Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

176 • P LANTING C HURCHES AMONG THE C ITY ’ S P OOR : V OLUME 1

This one psalm in fact contains a substantial theology of the Kingdom, stressing God’s sovereign reign, his mighty acts, his compassion and nearness to those who seek him, his righteousness and justice. The Kingdom is such a key theme of Scripture that Richard Lovelace can say, “The Messianic Kingdom is not only the main theme of Jesus’ preaching; it is the central category unifying biblical revelation.” And John Bright comments, “The concept of the Kingdom of God involves, in a real sense, the total message of the Bible. . . . To grasp what is meant by the Kingdom of God is to come very close to the heart of the Bible’s gospel of salvation.” As E. Stanley Jones wrote over four decades ago, Jesus’ message “was the Kingdom of God. It was the center and circumference of all he taught and did. . . . The Kingdom of God is the master-conception, the master-plan, the master-purpose, the master- will that gathers everything up into itself and gives it redemption, coherence, purpose, goal.” True, seeing the Kingdom of God as the only unifying theme of Scripture could be misleading. Personally, I believe the overarching truth is the revelation of the nature and character of God (not merely his existence, which is clear from the created order – Romans 1.20). Here God’s love, justice and holiness are central – the character of God’s person in his tri-unity. Still the reign/rule of God is a key theme of Scripture, for the loving, just, holy God rules consistent with his character and in a way that produces the reflection of his character in all who willingly serve him. So the Kingdom is indeed a key strand running through the Bible. If it seems less evident in Paul’s writings, that is because Paul often speaks of the Kingdom in terms of the sovereign plan of God realized through Jesus Christ (as, for example, in Ephesians 1.10), and, for very good reasons, uses less kingdom language. But it is incorrect to say, as some have, that the kingdom theme “disappears” in Paul. . . . The Bible is full of God’s Kingdom. . . . We learn more about the Kingdom when we view all of Scripture as the history of God’s “economy” or plan to restore a fallen creation, bringing all God has made – woman, man and their total environment – to the fulfillment of his purposes under his sovereign reign. One evening my seven-year-old son and I walked through a little patch of woods and came out on an open field. The sun was westering; the sky was serenely laced with blue and gold. Birds flitted in the trees. We talked about peace, the future and the Kingdom of God. Somehow we both sensed, despite our differences in age and understanding, that God