Introduction:
A few postings ago we began to look at the short phrase in the Nicene Creed "and ascended into Heaven". We explored the main Biblical texts that talk about Christ's ascension and it's meaning here Growing Christian Resources: Post #22 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - Part One: "and ascended into heaven". We then saw how when Jesus ascended that He assumed three offices that were foreshadowed in the Old Testament and fulfilled by Him. He ascended to be the Heavenly prophet who by the Holy Spirit speaks through the Bible, the written Word of God Growing Christian Resources: Post #23 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - Part Two: "and ascended into heaven" - Jesus The Heavenly Prophet.
In the last post we studied how Jesus also ascended to by the Christian's Heavenly Highpriest who represents them before God here Growing Christian Resources: Post #24 1700 Years of the Nicene Creed - Part Three: "and ascended into heaven" - Jesus' Heavenly Priesthood. In today's post we continue on noting further revelation of Jesus' currently heavenly ministry as our exalted King.
Jesus Christ's Kingship over all things.
The Apostle Paul writes in Colossians 1:16-19 "For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. 19 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him."
How long has Jesus been King? We can say without question His kingship has persisted since He, the Father, and the Holy Spirit as the One Triune God created the heavens and the earth. John 1:3 "All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being." Psalm 99:1 "The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble; He is enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth shake!" When we consider Isaiah's vision in Isaiah 6:1 of seeing "the Lord sitting on a throne"; the vision being none other than the preincarnate Christ (compare John 12:41-44), the Bible is plain about the scope and eternality of Christ's Kingship. This Kingship of the Son, established from all eternity as to He being our appointed mediator, extends also into eternity future (Luke 1:33; Revelation 19:6).
Charles Hodge's Systematic Theology summarizes the importance of Christ's Kingdom as we've discussed it thus far:
"Although the kingdom of God had existed from the beginning, yet as everything therewith connected before the Advent was merely preparatory, the Scriptures constantly speak of the Messiah as a king who was to set up a kingdom into which in the end all other
kingdoms were to be merged.
The most familiar designation applied
to Him in the Scriptures is Lord. But Lord means proprietor and ruler; and when used of God or Christ, it means absolute proprietor and sovereign ruler.
Apart from Christ's right in us and sovereignty over us as God, He as the God-man is our Lord. We belong to Him by the purchase of his blood, and God has set Him as King on his holy hill of Zion."
The forms of Christ's Kingdom
When we speak of the "forms" of Christ's Kingdom, we're talking about the manner in which His Kingly office and reign is manifested in the world and to men. Below are some of the most common headings used by theologians to capture a quick sketch of the vastness of Christ's kingly reign.
1. God's Kingdom rule over creation.
We can refer to this first form as really the overarching rule of the Triune God in providence as He guides history, the decisions of human beings, and the course of creation itself. The Kingdom of God broadly speaking pertains to those creatures which have the capacity to exercise volition or making of choices. Even when 1/3 of the angels rebelled to become the demons, God's Kingdom purposes and will remained established. When God created all things, he gave Adam and Eve the responsibility to execute His governance in creation by being His coregents. (Genesis 1:26-28). They of course broke the covenantal arrangement that made such a coregency possible. God's Kingdom was not in jeopardy. His method of mediating His Kingly reign would turn to covenantal mediators.
2. His mediatorial kingdom.
It is this second form of the Kingdom that brings the eternal Son into focus. The Son of God is the appointed mediator for His people from all eternity (2 Timothy 1:9). The 2nd London Baptist Confession of 1689 8.1 notes of Jesus Christ as the appointed Mediator (note the underlined sentence which is relevant to our discussion):
"It pleased God, in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, according to the covenant made between them both, to be the mediator between God and man; the prophet, priest, and king; head and savior of the church, the heir of all things, and judge of the world; unto whom He did from all eternity give a people to be His seed and to be by Him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified."
Moreover, the Father had decreed that the Son would have an everlasting Kingdom that would have no end (Psalm 2, Psalm 110, Daniel 7:13ff). John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue in their "A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth, Biblical Doctrine", page 852, comment on how God developed this mediatorial form of the Kingdom through the Old Testament to where the incarnation of the Son of God would become central:
"The means of restoring God's mediatorial kingdom on earth would come through four eternal and unconditional biblical covenants - the Noahic, Abrahamic, Davidic, and new covenants. Together, these covenants have revealed both kings and King (Jesus) of God's kingdom plans and details of this kingdom."
Throughout the Old Testament, God's mediatorial kingdom was typified through Israel as a nation along with its priestly and kingly institutions. All those details foreshadowed what was to be Christ's forthcoming advent as the incarnate Son.
3. The inaugurated Kingdom.
When Jesus came into this world, He fulfilled the covenantal promises pertaining to the mediatorial kingdom. He as the King would formally inaugurate or introduce the Kingdom of God to Israel. Israel as a nation had functioned as a patterned people, depicting and foreshadowing what the Kingdom of God was like in small form. He proclaims several times in the course of His earthly ministry the Gospel of the Kingdom (Luke 4:18) as He demonstrates He has inaugurated the Kingdom by His ministry of exorcism (Matthew 12:28). When Jesus died, raised, and ascended, He took His seat at the Father's right hand to take this inaugurated form of the Kingdom to new heights, exercising His kingly prerogatives over the church and to resume what He had always been doing, guiding the providential affairs of our world (see Acts 2:32-36; Colossians 1:16-20).
4. The mystery form of the Kingdom.
As Jesus reigns over His church, the kingdom of God's current nature and form is mainly spiritual, invisible, and hidden from plain view. That is not to say that Christ and His kingdom are not wielding influence over the lives of people. By the proclamation of the Gospel is the message of Jesus' Christ's victory over sin and all surpassing power communicated against the parasitic kingdom of Satan (see Acts 26:18). The church at large functions as an embassy for Jesus' Kingdom. Each local church is a local manifestation of the delegated authority of Christ through His word. Truely born again church members are His ambassadors who are to proclaim the Gospel of His kingdom and salvation until He comes (Matthew 24:14; Matthew 28:18-20; 2 Corinthians 5:18-20).
5. His coming messianic Kingdom.
The mystery form of the Kingdom will persist until the Lord Jesus appears in the clouds to take the church out of this world to be with Himself (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Following that event (known as the rapture), a final time of judgment on this world will take place, lasting seven years. At the end of that seven-year period (known as the tribulation period), Jesus Christ will return to earth and the Kingdom over which He presides will no longer be in its mystery form. Instead, the Kingdom of God will manifest on the earth. This Messianic form of the Kingdom will feature a redeemed church and a redeemed Israel ruling side-by-side with the Son of God over the nations (Revelation 20:1-6). It will be at the end of that period that Christ will judge the nations and Satan.
6. The eternal Kingdom.
Revelation 21-22 record that after the final judgment of the unbelieving world and Satan, a new heavens and new earth will follow a transformation of the entire created order. The New Heavens and Earth will become one, eternal, vast, physical, God-saturated, redeemed reality. We see no end to this final form of the Kingdom. Revelation 21:21-27,
"I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; 26 and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; 27 and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life."
Closing thoughts:
This post has attempted to offer a summary of what is the subject of Christ's exalted Kingship as revealed in His ascension. My hope is these last several posts have introduced the reader to the rich topic of Christ's ascension. This also should show us why creeds like the Nicene Creed are summaries. When Christians confess "and ascended into Heaven", they are confessing Jesus Christ as their heavenly prophet, high priest, and exalted King.
