The Already/Not Yet Kingdom of Christ

When John came to prepare the way for the Christ, his message was, "repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." In other words, John told the people that the kingdom of God was about to crash down into their world with the appearing of the Christ and they needed to be prepared. And when the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God would come He said, "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." So it seems that the Kingdom of Heaven came to earth with Jesus. Still, there are other passages that suggest that the kingdom will come sometime in the future such as Luke 22:18 when Jesus says, "For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." Furthermore, the Kingdom of God is typically associated with the end times. It is when everyone and everything will fully submit to the rule of God as King. So we have two ideas presented. The Kingdom of God has come to the earth with the coming of Christ. And the Kingdom of God is a government that will come in the future.

With the arrival of the textual criticism of the Bible, some tried to use this tension as a means to undermine the authority of Scripture. Some even said that Jesus changed His mind about the Kingdom of God. They said that apparently Jesus believed at the beginning of His ministry that God had brought the Kingdom through Him, but when the Jewish people rejected Him as their King, He began to view the coming of the Kingdom as a future event.
But in 1974 George Eldon Ladd articulated in his book "The Presence of the Future" what I believe the majority of the church had believed all along. He submitted that the Kingdom of God either coming with the incarnation or being a future event is not really an either/or discussion at all. Rather, it is a both/and discussion. Yes, the Kingdom of God was initiated on the earth with the coming of the Messiah, but it is not fully consummated until the King returns to rule. So in one sense the Kingdom of God has already come, but in another sense the Kingdom of God is something that we are still waiting for.

So how is this played out in our lives as Christians. First, Jesus did establish His Kingdom and it was established through the Church. When believers embrace the grace of God in Jesus Christ and then willingly submit their lives to Him we see a glimpse of God's Kingdom. As we have already noted, this Kingdom is not fully established on the earth, but it will be with the return of the King. So we have "already" and "not yet" aspects of God's Kingdom working within the Church. In fact, I would say that most things that we celebrate as believers are both "already" and "not yet" because God's established Kingdom is both "already" and "not yet." So when we place our faith in Jesus Christ we are saved from God's wrath. But we are not fully saved until the final day when we are numbered with the saints. We have been freed from slavery to sin, but we are not fully free from sin until we walk with Him in eternity. We live a new life, but our life is not completely new until the Resurrection. We have been born again, but our new birth is not complete until we are glorified in the new creation. We have been reconciled, but one day we will see Him face to face. We are called God's children, but one day we will share in the inheritance. We are the Bride of Christ, but one day we will celebrate the marriage supper. We see dimly now, but one day we will see fully.

How should we respond to this? Let us surrender to the authority of Christ as people who believe that though we may taste His goodness now, later we will feast.