To understand the covenant we must examine its contents and
its terms. The content of the covenant, like the goal of redemption, is the
Kingdom of God, since the covenant is related to our redemption as children of God.
What is the Kingdom of God? The New Testament has a great deal to say about
‘the Kingdom' but we may best understand this concept in terms of the relationship
of ruler to subjects. That is, there is a king who rules, a people who are
ruled, and a sphere where this, rule is recognized as taking place. Put in
another Way, the Kingdom of God involves:
(a) God’s people
(b) In God’s place
(c) Under God’s rule.
Given this basic analysis, it is clear that the fact that
the term “Kingdom of God’ does not occur in the Old Testament is unimportant.
The basic idea is woven through the whole of Scripture.
We first see the Kingdom of God in the Garden of Eden. Here
Adam and Eve live in willing obedience to the word of God and to God’s rule. In
this setting, the Kingdom is destroyed by the sin of man - and the rest of the
Bible is about the restoration of a people to be the willing subjects of the
perfect rule of God.
There are many more episodes in the Bible where the Kingdom
of God is given expression.
The Promise to
Abraham
This is recorded in Genesis 12. 1-3. God promises the patriarchs
that their descendants (God's people) will possess the Promised Land (God’s
place) and be the people of God, underneath his authority (God’s rule). The
historical process by which the people are brought into that situation takes
the form of a redemptive act of God. God redeems Israel when he rescues it out
of captivity in Egypt.
The Monarchy
Israel’s ‘golden age’ comes during the period of the Monarchy,
when northern and southern kingdoms are united as one nation. The political,
economic and religious achievement of the kingdom of David and Solomon fulfills
in a very tangible way the promises to Abraham. This kingdom is by no means
perfect but it displays all the elements of the Kingdom of God. So a pattern is
emerging: the revelation of God’s kingdom begins with a very basic promise to
Abraham, and then moves through a process of fulfillment which includes a
redemptive experience (the Exodus) and climaxes in a fulfillment (the
Monarchy). This last stage contains some things not even specifically stated in
the original promise (such as the city of Zion, the Temple and the Kingship of
David).
The Prophetic Kingdom
Solomon’s kingdom fails and this serves to underline what
has been apparent all along - that the historical process from Abraham to
Solomon always falls short of the glory of God's true kingdom, even though it
reveals the nature of that kingdom. In the face of the judgment upon Israel’s
sin (climaxing in the destruction of the nation), the prophets restate the
promise of the Kingdom as something that will be fulfilled in the future.
The return from the Babylonian exile fails to produce the
Kingdom foretold by prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The post-exilic
prophets, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, continue to direct the eyes of Israel away
from their present history to the great future day when the perfect and
everlasting Kingdom of God will be revealed. The Old Testament ends on the note
of promise and expectation. There is no fulfillment in sight as the Jews enter
nearly four hundred years of prophetic silence between the two Testaments.
During this time the Jews develop a variety of solutions to the problem. The
best known is that of the Pharisees, who sought a literal return to the Israelite
monarchy and the freedom of Israel from all foreign oppression.
The Gospel Kingdom
Jesus declares: 'The time is fulfilled; the Kingdom of God is
at hand' (Mark 1: 14). He thus introduces the gospel as the bringing-near of
the Kingdom. What it means for the Kingdom to be ‘at hand’ rather than
fulfilled emerges as the New Testament expounds the gospel. Jesus is the
fulfillment of the promises but, at this stage, the fact that God's kingdom
will triumph can only be received by faith. The New Testament describes in
various places the future consummation of the Kingdom Where the people of God
know fully and by sight that which they now only have by faith. When Christ
appears at his second coming, the saints of God will appear with him and the
eternal Kingdom will be made plain (Colossians 3: 4).
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The Kingdom Pattern Established
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Eden
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The Fall
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Redemptive act:
noah
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The Kingdom Promised
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Abraham
Redemptive Act:
Exodus
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The Kingdom Foreshadowed
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David-Solomon
Redemptive Act:
Prophetic Promise of Salvation
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The Kingdom At Hand
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Jesus Christ
Redemptive act:
His life, death and resurrection
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The Kingdom Consummated
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Return of Christ
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Figure 5 ‘Kingdom’ Revelation in the Bible (see also
Fig. 8)
It is now clear why the history of redemption is not simply
a gradual unfolding of the truths of the Kingdom, a dawning of the light, but
rather a series of stages in which the Kingdom, and the way into it, are
revealed. In each stage all the essential ingredients of the Kingdom are given
expression, but each successive stage builds on the former until the full
revelation of the gospel is achieved. At the risk of oversimplification, we
might organize our material on the Kingdom of God in several 'blocks' of revelation:
(a) The Kingdom revealed in Eden
(b) The Kingdom revealed in
Israel's history (Abraham to Solomon)
(c) The Kingdom revealed in
prophecy (Elijah to John the Baptist)
(d) The Kingdom revealed in
Christ (New Testament times to return to Christ).
We must now consider in a more exact fashion just how these
stages or blocks of revelation relate to each other. The conclusions we reach
about this will control our method of interpreting Old Testament texts and our understanding
of their relevance to us as Christians today.
