[chronon apokatastaseos panton - Acts3:21]
For it pleased the Father that in (Christ) all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on Earth or things in Heaven, having made peace by the blood of His cross (Col1:19,20 New King James Version)
This much shorter chapter anticipates the time when the Kingdom of God, inaugurated through the Church is realized in the presence of the One “whom Heaven must keep until the universal restoration comes which God proclaimed speaking through His holy prophets” (Acts 3:21). As a result of the secret hidden in the Father concerning the reconstitution of God’s people and the dispensation set apart to establish it, Paul confirms that it is the next age that is in a meaningful sense “the Kingdom of Christ” (2Tim4:1). In this age the implementation of Christ’s reign on Earth is confined to His Church for only she acknowledges Him as Sovereign and observes His Royal Charter. Luke confirms that it is at Christ’s coming that the restoration promised to Israel by the Old Testament prophets truly comes about in the world (Acts3:21). Paul speaks again of this consummation in Ephesians:
God made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of times; the summing up of all things into Christ, things in the heavens and things on the Earth – in Him (Eph1:9,10)
Reference to the Greek Interlinear Bible clarifies that Paul is envisaging an administration that Christ will be heading-up or gathering together into one (anakephalaiosasthai oikonomian). As the New International Version and New Jerusalem Bible have appreciated, verse 10 is saying that at the end of this age all things (not “all things in Christ”) are to be placed under Christ’s Headship. Paul refers again to this concept of final restoration in his letter to the Church at Rome, placing it in the context of their current predicament; not just for the Christian but the whole of creation:
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God (huion tou theou). For the creation was subjected to futility; not willingly but because of Him who subjected it in hope (that) the creation itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God (teknon tou theou). For we know that the whole creation groans and labours in birth-pangs. Not only (they) but we also who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body (Rom8:19-23 New King James Version).
This passage is prone to mistranslation for it does not fit either traditional Catholic or Reformed apocalyptic expectations whereas the major theologian of the second century (Irenaeus) who will have been acquainted with the immediate successors of the Apostles well understood the matter: “It is fitting therefore that the creation itself, being restored to its primeval condition should without restraint be under the dominion of the righteous, and the apostle has made this plain in the epistle to the Romans when he thus speaks: ‘For the expectation of the creature awaits the manifestation of the sons of God’1 . With the notable exceptions of the King James Version and New King James Version, there is also a reluctance to translate “huion tou theou” as “sons of God” in verse 19. Paul and Jesus as recorded by Matthew (5:9) alone use the expression “sons of God” to refer to elect humans. As can be seen above, the apostle refers to “sons” (huioi) and “children” (tekna)” within the one cohesive passage implying two distinct groups. The “sons of God” (angelic and human) will be revealed to creation who in turn will receive liberation as children of God. “Sons of God” intentionally has regal overtones. Christians are certainly numbered amongst God’s children – the Spirit confirms it with their spirits (v16); the sons of God are those being led by the Spirit of God (v14) who share in Christ’s sufferings and will share His glory (v17).
This is the greater of the two restorations I referred to earlier, the lesser being the restoration of Christendom to prepare for it. Then shall the whole Earth be seen to be full of God’s glory (Is6:3) and the outcomes depicted in Old Testament prophecies will at last have been fulfilled. Here is an example of such a prophecy from the Book of Isaiah that, like all other Old Testament prophecy, bi-passes the inauguration of the Kingdom through the Church and envisages the joyful events of its fulfilment, which align with Paul’s depiction in Romans when “the whole of creation is brought into the same glorious freedom as the children of God (Rom8:21): Highlighting will be explained below
And there shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse
And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.
The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding
The spirit of counsel and might
The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
His delight is in the fear of the Lord
And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,
Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;
But with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
And decide with equity for the meek of the Earth
He shall strike the Earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked
Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,
And faithfulness the belt of His waist.
The wolf shall also dwell with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat
The calf and the young lion and fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
Their young ones shall lie down together,
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea (Is11:1-9 New King James Version).
I have highlighted the aspects of this prophetic revelation that are especially relevant to the subject of this chapter. In summary:
i) The Man appointed to judge humanity is meek and lowly of heart (Mt11:29). He will apply the standards He indicated during His earthly ministry, which will be understood to be reasonable from a human perspective (cf. Mt7:2);
ii)The gospel of the Kingdom is Good News both for the poor in spirit (the contrite ones) (Mt5:3 reflecting Is66:2) and those who are materially poor (Lk4:18, Lk6:20 reflecting Is61:1). The account of the respective fates in Hades of the rich man and Lazarus confirms the redistributive aspect of judgement in favour of those who have suffered poverty and hardship in this life (Lk16:25) with whom the Saviour and Judge has always personally identified (Mt25) and towards whom He will be especially merciful;
iii)The wicked as defined in my chapter six will have no positive role in the new order and will be physically removed from Earth. “These shall incur punishment of age-long wholesale ruin from the face of the Lord and the glory of His strength” (2Thes1:8,9 cf. Greek)
iv)The faithfulness of Christ (pisteos Iesou Christou), in particular His atoning death for sin will have been the primary means by which humanity is able to benefit from the restoration;
v)The restoration will be as much physical as it is spiritual incorporating both a renewed Heaven and a renewed Earth; humanity reconciled to itself and God; the animal Kingdom at peace with itself and benign towards man as its caring overseer.
Jewish expectation of the restoration
God’s first choice people will have understood from prophecies like this that a divinely appointed king would come effectively to restore the Davidic dynasty, ushering in a time of peace, justice and security, which would naturally be focused around the race of Israel. What they will not have expected, even though His death could be understood retrospectively as being foretold in the Fourth Song of the Servant (Isaiah53) is that their longed-for messiah would be executed, resurrected and returned to Heaven leaving the Jewish nation still under the control of its political oppressors. Our Jewish fathers in the faith would quite reasonably have expected the political aspects of prophecy to have been fulfilled for after all it is what their Scripture and ours affirms. Even the preacher of righteousness who was sent by God to “prepare the way of the Lord”, having himself been placed in prison became disillusioned or confused enough to ask:
Are you the coming one or do we look for another? (Lk7:20)
Jesus’s reply to John’s disciples who had visited his prison raises more interesting points and throws further light on the present and future context of what Matthew calls “basileain ton ouranon” – the reign or kingdom of the heavens; whilst Luke and Mark, referring to precisely the same concept use “basileain tou theou” – the reign or kingdom of God:
So He replied to the messengers, go back and tell John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the Good News is proclaimed to the poor (Lk7:22 New International Version)
From this, the imprisoned prophet was meant to understand that the Kingdom of God/Heaven was in the process of initiation. It is clear from Jesus’s response and indeed from His ministry that this Kingdom was not exclusively about the saving of souls but also physical healing and social justice; in other words a healing of the whole person and entire society. Symbolically at least, it represented the overthrow of Satan, the one responsible for leading the world astray (Rev12:9) as well as being responsible for physical sickness (e.g. Lk13:16, 2Cor12:7) and more mysteriously, the one who holds (i.e. has been granted) the power of death (Heb2:14.) and harnesses the souls of the wicked (cf. Mt13:39, 15:13). So until Satan is placed out of harm’s way, God’s Kingdom would not be fully realized.
More specifically Jesus had told John’s messengers: “the blind receive sight, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are being raised and the Good News is preached to the poor”. This was evidence that the Kingdom of God was underway: this is what it would be like when Israel’s God came to reign on Earth (cf. Isaiah 52:7): the healing of souls for sure, but also the healing of bodies, the whole society and ultimately the whole world. But that is clearly not how it has panned out. The miraculous healing activity has not really been in evidence since the end of the apostolic age. The fate of “the chief of this world order” was indeed sealed on the cross (cf. Jn12:31) but the fulfilment of his demise was deferred, for he still deceives its people such that they are more inclined to worship Mammon than JHWE (Eph2:2 cf. Jn12:31; 1Pet5:8; Jam4:7). The nature of the Kingdom is further clarified, though not for some, by a statement of our Lord, which I have quoted using Young’s Literal Translation:
And from the days of John the Baptist till now, the reign of the heavens doth suffer violence, and violent men do take it by force (Mt11:12)
Contrary to the understanding of one Reformed commentator on the Bible-gateway, “violent men taking the Kingdom by force” is not intended to be positive. It is not speaking of those “violently apprehended by a sense of their lost estate” or “violently in love with Jesus” (so, John Gill). Jesus was referring to what John Baptist had earlier had to contend with when he was less than over-welcoming towards some who had come to him for baptism:
Brood of vipers! Who taught you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance! (Mt3:7b-8a).
These were some of the Sadducees and Pharisees who had come to be baptized in the name of the coming Messiah, believing it would as the prophet said, give them final immunity from the punishment they deserved. Also envisaging that a new Kingdom was to be established and seeing themselves as top dogs within the current arrangement they will have wanted a piece of the action. The Jews had expected the Old Testament prophecies to be fulfilled through an administration to be established by God’s anointed one (not necessarily a deity), and that he would physically stay at the helm whilst these glorious predictions were realized. The Jews’ mission was to be a light to the nations. N T Wright has made the observation that the long awaited Kingdom did “not look like Jesus’s contemporaries had imagined… it would not endorse their particular agendas”2 But to be fair to Jesus’s contemporaries, all OT prophecy had consistently assured God’s chosen race that their universal salvific mission would not be achieved without divine intervention. Professor Wright proposes that the surprising turn of events (regarding the apparent subversion of Old Testament prophecy) was in view of Israel’s faithlessness in her role as the means of bringing salvation to the world, and that that role was instead being fulfilled by the one true and faithful Israelite Jesus3. Of course, Israel’s infidelity and failed mission is beyond dispute but that was a part of the prophecies that were being subverted! For Israel had just been assured that “her warfare has now ended, her iniquity had been pardoned; she had already received double for all her sins” (cf. Is40:2-5 King James Version). You will note that that was in the context of the coming “Elijah” (John the Baptist) who would “bring back many of the Israelites to the Lord their God; reconcile fathers to their children and the disobedient to the good sense of the upright, preparing for the Lord a people fit for Him (Lk1:16-17).” What lay behind the prophetic displacement was not the thoroughly anticipated failed historical mission of Israel for which we have just seen she had paid the price and been forgiven, but what Jesus came to refer to as “this faithless and perverse generation”: the generation of the Baptist, Jesus and the apostles, who even after His ascension to glory rejected the apostolic witness to His Kingship (cf. Acts13:46). It was not that Jesus Himself was fulfilling the mission of Israel as the “true faithful Israelite” (although He was that and much more); the prophecies had been subverted by the fact that the Church had been formed to replace Israel as priesthood for the world (1Pet2:9). Jesus Himself superseded the Temple and the Mosaic Covenant to provide a new and living way by which those who were now to make up “His peculiar people” could be spiritually united with Him and sanctified to serve as kings and priests within that Kingdom. He had become the surety of a better covenant (Heb7:22) with the Torah being replaced by the Royal Law of love for neighbour (Jam2:8) written on tablets of flesh in the believer’s heart (2Cor3:3); whilst the blood of bulls and goats had been replaced sacramentally by something far more precious to be appointed for sprinkling (Heb12:24 cf. Greek), which not only remits sin and pardons but has power to cleanse the conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Heb9:14). That was the Good News, but there was also a downside. In terms of where we currently are within the restructured metanarrative we must be content with what theologians refer to as:
An inaugurated eschatology
The cleansing, restoring and reconciling of creation depicted in the eleventh chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy featured above is not to be realized within the dispensation that immediately succeeds it. The Kingdom of God is arriving in two stages; the rolling together of eschatological events having been both re-ordered and re-structured. According to Isaiah, when the promised redeemer arrived, the wicked were to be dealt with (i.e. got rid of); the remaining people are chastened but brought to peace with their God and each other, the animal Kingdom is tamed and at peace with itself and us, and God’s Holy Mountain, generally taken to refer to Jerusalem, is safe and secure under its divine Head. Moreover, the whole Earth is filled with the knowledge of God for the Lord would have become King of the world. Zechariah concurred:
When that day comes, living waters will issue from Jerusalem, half towards the eastern sea half towards the western sea; they will flow summer and winter. Then JHWE will become king of the whole world. (Zec14:8-9a New Jerusalem Bible)
That is Biblical eschatology realized and it corresponds in scope and shape to Paul’s eschatological expectations set out in Romans 8:21-25. But, of course, they relate to what is to be established after Christ’s return, not in the current age. Christ is presently represented by His mystical Body, and not yet as royal Consort but suffering Servant (like Israel). She endeavours to establish Kingdom principles whilst preparing herself and the rest of creation for the coming of Her King and theirs, who is also the Judge of all. But not until Jesus Christ commands His angels to bind the prince who continues to have power over sickness and death, destroys his power-base and removes his agents (Mt13:49) will the universal restoration be realized. The eradication of the wicked cannot be subsumed within the current mission of the Church, it has been postponed (cf. 2Thes1:8). The world, the Church and especially God’s beloved nation of Israel must continue to wait patiently, for what has been subverted for the greater good has not been forgotten (cf. Rom11:15). Such is the “inaugurated but yet to be realized” nature of the Kingdom of God as we currently experience it. It is inaugurated being present in mystery through the Church, intended to function as a Counter-Kingdom. For acknowledging Christ as her Sovereign Head and observing His Charter, she is to exercise authority quite differently from the kingdoms of this world both in terms of her self-governance and outreach. For just as Jesus’s Kingdom was not of this world; likewise, the Church’s dominion is not derived from this world order or else her servants would crusade through the world and seek to convert it by force (cf. Jn18:36).
Everyone incorporated within the Church through baptism can be said in a sense to be “in the Kingdom of God”. Yet Paul had warned Christian disciples at Derbe, “we must all experience many hardships before we enter the Kingdom of God” (Acts14:22); and as Jesus indicated, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter it. He also told His would-be disciples carefully to evaluate the cost of discipleship, like someone intending to build a tower or a king about to go to war (Lk14:28-33). That could hardly be referring to obtaining Church membership, receiving a sacrament or making a profession of faith; rather it is the assessment to be made by those who are to enter pilgrimage as a learner of the Christ. Such who are called, chosen and remain faithful will be fitted for Kingdom service in eternal partnership with the One before Whom every knee must bow, whether on Earth or in the heavens or under the Earth (Phil2:10) when He is shortly revealed as Lord of all. That would be the context of the resurrection and imperishable crown for which Paul strove and disciplined his body like an athlete so as not to be disqualified (1Cor9:24-27). It would be achieved through personal self-discipline aided by grace, but hardly “grace alone” - “Strive to enter (the Kingdom of God) by the narrow gate, for many I say to you will seek to enter and will not be able” says Jesus. The irony is that those who take up the challenge of the gospel and in Paul’s words, “aim for glory and honour and immortality by persevering in good works so as to obtain eternal life” (Rom2:7) will find that as they take the Master’s yoke upon them and learn from Him, He is gentle and lowly of heart, and they will find rest for their souls (cf. Mt11:29), whilst at the same time being fitted for glory.
This chapter has been distinctly short for Scripture does not detail precisely how Christ will restore all things or the exact nature of His people’s involvement in it; only that it will be set in motion at His coming. Those who prophesy must do so according to the measure of faith (Rom12:6) so I claim to know nothing beyond what Scripture has at least implicitly indicated. It is not necessary to know more detail at this stage and as I explain elsewhere such would compromise the role of faith. What does become essential is a united understanding of the Good News message (the gospel) within the churches so that a suitably unified witness can be provided to the world. To achieve that will be anything but a painless process, as indeed will be the case at the regeneration of creation that shall follow it - the great and dreadful Day of the Lord (Mal4:5)4.