1. That the Old Covenant passage of Isaiah 66:22-23
cites us to a perpetual sabbatism
that must be the ultimate rest for the
people of God, to be enjoyed through Jesus Christ, and
foreshadowed but
not enjoyed
under the Old Covenant, and not before our present
earth has been superseded by a new and eternal one,
after the
second coming of Christ to this earth at the close
of its history, is made evident, among other passages, by
the following basic ones:
a. 2
Peter 3:10-13: "But the day of the Lord [the
day of his ‘coming.’ V.4] will come as a thief; in which
the heavens [evidently the atmospheric and possible the
siderial heavens, as already mentioned] shall pass away
with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved
with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are
therein shall be burned up. Seeing these things are thus
all to be dissolved, what manner of person ought we to be
in all holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly
desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which
the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the
elements shall melt with fervent heat? But according to his promise
[where but in Isaiah 66:22-23?], we look for new heavens
and a new earth wherein dwelleth
righteousness."
b. Revelation 20:11-15:
"And I saw a white throne, and him that sat upon it,
from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and
there was found no place for them. and I saw the dead, the
great and the small, standing before the throne; and the
books were opened: and another book was opened. Which is
the book of life: and the dead were judged out of things
which were written in the books, according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead that were in them: and they
were judged every man according to their works. … and if
any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast
into the lake of fire."
Thus we have the present "earth and the
heaven" fleeing away in connection with the universal
resurrection and judgment of mankind, as seen by the
apostle John in his visions of the future while exiled on
the Isle of Patmos.
c. Revelation 21:1 - 22:5:
Though too much to quote here, it should be carefully read
in its entirety. It is a vision of the above being followed
by a new heaven and new earth for the righteous of all
nations, with the "holy city, new Jerusalem [in
contrast with the earthly Jerusalem of Palestine] coming
down out of heaven from God" "the city of the
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem" (Hebrews
12:22).
This "new earth" and "the holy
city, New Jerusalem," were evidently the
"heavenly country" and "the city which hath
the foundations, whose builder and maker is God,"
sought after by Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac and Jacob
(Hebrews 11:8-16) as the ultimate for them rather than
Canaan, which was only a type or "shadow" of that
which was to come.
"And these all [including the persons just
mentioned, plus many others also cited for their faith],
having had witness borne to them through their faith,
received not the promise [of the heavenly country and
city], God having provided some better thing concerning us
[than afforded on this earth], that apart from us they
should not be made perfect" (Hebrews 11:39-40). That
is, they will not enter into the perfection of the world to
come before the resurrection when Christ comes to earth
again, the same as will be true for us.
d.
Hebrews 3:1 - 4:11: Here again we have an extended
passage (which please read in its entirety, noting its
progression).
Beginning:
"Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the
heavenly
calling,
consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession,
even Jesus, … a son over his [God’s] house [in the sense of
‘household’], whose house are we, if we hold fast our
boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the
end" (3:1-6).
Continuing: Reminding
the readers of the disbelief and unfaithfulness of so many
of fleshly Israel and therefore their never entering the rest
intended for them in the earthly Canaan: also
exhorting to take warning from this and not miss the rest
intended for spiritual Israel in the heavenly Canaan (3:7 -
4:8).
Concluding: "There
remaineth
therefore a sabbath rest for the people of God. For he that
hath entered into his rest hath himself also rested from
his works, as God did from his. Let us therefore
give diligence to
enter into that rest, that no man fall after the
same example of disobedience" (4:9-11).
The latter may remind us of Revelation 14:13:
"Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from
henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may
rest from their
labors; for their works follow with them."
2. For a complete and clear over-all perspective, we
need a further survey of relevant events and developments
in the New covenant era, between the first and second
comings of Christ, when the Old Covenant
"sabbath" was no longer binding, and
why not,
since all the
other commands of the Decalogue (Exodus 20:1-17)
were incorporated into the New Covenant law also. So we
shall start with why not binding, after
the following caution:
CAUTION: The reader may find some of the following
to be more tedious and technical than parts of the
foregoing, but he needs to know that each item is important
to understanding what might otherwise seem to be
conflicting bits of information here and there. At one
time, in the midst of a series of parables pertaining to
his coming kingdom (Matthew 13:1-58; Mark 4:1-34; Luke
8:4-15), Jesus stated: "So is the kingdom of God, as
if a man should cast seed upon the earth; and should sleep
and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and
grow, he knoweth not how. The earth beareth fruit of
herself; first the
blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But
when fruit is ripe, straightway he putteth forth the
sickle, because the harvest is come" (Mark
4:26-29).
This suggest successive phases of stages of the
kingdom, that need to be recognized if we are able to avoid
confusion. And elsewhere in the above mentioned series of
parables, "The seed is the word of God" (Luke 8 -
10), "the word of the kingdom" (Matthew 13:19);
and "the harvest is the end of the world"
(Matthew 13:39), when the wicked are "severed"
from among the righteous, and cast "into the furnace
of fire" (vs. 47-50) – which will be at the second
coming of Christ (Matthew 25:31-46) – when the righteous
shall "inherit the kingdom" (v.34) and enter
"into eternal life" (v. 46), "in the world
to come" (Mark 10:29-30; Luke 18:29-30) – their
"entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:11) – into "an
inheritance incorruptible. And undefiled, and that fadeth
not away, reserved in heaven for you … a salvation "to
the uttermost," as has previously been mentioned from
Hebrews 7:25.
In a nutshell, we shall discover (1) a preliminary stage
and (2) a fully-come phase of the kingdom of heaven
in this
world, between the first and second comings of
Christ; and then (3) a final stage (or rather the eternal
ongoingness of the heavenly phase) in the world to
come following the
end of the world – the first being probationary,
preparatory
to entering the third. We might also think of those
entering stage No.1 as being charter citizens of No.2 (if
faithful), and then the faithful citizens of the latter as
entering and inheriting No.3. in which they will enjoy the
"sabbath rest" that remains "for the people
of God," as promised in Hebrews 4:9 and noted
previously, as distinguished from the
"seventh-day" sabbath of Old covenant law but is
not a part of the New covenant law under Jesus Christ, as
already seen.
And now we are ready to notice why the seventh-day
sabbath is not a part of New Covenant law, before
proceeding to other relevant considerations.
a. As already well documented, the seventh-day sabbath had
been given to Israel according to the
flesh, and it alone, at Sinai, as a sign of the
covenant then being made by Jehovah with the people of
Israel, setting them apart and distinguishing them from the
rest of the nations of the world (Gentiles)., and was most appropriate
historically for that purpose.
But in Christ that distinction and separation no longer
exists. And the Old Covenant making and requiring such has
given way to a New Covenant that not only does not require them, but
obliterates
them -–embracing Gentiles as well as Jews, and on identical
terms, thus making them all to be one nation, a
spiritual
Israel (see Ephesians 2:11-22; Romans 2:28-29;
9:6-8; Galatians 3:26-29; 6:16, this last passage
specifically calling it "the Israel of God").
Jesus himself had said, "Other sheep [Gentiles]
have I [in purpose and prospect] which are not of this
[Jewish] fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear
my voice; and they shall become one flock [with Jewish
sheep], [having] one shepherd" – or, alternate
reading, "there shall be one flock, one shepherd"
John 10:21). Also, he had said, "And I, if I be lifted
up from the earth, will draw all men [Jews and
Gentiles] unto ,myself" (John 12:32).
And before his ascension, he commissioned that the
gospel be preached to all nationalities alike (Matthew
28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:46-47) – which it was,
"to the Jew first, and also to the Greek
[Gentile]" (Romans 1:160 – beginning in A.D. 34 to the
former (Acts 2), and apparently about A.D. 41 to the latter
(Acts10-11).
Therefore, to continue
to bind the sign of that Old Covenant between God and
Israel according to the flesh in the New Covenant era
(after Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension) would
be an anomaly – on par with
binding circumcision of the
flesh under the Old Covenant as a sign of the descendants
of Abraham according to the flesh, which Gentile Christians are
not. On the
other hand, all the commandments of
the Decalogue of the Old Covenant, except for the sabbath
commandment, would be as appropriate for Christians,
whether of Jewish or Gentile background, as they were for
fleshly Israel under the Old covenant – and have therefore
been incorporated into New Covenant law.
With that highly relevant reason we could again close our
study. But we shall continue with relevant events and developments in
connection with New Covenant era, between the first and
second coming of Christ, when the sabbath command of the
Old Covenant law ceased to be binding.
For said development and events will give a still better
perspective in some respects and help us to avoid some very
common errors. (Some repetition, but for different
emphasis, may be noticed.)
b. "The law and the prophets [representing the Old
Covenant] were until John [the Baptist, the forerunner of
Jesus]: from that time the gospel of the kingdom of God
[superseding the kingdom of fleshly Israel] is preached,
and every man entereth violently into it," said Jesus
(Luke 16:16). That is, those who entered do so against much
opposition. For, he also said: "Woe unto you lawyers!
For ye took away the key of knowledge: and them that were
entering in ye hindered" (Luke 11:52); also, "But
woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye
shut up the kingdom of heaven
against men: for ye enter not in yourselves, neither suffer
ye them that are entering in to enter" (Matthew
23:13).
c. That "entering," however, was only
into thepreliminary and
preparatory phase of the kingdom on earth, preached
first by John and then by Jesus as "at hand"
(Matthew 3:1-2; 4:1) – not yet fully come. For
that reason Jesus could say to the Pharisees who asked when
the kingdom of god would come, "the kingdom of god is
within you" (Luke 17:21), or "in the midst of
you," as in the margin of the American Standard
Version, or "among you," as the New English Bible
and some other versions have it – likely meaning among them
in the person of himself, its king-to-be, and maybe also
those already described as "entering" into it.
Yet he taught his disciple to pray, "Thy kingdom
come" (Matthew 6:10), because not yet fully come as
promised.
Later, however, six days before his
transfiguration, Jesus made two significant statements: (1)
To the apostle
Peter, after he had confessed him as "the
Christ, the son of the living God," saying, "…
upon this rock [evidently the truth Peter had confessed
about him] I will build my church; and … I will give unto
thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew
16:16-19). (2) Then to all his
apostles, saying, "There are some here of them
that stand by, who shall in no wise taste death [but Judas
Iscariot would, committing suicide], till they see the kingdom come
with power" (Mark 9:1; cf. Matthew 16:28) –
which occurred on Pentecost, forty days after his
resurrection and about ten days after his ascension (Acts
1:1-9 and Chapter 2), to be noticed more at length
later.
NOTE: (1) The "kingdom" spoken of many times
interchangeably as "kingdom of God" or
"kingdom of heaven," is also referred to as
Christ’s kingdom (see Matthew 16"28; Luke
1"31-32; 22:29-30; 23:42; John 18:36-37; Colossians
1:13; 2 Peter 2:11; Revelation 1:9), and is also called
"the kingdom of Christ and God" (Ephesians 5:5;
cf. Revelation 11:15) – with Christ sitting on "the
right hand of God [as co-regent]" (Mark 16:19; Acts
2:33; Romans 8:34; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 10:12; 1 Peter
3:22; Revelation 3:21).
Moreover, (2) The terms "church" and
"kingdom," occurring in consecutive verses
(Matthew 6:18 and 19), are also used interchangeably
because the members of one are the citizens of the other on
earth and in that sense are the same. Hence, in Colossians
1:13 the apostle Paul spoke of the "saints" at
Colossae (the "body" of Christ’s people and
therefore his "church" there (1:1,24) as having
been "translated [by God] … into the kingdom of the Son of
his love." And the apostle John, who addressed the
Book of Revelation to "the seven churches which are in
Asia" (1:4), also describes himself as "your
brother and partaker with you in the tribulation and
kingdom and
patience which are in Jesus" (v.9).
d. In the passage first mentioned above, "the law
and the prophets" were representatives of the
Old
Covenant between God and Israel (which was unto God
"a kingdom," Exodus 19:6 of whom David was its
most nearly ideal king, ruling over the
covenant people of
God on earth for God, and leading them to victory
over their enemies), of which covenant Moses was mediator
and the prophets were among other things, interpreters of
its law to the people. On the other hand, "the kingdom
of God" or "kingdom of heaven" mentioned in
the above and other New Testament texts, represents the
New
Covenant, of which Christ is the mediator (Hebrews
8:6; 9:15; 12:24), and under which he is king, ruling over the
people of God for God, and conquering enemies, as his
fleshly ancestor David did. His mother-to-be was promised,
"He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the
Most High: and the Lord God shall give him the throne of his father
David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob
[Israel] for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no
end" (Luke 1:32-33). (Compare also the Old Testament
prophecy of Isaiah 9:6-7).
e. Christ’s reign, however, would not be over
"Israel after the flesh" (cf. 1 Corinthians
10:18), but over spiritual Israel (cf. Romans 2:17-29;
4:1-12). And it would include all Gentiles as well as all
Israelites who would embrace the New Covenant made by
God with the "house of Israel and the house of
Judah" (Hebrews 8:8-12). That would be after (1) the
middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile had be
broken down "through the cross" of Christ, in
order to "create in himself one new man" as it
were (neither Jew nor Gentile according to the flesh, but
Christian, constituting spiritual Israel) , and (2)
nailed it
[Old Covenant law, distinguishing and separating Israelite
from Gentile] to the cross as it were (see
Ephesians 2:11-22; Colossians 2:8-15). That describes
something of the nature of the kingdom that John first and
then Jesus preached as being "at hand" (Matthew
3:1-2; 4:1).
f. As previously mentioned, only six days before
his transfiguration, Jesus said to his apostles,
"There are some here of them that stand by, who shall
in no wise taste death, till they see the kingdom of God come
with power" (Mark 9:1; cf. Matthew 16:28) – which
occurred on Pentecost after the crucifixion, resurrection ,
and ascension of Christ (see Acts 1:1-9, and Chapter 2).
That was approximately six months after the above
announcement of Jesus, and he had told the apostle Peter,
"I will give unto you the keys of the kingdom of
heaven" (Matthew
16:19), after Peter’s confession of him as "the
Christ, the Son of the living God." At that time,
Jesus had also said, "upon this rock [evidently the
truth Peter had confessed about him] I will build my
church" (vs.
16-18).
g. In harmony with Mark 9:1, mentioned above, in
which Jesus had said that some then present would not taste
death till seeing "the kingdom of God
come with
power," Luke in
Acts 1:1-9 reports that between "his passion [his
suffering and death, followed by his resurrection]"
and being "received up [his ascension into
heaven]," he charged his apostles "not to depart
from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father [of
the Holy Spirit as their comforter, or Helper, in his
stead, after he had gone from them into heaven (see John
14:16-17)], which, said he, ye heard from me: for John [the
Baptist] indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized in the
Holy Spirit not many days hence. …[and] ye shall receive
power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and
[being thus empowered] ye shall be my witnesses both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the
uttermost part of the earth."
The points to remember are: (1) Christ’s apostles
(except for Judas Iscariot) would see the kingdom
come; (2)
it would come with power; (3) they
themselves would receive power when the Holy Spirit had
come and
they had been "baptized" in it not many days
after Christ ascension. Therefore, when (3) had occurred,
items (1) and (2) would have had their fulfillment.
h. Accordingly, as recorded in Acts 2, when the
day of Pentecost was come, about ten days after the
ascension of Christ, and the apostles were all together in
one place, the following dramatic events occurred: (1)
"… suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a
rushing mighty wind," filling all the house where the
apostles were sitting. (2) "And there appeared unto
them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire; and … sat
upon each one of them." (3) "And they were
all filled with
the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues
[other languages] as the Spirit gave them
utterances."
i. And the apostle Peter, who had been given
"the keys of the kingdom of heaven," delivered
the keynote address of that beginning day, in the city of
Jerusalem, where their first labors would be for an
extended period of time. On that day "about
three thousand souls" responded. And from that day "The
Lord added to the church daily those who
were being saved" (Acts 2:27, New King James Version).
So, on the Pentecost day the "church" had been
established; the "kingdom of heaven" had
come. And
Peter’s Pentecost sermon of Acts 2:22-40 had in it further
points relevant to our present study, as we shall next
note.
j. In his sermon, the apostle Peter declared that
Christ had been "raised up" (from the dead) and
exalted to the right had of God in heaven; that he had
received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit,
responsible for the miraculous manifestations seen and
heard that day; and that he would "sit at
God’s right hand till his enemies are made the footstool of
his feet – Jesus having been made "both Lord
and Christ" (Acts 2:22-36).
In 1 Corinthians 15: 24-28,the apostle Paul later
expanded on the part we have underscored {and that he would
"sit" at God’s right hand till his enemies are
made the footstool of his feet}, as follows
"Then cometh
the end [that is, of time on the present earth and
of the earth itself, and therefore of the earthly phase of
the kingdom of heaven, but not of the kingdom itself. For
the latter is eternal and its glorious heavenly phase will
then be entered by its faithful citizens, per 2 Peter 1:11;
cf. Matthew 25:31-46; Acts 14:21-22; 2 Timothy 4:18],
when he shall
deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when
he shall have abolished all[opposing] rule and authority
and power. For he
must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his
feet. The last enemy to be abolished is death [by
the universal resurrection of the dead (Revelation20:13-20)
and the transforming of the bodies of living saints unto
incorruptible and immortal ones (1 Corinthians 15:50 -57)].
… And when all things have been subjected unto him, then
shall the Son also himself be subjected to him that did
subject all things unto him, that God may be all in
all" – as the Father has made the Son to be for the
present – with "all authority … in heaven and on
earth" (Matthew 28:18) – "angels and authorities
and powers being made subject unto him" (1 Peter
3:22).
That does not mean Christ will no longer reign in
any sense, for "the throne of God and of the Lamb
[Christ] shall be therein [that is, in the ‘holy city, new
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven’ to the ‘new earth’]:
and his servants shall serve him; … and they shall reign for
ever and ever" (Revelation 22:3-5) – they also
being co-regents as it were with him, see 3:21; cf. 2
Timothy 2:12). Though he will still be co-regent with the
Father as he is now (Revelation 3:21), his reign will not
be distinguished then as now by the assigned role of
conquering all enemies of the divine rule – that assignment
having then already been accomplished.
k. In his sermon on Pentecost, the apostle Peter
also quoted from David in Psalm 16:8-10, and then commented
as follows: "Brethren, may I say unto you freely of
the patriarch David, that he both
died and was buried, and his tomb is with us unto this day.
Being therefore a prophet [as well as king over Israel],
and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him,
that of the fruit
of his loins he would set one upon his throne; he
foreseeing this spake of the resurrection of
the Christ, that neither was he [‘his soul,’ v.27] left
unto Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This
Jesus did God raise up, whereof we all [Peter and the other
apostles] are witnesses. Being therefore by the right
hand of God exalted, and having received of the
father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath poured forth this,
which ye see and hear" (Acts 2:25-33).
In other words, God had raised Jesus from the dead
and exhaled him to his own right hand to "set"
him on the throne
of David, as promised both to David, as per the
above, and to Mary, the mother-to-be of his fleshly body
(Luke 1:16-33).
If that should seem strange because David reigned
on earth, and Christ would reign from heaven, it should be
recognized that the authority and
not the
location is
signified by the word "throne". Note the
following: "Now David the son of Jesse reigned over
Israel. And the time that he reigned over Israel was forty
years; seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty
and three years reigned in Jerusalem. And he
died in a good old age, …and Solomon his son reigned in his
stead" (1 Chronicles 29:26-28). Also: "Then
Solomon sat
on the throne of Jehovah as king instead
of David
his father" (v.33) – and it was in Jerusalem that Solomon
reigned.
Solomon’s throne was Jehovah’s throne, which he
occupied instead of David his father; therefore, David’s
throne was God’s throne, which he sat upon first at Hebron,
then in Jerusalem. And the throne Jesus occupies in heaven
is God’s throne. Which he occupies jointly with him, at his
right hand – where "of his kingdom there shall be no
end," according to promise to the virgin Mary (Luke
1:33), though the earthly phase of it would end, as already
noted.
l. As Solomon was a son of David and heir to his
throne, so was Christ according to the flesh many years
later. The last occupant of David’s throne before Christ
occupied it was Jehoiachin (2Kings 24:8) – also called
Jeconiah (1 Chronicles 3:16), and Coniah (Jeremiah 22:24) –
who was taken into Babylonian captivity by king
Nebuchadnezzar about 597 B.C., where he died about 37 years
later. Nebuchadnezzar had replaced him by Zedekiah, a
brother but not a son, who later rebelled and was also
taken into Babylonian captivity (2 Chronicles 36:10-21).
And to the prophet Jeremiah, God said of Coniah:
"Write thee this man childless, a man that shall not
prosper in his days; for no more shall a man of his seed
prosper, sitting
upon the throne of David, and ruling Judah"
(Jeremiah 22:30).
He was not childless in the sense of having no
prosperity, for in captivity he had a son Shealtiel, who
was one of the ancestors of Jesus (Matthew 1:12-16); but he
was childless in the sense of having no posterity to
succeed him "sitting on the throne of David, and
ruling Judah." Though Christ evidently succeeded him
to the throne of David, in accord with God’s decree he
did not rule in
Judah, but in heaven, and will never return to earth
for the purpose of ruling on David’s throne in Judah and
Jerusalem as many today teach.
m. Moreover, since Christ was to be a "high
priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek"
(Hebrews 6:20), as learned early on (p.2 above), he was to
be both king and priest, for Melchisedek
was "king of Salem[later
called Jerusalem], priest of God Most
High" (Hebrews 7:1). And in Zechariah 6:12-13,
believed to be prophetic of Christ, it is said that
"he shall be a priest upon his throne." However,
"if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at
all" (Hebrews 8:4), and was not made priest before
"suffering" on earth (Hebrews 5:7-10) and before
entering "within the veil [that is, into heaven
itself]" (Hebrews 7:17-20). That means he was not yet
king, and therefore not on the throne of David, until
after his
ascension into heaven – where he still is, and always will
be except for his second coming for judgment and to receive
his own into eternal glory with himself in the world to
come.
n. That accords with what was foreseen by the
prophet Daniel, namely, his ascension and receiving his
kingdom, as follows: "I saw in the night-visions, and
behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like a son
of man [cf. Acts 1:9-11], and he came even to the ancient
of days, and they brought him near before him. And there
was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all
the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: His
dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass
away, and his kingdom that which shall not be
destroyed" (Daniel 7:13-14).
o. It accords also with a parable that Jesus
spoke as he was nearing Jerusalem for the last week before
his crucifixion, as recorded in Luke 19:11-30, though the
latter covers more detail than the foregoing. For he spoke
it "because he was nigh unto Jerusalem, and because
they supposed that the kingdom of God was immediately to
appear" – the popular concept being that it
would be an earthly kingdom, that Rome would be defeated by
the Messiah, who would restore the kingdom to Israel, make
it world-wide, and occupy the throne of David again in
Jerusalem after more than 600 years as of then, which may
have been shared by Christ’s own apostles up to the time of
his ascension (Acts1:6).
"He said therefore, A certain nobleman went
into a far country, to receive for himself a kingdom, and
to return
would " (vs. 11-12) – (the return not having
been included in Daniel’s vision); and upon his return, he
had a reckoning with both his
servants and his enemies (vs. 13-30).
Christ himself was the nobleman, heaven the far
country, and the return would be his second coming –
described in partially similar parables as after "a
long time" (Luke 20:9; Matthew 25:19); also the
reckoning upon his return would be final and universal
judgment at the end of the world, with reward
for the righteous and punishment for the wicked to be
experienced in eternity.
The apostle Paul speaks of that as "his
appearing and his kingdom" (2 Timothy 4:1) – that is,
of his appearing and manifestation of his kingdom in
his and
its
heavenly glory. Matthew states it this way: "But when
the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the angels
with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory
[previously received], and before him shall be gathered all
nations" (that is, for judgment) – when the wicked
"shall go away into eternal punishment: but the
righteous into eternal life" (25:31-32, 46) –
"eternal life" being the experience of the
righteous in the heavenly phase of the kingdom, and
"eternal punishment" that of the wicked in the
lake of fire.
Other scriptures already noticed indicate that the
kingdom would be received by Christ shortly upon arrival in
heaven after his death, resurrection, and ascension, when
he would receive "all authority … in heaven and on
earth" as had been promised him (Matthew
28:19), and was
indicated on Pentecost after his ascension as having
already been accomplished. This means, then, that
any references after that to the kingdom as yet future (as
Acts 14:23; 2 Timothy 4:1, 18; and 2 Peter 1:11, already
mentioned) have to do with it, not on earth between his
first and second comings, but to its eternal continuation
in heavenly glory in the world to come – when and where
"THERE REMAINETH A SABBATH REST FOR THE PEOPLE OF
GOD" Hebrews 4:8) – prefigured by the seventh-day
sabbath of Israel according to the flesh, but not retained
under the New covenant mediated by Christ for spiritual
Israel (consisting of both Jews and Gentiles according to
the flesh, who accept it).Cecil N. Wright
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