The Kingdom Comes

I. Ends and Beginnings
Sin diverted creation from God's purposes. Redemption inverts our inversion:
"I died, and behold I live" (Revelation 1:17-18): Jesus is the hinge on whom the ages have turned (1 Corinthians 10:11).
Jesus becomes the end of the old and frustrated,
and the beginning of the new and intended.
An imperfect analogy for Americans is the Constitution of the United States,
which though framed as though it were universal and a-contextual, is actually situated historically and culturally.
Similar analogies for other communities include the Exodus/Torah and the Hejira/Qur'an.
Some communities — e.g., pagans — have no one turning point. Their lives look more situated in creation/sin without Israel's anticipation/preparation or Christ's fulfillments.
The work of Christ is constitutive of Christian faith, "making all things new" (Revelation 21:5).
Evidence of this awareness permeates the earliest Christian witness.
A common problem for ethics is said to be getting from 'is' to 'ought.' That assumes a purposeless reality,
whereas Jesus' ministry confirms a purposeful creation whose 'is' reflects an 'ought'.
So ethically (2 Cor 5:14-17), Jesus' work carries vast implications for the lives, conduct, goals, and hopes of Christians.
Knowing it shifts not only our comprehension of the goal but also the situation from which we can approach it.
Sharing that knowledge with the Kingdom's good news changes the world.
II. Inauguration: Incarnation
Incarnation: Christmas celebrates God come personally into creation, assuming human nature to dwell as 'one of us.'
Annunciation/incarnation: A new set of relationships transforms the unitive way.
Mark 1:14-15 (summary), 1:21-28 (new teaching with authority) and/or 4:35-41 (calming a storm, cf. Ps 107).
Matthew: 1:1, 1:17: Abraham, David, exile set Christ's universal, then royal, then Israelite-eschatological shape.
Luke 1:46-55 and 4:14-30: Nazareth Manifesto.
John 1:1-18, then 1:50-51: Jacob's ladder, on the Son of Man.
These relationships relocate us with God, one another, our identities and loyalties and attachments, and ‘the world’ (2 Peter 1's 'divinization', Athanasius).
This grounds a renewed ethic mainly of response rather than initiative.
It contrasts with the proactive stance of typical Enlightenment ethics: behaviorism, utilitarianism, pragmatism, ethical egoism, and even Kantian universalism.
God's presence is a new source of illumination, but still an obscure one.
We sense some of its impacts but miss their significance (Matt 11:16-18).
So the beckoning Kingdom instead suffers our violence (Matt 11:12).
Jesus begins and ends God's relationships with us, redefining 'God' for us:
The One through whom all things were made (John 1:1-3)
has become flesh and dwelt among us as one of us (John 1:14).
The 'false prophet and blasphemer' (cf. John 8:48)
is God-with-us (Colossians 1, John 1), rejected but reconciling God and creation.
The 'stumbling stone' of foolishness (1 Cor 1:22-23)
is the crucified power and wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:18-31), reconciling all things.
The creator of our nature (Romans 8:22)
is our Father by adoption in the Son (Romans 8:23).
We who are subject to the world's corruption (2 Peter 1:4)
can enter the Lord and Savior's Kingdom (2 Peter 1:11) and partake of his divine nature (1:4).
III. Inauguration Continued: Jesus' Baptism
Theophany celebrates Jesus' baptism, when
in the Son, the Father forecloses wrong relationships
and initiates new relationships between creation and the Holy Spirit.
A pivotal moment is the Son's baptism and wilderness temptations (Mark 1:9-14), an overture.
Anointing has an OT history, in the commissioning of Israel's leaders.
The Spirit's anointing commissions the Son to those offices and more.
The Spirit's relations with us through Israel's leaders (prophets lecture) converge on the incarnate Son.
He is their eternal destination, and becomes their new point of departure.
His work includes "all flesh" in his relations with the Father in the Spirit, starting from apostolic Israel (Joel 2 in Acts 2).
The Suffering Servant (Isaiah 52-53 in Acts 8:30-35 and Romans 10:5-17)
is the anointed Messiah (Isaiah 61 in Luke 4:16-30, Isaiah 59:21 in Romans 11:26-27).
The goal of the Law and the Prophets (Deuteronomy 30:11-14 in Romans 10-11, Matthew 4:12-16, 5:17-20)
is the subject of Good News (Isaiah 59:19-21 in Romans 11:25-32, Matthew 4:17 cf. Mark 1:15, Matthew 7:28-29).
The eternal son of David in the flesh (Romans 1:3, Matthew 1:17, Matthew 2)
is designated risen Son of God in power (Romans 1:4, Matthew 27:54, 28:16-20).
The beloved heir of the Father (Romans 8:14-17, 29)
lovingly bestows the Holy Spirit on his Kingdom's fellow heirs (John 20:19-23, Acts 2).
The Chosen (and rejected) One of Israel (Luke 9:18-36, Galatians 6:12)
is the head of "the Israel of God" (Acts 7:51-56, Galatians 6:15-16).
Wilderness temptations (cf. Lent) prepare the Messiah himself for his ministry to lost Israel, retracing Israel's way in victory (Mark 1:2-15).
Sharing in Christ's sufferings through his Spirit (Rom 5:5, Heb 9:13-14) is a new means of purgation and illumination through union that 'conforms us to the Son' (Rom 8:28).
This complicates the simplistic model of 'theistic' ethics, because God is no longer merely our generic creator and savior.
Virtue no longer seems merely to be a human exercise, but is Spirit-led and -empowered (1 Cor 13 in 12-14).
The One God can no longer be mistaken for a mere monad, but discloses himself to be eternal fellowship of perichoresis in which we are included and equipped.
Christian Spirit-filled ethics feature a degree of indwelling divine initiative (so a Spirit of power, 2 Tim 1:6-7):
Jesus' incarnation and Spirit-anointing alter what kind of moral agent he is, and we can be.
Christian ethics is sui generis,
though widespread compromise dilutes and obscures its power. (Jesus foresaw that and warned about it.)
IV. Invasion: Jesus Travels
This stage adds further complexity to the Kingdom's already layered character and ethics.
After his baptism, Jesus calls a few disciples and embarks on a traveling campaign of signs and wonders (which include teaching) of the Kingdom.
Jesus 'takes office' as the Kingdom invades.
Israel remains God's central yet not exclusive focus.
Captives migrate into Christ’s Kingdom, leaving behind and ending the old to receive, acclimate to, and anticipate the new (goodness spreads).
The world responds with resistance, then either rejection or migration and naturalization.
True salvation needs more: and Christ's passion will supply more.
In the meantime, what does this accomplish?
Jesus forms a circle of followers, a 'church' built upon the rock of (his confession?) to receive his mission and Spirit.
This is not identical to the mission that follows Jesus' resurrection in the power of his Spirit. They aren't outfitted soldiers yet (John 13:36, cf. Eph 6).
The prophet of Israel’s destructive revolution (Jer 1:1-10)
does the sacrificial work of its reconciliation and renewal (Jer 30-33).
Captives of the world are released
to become witnesses and beneficiaries (Mark 5:18-20).
A ‘second nature’ begins with those who re-think and start anew. This is faith (Gal 3:23-26).
Ordinary fishermen leave their nets
to become ‘fishers of men’ (Matt 4:18-20).
Parables from ordinary life
disclose apocalyptic reality (Matt 13:34-35, Mark 4:10-13).
The land is prepared for dispossession
by new possessor Joshua, with Rahab’s help (cf. Matt 1:5).
The tenants’ time, like the Canaanites’, is up
with the Son’s reclamation of his Father’s cherished vineyard (Matt 21:33-46).
Israel’s old wineskin is burst
by his new wine (Mark 2:18-22).
Ethical lessons:
Ethics is personal and local before it is systemic or universal.
Cultural relativism and situationism draw wrong inferences from this, missing the scriptures and the power of God (Matt 22:29).
Jesus' priority is working with a few persons rather than a utilitarian campaign.
But it is systemic–cosmically.
The Spirit is indispensable; Christ's work is indispensable; the gospel is indispensable; but the fellowship is also indispensable.
As captives of sin and death (and poor leaders), Jesus' original audiences are in over their heads, in no position to join the present battle. (Thomas in John 11:16; John 13:36-38; John 18:6-11).
Their moral agency is unequal to Christ's, though subject to a transformation unavailable to Kingdom outsiders (Luke 7:28).
They can respond to the invitation merely to repent and trust that the news is good.
Narrative here is history being accomplished by divine moral agency involving human moral agents.
Its stages and their parabolic interpretations illuminate by unraveling the knotty challenges the Kingdom has faced.
The fruit of this stage of Jesus' ministry is scanty and fragile; even more nasty knots need untangling. So "Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem" (Luke 9:51).
V. Exaltation: Passion
Christ's passion is the climax of his story, and fulcrum of the ages.
This the most celebrated historical sequence in all history: communion, baptism, cross-bearing, Lent, crucifixes.
Assuming mortality envelops the very limits of human existence and explodes them.
Through this one human moment, infinity takes up human and cosmic history, old and new creation (Col 2:9-10).
Farewells (Maundy Thursday): symbols, tradition, memory, teaching, 'deposit of faith' (1 Cor 11:23-32, cf. 1 Timothy 6:20).
Jesus leaves his few remaining followers with what they need to recognize him on the other side.
Crucifixion (Passover/Good Friday): intercession, reparative sacrifice.
Jesus' priestly sacrificial commitment to both the Father and us repairs the divine-human relationship and restores our usefulness (Heb 9:11-14).
The blood of our paschal lamb protects us from judgment on a whole world of depravity, so we can escape (1 Cor 5:7).
We can look on the one who was pierced and see the God of grace and truth (Zech 12:10 in John 19:34-37).
Burial (Holy Saturday): 'omega', ransom.
Jesus takes on death as both the victim and heir of sin's curses,
tasting elements of all three consequences of sin and depravity (Gal 3:13-14).
Jesus goes the distance in faithfulness, 'loving to the end' (John 13), bankrupting his accuser (cf. Job).
Resurrection (Easter): 'alpha', victory.
God exalts his glorious Son.
The resurrection confirms Jesus' lordship, his Father's justice, and his Spirit's divine power, warranting universal worship and service (but not forcing them). See Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jesus-God and Man.
Jesus' new life defeats and discredits sin and death as powers. He transcends their consequences for himself
and, by grace, for us, grounding new lives of hope and strengthening faith.
Moral change in witnesses comes in stages.
Jesus' traditions from before, now fulfilled and clear, flower over centuries into a rich Christian aesthetic.
The redeemer of the old creation (2 Corinthians 5:1-17)
is the firstfruits of the new creation (1 Corinthians 15:20-24).
The enemy of the old order (Luke 5:33-39)
is the center of a new and eternal order (Acts 10:34-43).
The one rejected by all (1 Peter 2:4)
is their immortal intercessor forever (Hebrews 7:23-28).
The last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45, cf. 1 Timothy 1:4, Hebrews 7:3, Matthew 23:9)
is the man from heaven (1 Corinthians 15:45-49, cf. Daniel 7:13).
The taker of sin and death (Romans 8:2b, 5:12-21)
brings righteousness and eternal life (Romans 8:2a, 5:1-11).
Ethical lessons:
This is the revelation of the true God, 'something greater', framing all else.
Its news is the content of Christian mission and life.
Worship makes its enormity graspable, tangible, and ethical as Word and sacraments.
Christ's Passion and Resurrection definitively unmask the inadequacy of conventional ethics.
They are not only the foundation of Christian ethics, but also the 'stumbling stone' of rival ethical systems.
Christian ethics can respect rivals' principles, but never as ultimates.
Instead, we anticipate and prepare for creation's metaphysical transformation.
When Christians trade this ultimate for some other, we capitulate to 'something less', usually an idol.
But Jesus told his witnesses to stay in the city until what would happen next.
There's even more to Christian ethics than this foundation.
VI. Ascension and Session: A New World
Ascension, Session: supremacy, delegation.
The last half of the parable of the vineyard: God replaces Israel's leadership.
Jesus leaves for 'HQ,' the Kingdom's capital (more goodness merits/results/spreads, Philippians 2:9), to represent us 'in the field' as priest and receive the Father's glorious affirmation,
and to be represented on earth by his Spirit-empowered church as a 'kingdom of priests' (1 Pet 2:9).
He appears to disciples (1 Cor 15), enemies like Paul, and many to this day (David Garrison, A Wind in the House of Islam), manifesting his lordship.
The one by whom all things were made (John 1:3, 1 Corinthians 8:5-6)
is the one in whom all things come together (Colossians 1:16-17).
The one subjected to the creation's futility (Romans 8:17-28)
is the Lord at the Father's right hand (Romans 8:31-34).
The humble 'achieve supremacy'; the obedient servant
has the name above all names (Philippians 2:5-11).
The 'victim' of the nations' oppression (Revelation 1:7)
is King of Kings (Psalm 2 in Luke 3:21-22 and Hebrews 5:1-5, Revelation 1:5).
The ruler of this world
is cast out (John 12:31).
The destroyer of the nations' idolatry (1 Thessalonians 1:8-10, Revelation 17-18)
is the sole destination of their treasure (Revelation 21:22-27).
Ethical impact:
How much of an ethical difference does all this make?
The New Testament church struggles with mediocrity, confusion, complacency, compromise, and apostasy.
Jesus foresaw tares among the wheat all the way through to the end (Matthew 13:24-30).
A remnant has always been faithful. They receive further authority and reason to be patient.
Jesus' ascension and session don't just cascade to society at large. He doesn't intend them to (Acts 1:6-9, 9:5).
VII. Pentecost: Our Work While We Wait
So a change needs to happen in the field that corresponds to the change at HQ: Pentecost.
Outside of where Jesus' cosmic lordship is acknowledged, social ethics go on as before.
And even inside: the NT church faces the persistent challenge of frustration and impatience, denial of his reign, or refusal to apply it as relevant to Christian lives and service (cf. Galatians 3:21-4:7).
Furthermore, a global change needs to happen in the field: parousia.
The following frameworks guide moral imaginations, including secular ones:
Postmillennialism, where the Millennium precedes Jesus' coming (parousia),
tends to reflect and encourage historical optimism, 'progressive' ethical stances, and social activism.
This encourages 'goodness spreads, merits, or (degenerating) results' and a variety of consequentialisms, often turning our desires or convictions into ends of history, 'immanentized eschatons.'
Premillennialism, where Jesus' parousia brings the Millennium,
tends to reflect and encourage defensive ethical stances, and personal and interpersonal rather than societal action.
This encourages 'goodness returns,' even an otherworldly variety, or even a dysteleological detachment from the present.
Amillennialism, which envisions no literal Millennium,
tends to reflect and encourage a 'long view', tolerate a variety of social and ethical stances, and lose apocalyptic's ethical urgency.
'Spiritualism,' which focuses on the futures of disembodied souls on earth or in heaven,
tends to reflect and reinforce many cultures' prevalent folk-spirituality, and neglect apocalyptic's central affirmation of new creation for both persons and the earth.
It can become the karmic reward for deeds (merits), or a personal response to grace (spreads or, degenerating, gets), or dysteleological if the present is taken to be unimportant or detached from one's personal future.
All of these can miss apocalyptic's Jewish character and sideline NT apocalyptic's Christ- and church-focus.
VIII. Eternity: Goodness' Final Expression
The end is what never ends: eternity.
Aeternitas was the Roman personification or abstract deity of unending existence or rule.
Images of eternity capture our imaginations and hearts and drive our motives.
Common definitions: Infinite time or duration; eternal existence, contrasted with mortal life; the timeless state into which the soul passes at death.
Biblical teaching on human futures after life stands in contrast and even contradiction.
Ancient Sumerian and Israelite cosmology: heavens above, underworld below.
The honorable dead are 'gathered to one's people.'
David J.A. Clines' posterity, divine-human relationship, and land are forms of life, exaltation, and fruitfulness.
Genesis 25:8, 35:29, 49:29, etc.: At death a patriarch joins his clan in an ancestral burial place, “gathered to his people.” No conscious afterlife is implied (cf. Luke 16: 9-31, John 8:51-59). Abraham's Cave of Mach-Pelah in Hebron (Gen 25:9-10) amounts to a tribal claim on the promised land.
One meaning of ‘paradise’ is burial in Eden (with Adam). Another is admittance to God’s ‘dwelling place’ (2 Cor 12:2-3).
Inglorious/shameful legacies are forms of death, reclamation/punishment, and fruitlessness/disposal:
being unclean, barren, cut off from one’s people, dying in the wilderness, forsaken ‘outside the camp,’ and forgotten.
Ghosts and spirits are prominent in Israel’s neighbor cultures (as everywhere). Israelites may not communicate with them (Deut 18:10-19). Samuel’s angry visit is exceptional and condemning (1 Sam 28).
Influential images of blessing:
OT: Creation will be restored, and Israel will be restored: Isa 65:17-25, 66:23, Zech 14:9, 14:16-17, Joel 3:17-18, Hosea 14:4-7. The outcomes are intertwined, as is proper.
Life's goodness is maximized and its badness minimized ("Peaceable Kingdom").
There are inklings of hope of resurrection, bodily personal life after death, in Ps 16:9-11? Job 19:20-27? Ezek 37? Ex 33:1? This is much clearer in Daniel's judgment scenes, where the dead are raised to face judgment (Dan 12:1-3, 7:10).
Second Temple Judaism didn't have uniform views of 'life after death,' though resurrection to eternal (earthly, active) life was popular, and embraced by Jesus and his disciples.
Each of the inglorious futures finds vivid symbols in later OT and NT writings:
Death: sheol / hades:
In old Hebrew cosmology, humans live on the earth, then all enter Sheol, the grave or underworld (Eccl 9:5-10, cf. John 3:15, Jude 9). In Greek, sheol is hades (Luke 16:23-31, Rev 1:18). The dead do not ‘go to heaven’! Not even … Enoch, who “did not see death” (Heb 11:5), “but God took him” (Gen 5:24), or Elijah (2 Kings 2:3-9), who is just reserved for further work (2 Chron 21:12-15, Mal 3:23).
Disposal: outer darkness
Useless things are ‘unknown’ and are removed: flavorless salt (Matt 5:13), Israel’s fruitless heirs (Matt 8:12, 21:43), unpresentable wedding guests (22:13) slothful servants (25:1-13), skeptical stewards (25:30), and Jude 12-13’s flotsam. This is not (necessarily) punitive.
Gehenna: an infamous landfill
The tainted Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem (Jer 7:31) became a metaphor for sinners’ judgment, destruction, death, and disposal (Matt 5:21-22, Mark 9:42-49).
Repossession: cherem
Canaan’s idolatrous occupants (Josh 6:17-19), and even wayward Israel (Isa 43:28), are cut off by cherem, ‘devoted to YHWH’ (Greek anathema, cf. Acts 23:14, Rom 9:3, 1 Cor 16:22). Cherem is ‘reclamation’ as well as condemnation, curse, and punishment. It cleanses the land and protects others’ righteousness (cf. 1 Cor 5). Israel’s isn’t permanent; even Amalekites return to seek YHWH’s name (Ps 83:16-18).
A lake of fire and sulphur (Rev 19:20)
Revelation 19-21’s (volcanic?) lake of fire and sulphur suggests cherem as well as Gehenna, but not sheol/hades, which is thrown into it (Rev 20:14).
This mashing up of different images is a typical way in Revelation to center past biblical themes around Jesus' ministry.
The negative outcomes are frustrations of God’s expressed will to bless, which has been driving the Kingdom's story all along.
"His reign shall have no end": Christ's Kingdom is the telos that has come forward into history's midst to renew it.
The popular image of 'heaven' is one way to demonstrate the coherence of life, exaltation, and fruitfulness, though the biblical picture is better.
Jesus Christ is fruitful, exalted, eternal, life.
The risen, ascended, reigning, returning Jesus Christ is goodness perfected and the goal in sight; he fulfills, surpasses, and so defines our expectations of eternity.
Jesus has traveled Israel’s trajectories to fulfill its promise and story.
Jesus' reign and resurrection focus all this on his person as the principle of our expectation for human eternity:
His disciples inherit his righteousness through his grace:
life: eternal and abundant life (Matt 25:46, John 3:15, John 10:7-11, Rom 6:20-23, Gal 6:7-10, Titus 3:1-7).
fruitfulness: wise authority (Luke 22:24-30, Rev 3:21, 1 Cor 6:1-3) in (nuptial) union with the Lord (Eph 5:32).
exaltation: glory (2 Cor 3:17-18, Rom 8:29-30, John 17:9-10).
Retrieving the richness of this vision takes effort, since our visions have been distorted by a truncated hope (N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope) and distorted by both dismissed and inordinate fear of sin's consequences.
Ethical Impact: Unlike much later Christianity, the NT's ethical thrust doesn't dwell on a built-out theology of eternity.
A common way to condense eternity's relevance to the present is with the qualities later called 'theological virtues': faith, hope, and love.
These begin with God's promises to the patriarchs, and they don't end (goodness expresses, so they tie into ultimates as now-available means (1 Cor 13).
They all refer to those promises as fulfilled in Christ: 1 Thess 1:3, 5:8-11, Col 1:4-5, 1 Cor 13:13 in 12:27-14:5.
These are built out, extensively, in the 'interim ethics' of Jesus' teaching to his disciples and the apostles' to NT churches.
IX. Return: The Last Judgment
 Oliver O'Donovan: judgment is an "act of moral discrimination that pronounces upon a preceding act or existing state of affairs to establish a new public context."
It 'catches up' the whole context to whatever state of affairs needs it.
Judgment is a human need and a basis of government. Our judgments are only sometimes just, whereas God's judgment is final and glorious (Luke 22:25-30).
God has rendered judgments all along (Deut 32:39-41): Eden, Cain, flood, Babel, exodus, wilderness events, cherem, personal sagas from David to Job, Israel's exilic ruin (though prophets and foreign powers), ruin of Israel's enemies,
and Jesus' 'lifting up' and vindication/ascension.
So the moral nature of reality is genuine, not a mere human construct or projection.
At the last judgment, Jesus appears in glory to expel all that is unfitting for new creation
and promote his faithful representatives to eternal lives of exaltation and wise authority.
This is the culmination of God's role as judge.
What ends at judgment is the Son's 'going ahead' of his disciples and enemies; at judgment they are 'caught up.'
The object of the world's unfavorable judgments
judges all (Acts 2:36, Matt 25, Rev 1:7).
The one who died for us (Rom 14:15)
pioneers our resurrections (Rom 6:1-11, Col 2:20-3:17, 1 Thess 4).
The one uniquely foreknown and predestined
is the first of many brothers and sisters (Rom 8:28-30, 1 John 3:2-3).
The ultimate threat to our own righteousness
is its only real security (Acts 9).
His past and present suffering witnesses
await justice/vindication (1 Pet 3-4, Rev 6:10, 2 Tim 4:8).
The good but stricken shepherd (Ps 118, Rev 7:17, John 10:1-18, 13:12-20)
shares his throne (Rev 3:20-22, John 14:12, 15:16, 20:23).
The judge of all
is the object of worship (Matt 28:16-20).
On judgment day, Christ in exaltation, life, and fruitfulness, known as creation's telos only to some, is revealed to all (Dan 12, 20:11-15).
Theology calls this glorification.
Why and how are we judged?
if rules or obedience were the point, we'd be judged merely by our compliance with God's rules, feeding legalism.
If fealty were all God wanted, we'd be judged by the pseudograce of empty sacrifice, feeding hypocrisy and starving our character.
If we (as we are) were all God wanted, we'd be admitted with cheap grace or ragamuffin grace, consigning us to mediocrity.
If Christ (as he is) is all God will admit, we'd be left unrestored.
Jesus will come to judge not whether we have earned or claimed God’s favor, but how we have built on his foundation—lived out the apostolic faith we professed (1 Cor 3:13).
Instead, we're judged for what lasts:
Faith: Trust in the God whose actions have shown him to be trustworthy. (Talents: Matt 25:14-30.)
Hope: Confidence in God's determination and ability to fulfill his purpose. (Bridesmaids: Matt 25:1-13.)
Love: God's character, goal for human creatures, and agenda for Christ and his bride. (Sheep and goats: Matt 25:31-46.)
Two outcomes, black and white, rather than gray; The dualism of Torah, wisdom, Psalm 1, and apocalyptic all fulfilled (so C.S. Lewis,The Great Divorce).
Crucifixion had cast out evil from heaven (Rev 12:9) and freed the guilty, the captives, and the blind for goodness.
At the last judgment, evil is finally contained on earth. New Jerusalem's gates are open yet nothing unclean enters (Rev 21:24-27).
So the Kingdom's epic resolves our lives: into ultimate hope, or hopelessness.
The 'great divorce' doesn't rule out lesser hierarchies or inequalities (Matt 18:4; cf. Luke 19:17-19),
though that doesn't mean Dante is more than poetic imagination.
Disciples may be disinherited too, if our lives and characters have been incompatible with those goals.
Vice (persistent sin) hinders but hasn’t prevented us from entering the Kingdom; it does disqualify us from inheriting it (1 Cor 9:27, 6:9-10), to our shame (1 Cor 10:23-27).
Repossession, death, disposal conclude our disintegration and un-creation.
Ethical Impact:
Apocalyptic binds earlier judgments to final judgment (empires in Daniel, reactions to Jesus in John 3:18-21, temple in Mark 13, Rome in Rev, etc.).
The Church lives in the eschatological, Christ-redeemed history of Israel. The world lives in God’s eschatological judgment of Israel's enemies. Genealogical Israel lives, for now, in both (Rom 9-11 on Isaiah).
All live in a season of patient mercy (2 Pet 3:9).
If Jesus' appearing is the end of his missional 'lead', a parousia ethic anticipates that end by 'hastening the day' (2 Pet 3:12).
So in the meantime, Jesus' followers anticipate judgment together:
We are beneficiaries of God's judgment of Jesus Christ, joined to him to pass along his grace and truth (Matt 18:35).
We are accountable to God and to one another (Rom 14:12-13). Judgment begins with the church; responsibility is ours (1 Pet 4:16-18). We invite the Spirit's correction (1 Cor 11:31-32).
Kingdom standards respect God's responsive judgment (Matt 7:1-5).
Foreknowledge of judgment frees Christians not to retaliate (Rom 12-13).
An appropriate attitude is not presumption nor terror, but "holy love with holy fear" (Newbigin, "The Gospel and the Religions").
X. Mission: The Gospel Engages the Nations through the Church
After Pentecost, 'an explosion of joy' shapes a community of disciples and drives mission to neighbors, enemies, rulers, and strangers.
With parallelism, Luke-Acts shows that what Jesus had done earlier before his followers he continues to do through them.
Jesus 'continues to do and teach' as his memories, testimonies, and life change our character into a new community of love (goodness results and spreads).
The contours of his ministry are now the contours of his church's, so the Christ-fulfilled ethical features of the Kingdom's earlier stages are now his church's inheritance for its task (1 Cor 10:11).
Judgment's 'catching up' still lies ahead, but his body is following the lead of its head.
Further migrations, discipleship, and replenishments result.
The church's focus is Godward in worship and service, forward to the goal, outward missionally to neighbor, and inward to brother/sister and self.
The Kingdom’s life brings fruitfulness yielding exaltation.
His body's commissioning ends the Son's monopoly as he shares his mission:
The one sent by the Father
sends his own on his mission (John 20:21).
The one baptized by John and buried for us (Rom 6:3)
Spirit-baptizes (Matt 3:11-12, 28:19) for 'beatitudes' (5:2-10), gifts (Eph 4:7-16), and fruit (Gal 5:22-23).
The bridegroom
cherishes and perfects his bride (Eph 5:25-27).
The solitary, persecuted King
leads his body on his way of the cross (John 15:18-25, Matt 16:24, 1 Pet 2:20-25) for our lives (2 Cor 4:10).
The servant-Lord of all
commands his friends' loving service to others (John 13:12-17, 15:12-17), including enemies (Matt 5:43-48).
The disarmer of principalities and powers (Col 2:8-15)
is the new human being of cultural inclusion (Eph 2:11-22) as his gospel remakes lives in all nations (Col 3:11).
All powers and authorities
are subordinate to Christ’s greater rule (Acts 4:19-20).
Ethical Impact:
The Spirit is received before Torah observance or even baptism (Acts 10:44-48). This dethrones cultures.
Conventional modern ethical systems are (a) cultural too, (b) framed by the Kingdom's obscure framework, and (c) backgrounded by its priorities.
Visions of goodness, by contrast, are foregrounded and clarified by the sheer definition Christ gives them.
Kreeft's 'four great truths' are similarly focused and specified by the Kingdom's past, present, and future details.
Christian ethics historically adapt and expand Aristotelian virtue ethics:
Faith, hope, and love ('theological virtues') are the building going up behind the scaffolding of God's many ephemeral gifts.
Virtue ethics understands them as habits, given and grown by God’s grace, characterizing relationship with God, yielding dispositions that reflect humanity’s ultimate intended character.
They govern and order natural virtues for service in the present, and further service in eternity.
They are not means between deficiency and excess (even if others might be), but perfections with no upper limits.
Christian life pursues virtues for a ‘beatific life’ in Christ that defeats sins and their vices
(seven ‘capital / mortal / cardinal’ ones are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, sloth) (cf. Prov 6:16-19, Gal 5:19-21, Rev 21:8, etc.)
in ways that rules, self-expression, and merely human efforts cannot.
Which virtues and vices matter most depends on roles and contexts.
Are Missional Ethics Enough?
The church misinterprets itself and lives wrong when it forgets its apocalyptic missional context.
Key apocalyptic tasks are patience and perseverance, since temptations of despair and false gospels continue.
But are churches so different? Does Christian life really get around virtue’s limits?
'The saints' seem exceptional (Matt 13:8-9), though admired (cf. Heb 11).
Then should we lower our expectations? Put our hopes in a postbodily heaven? Or "look for another?" (Matt 11:3).
Christians’ personal stories can publicize these transformations to encourage and spread goodness.
The NT is full of (needed) warnings not to give up, because it remains tempting and we're forgetful.
Christian ethical traditions see real but mixed success and revisions:
Orthodox-Catholic sacramental virtue, divine command, and natural law ethics.
Protestant priority for the gracious, powerful Word of God received in faith alone.
'Anabaptist' shared discipleship and community discipline.
Wesleyan-Pentecostal stress on sanctification through a synthesis, all through the Spirit's "cooperative grace."
The black church’s patient hope and support under severe trials.
Liberal priority for experience, and stress on transformation by means of reason, technique, and social power.
These modified ethics arise in response to one another.
Is human nature too stubborn to yield the goodness we long for and need?
Nothing will end the wait for cosmic renewal at Jesus' parousia.
Yet all these visions have enjoyed some success, long-term fruit even beyond Christianity, and staying power.
We can hold one or more loosely, especially while respecting their limits.
The true objective still lies in the future toward which we've been reoriented,
which we "know in part" (1 Cor 13:12) and pursue (1 Cor 14:1) in the meantime.
P.S.: A presentation (in two parts) on how Colossians and Ephesians engage contemporary moral psychology.