The Gospel Shape of Scripture

Listen as D. A. Carson speaks on the topic of Biblical theology in this address from The Gospel Coalition sermon library.

It’s a huge privilege for me to join you here in New England. Ben Peays, the executive director of The Gospel Coalition, was saying to me just few moments ago, “It is wonderful to watch the Coalition springing up with meetings and gospel-centered teaching and preaching and corporate worship in many parts of the country, and now, not least in New England.”

Advertise on TGC

The topic assigned me, The Gospel Shape of Scripture, is both too easy and too difficult. It’s too easy in that, transparently, it’s patently obvious one can turn to many passages of Scripture to show that the Scripture itself is saturated with the gospel. But it’s difficult, also, in the sense that one scarcely knows where to begin and end with a topic that sweeping.

In one sense, the topic can be simplistic. God … creation … fall … redemption … new heaven and new earth. That’s the Bible storyline. And it turns on redemption in the gospel. Mind you, if you put it that way, you’ve left out much mention of the prophets and Wisdom Literature and the place of the law and what apocalyptic literature is doing in there and all kinds of other things, but it could also be too comprehensive.

If you’re not careful, you can be in danger of saying that everything in the Bible is the gospel, and then no matter what you touch in the Bible, you say, “Well, it’s the gospel. It’s the gospel.” And it’s not. In fact, you begin to lose the gospel as soon as you start saying everything is the gospel.

Of course, the title given me, The Gospel Shape of Scripture, is careful not to identify the gospel with all of Scripture, but to speak of the gospel shape of Scripture, which I take to mean that all of Scripture receives its focus, its shape, its balance and proportion, its direction from the contribution it makes to what is of paramount importance, the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When Scripture is read aright, you see the gospel not only in those passages that speak explicitly of the gospel, but in the very shape of the Bible, in the way its narratives and themes and emphases and different forms of literature, different voices, all hang together. Now how am I supposed to go about showing you that in 45 or 50 minutes?

The first step is to begin with the gospel. I do this to make sure we’re all on the same page there. The gospel is news. It’s good news apart from the way those who do not receive it with faith experience it. It is essentially good news, and what you do with news is announce it. That’s why there is so much emphasis in Scripture on preaching, teaching, and bearing witness. What you do with news is announce it.

And the substance of this news is the good news of what God has done in Christ Jesus supremely through his cross and resurrection to call out for himself a people of his own name and so transform them that they are his portion in the new heaven and the new earth, the New Jerusalem, transformed resurrection existence, the home of righteousness.

The gospel is a very big category. The gospel is not some little thing that sneaks people into the kingdom, tips them in as it were, and then after that you take all your discipleship courses. After that, you find out 16 ways to be happy though married. After that, you find 14 ways to be good American citizens and raise nice children. And after that, you find out what to do with your money in some nice little course. It’s none of that, none of that.

The gospel is the big category, and under that comes evangelism, discipleship, conformity to Christ, knowledge of Scripture, and so on. It’s the big category, the good news of what God has done, and as that works out in the power of the gift of the Spirit, as that works out in the transforming of our minds, the renewing of our minds, as that works out in God’s providential ruling of all things to bring about all of his good purposes, we see this good news transforming the people of God into the image of God’s dear Son.

Next we want to trace out the theme of kingdom in Scripture. I cannot possibly survey the whole or attempt a full biblical theology; even a survey would keep you here for many, many hours. So I have decided to run through large swaths of Scripture, tracing out one theme, and then at the end, I’ll give you some hints to show you how this theme is tied to a whole lot of other themes as well, and all of them drive in toward the gospel. I’m going to chose the theme of the kingdom. I do this for two reasons.

The first reason is that it’s much more manageable in attempting a full sweeping biblical theology. The theme of the kingdom is one of about 20 or so that drive through the whole Scripture and which together constitute the substance of biblical theology. There are another 60 or 70 minor themes, relatively minor, but about 20 big ones drive through Scripture, and kingdom is one of them.

The second reason I have chosen this theme is that it constitutes, in part, a response to those today who are arguing that there are, in effect, two gospels. One popular writer talks about a soterian gospel; that is, the gospel that Paul preaches, all about expiation and propitiation, the atonement, and things like that. (Soter comes from the word savior.) The second is a kingdom gospel; that is, a gospel where you’re concerned about kingdom ethics and kingdom living and kingdom concern for the poor and kingdom righteousness.

In Paul you get the soterian gospel, and in the Gospels, especially the Synoptic Gospels, you get the kingdom gospel. That is an increasingly common view, and I am persuaded it is profoundly mistaken. So let me begin by trying to track the kingdom through the Scripture. We’re going to be looking at a lot of Scripture texts this morning, but I’m going to begin by reading one passage, 2 Samuel, chapter 7, the first 17 verses, and then we shall run right through Scripture.

“After the king was settled in his palace and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, he said to Nathan the prophet, ‘Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.’ Nathan replied to the king, ‘Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the Lord is with you.’

But that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying: ‘Go and tell my servant David, “This is what the Lord says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, ‘Why have you not built me a house of cedar?’ ”

‘Now then, tell my servant David, “This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men on earth.

And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies.’ ” The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you:

When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son.

When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by human beings, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.” ’ Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation.”

This is the Word of the Lord.

Let me begin with some important biblical distinctions before we attempt to sweep through the Old Testament and to sweep through the New then end with some pastoral theological reflections. First of all, some …

1. Important biblical distinctions

A) Dynamic versus static

There is one word, kingdom, which covers both what we mean by kingdom and what we mean by reign. You can speak of the kingdom of Israel, and you realize that it is a nation state with a king ruling over it with geographical borders in the same way that you can speak of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia today or the United Kingdom. It is a nation.

But far more commonly, kingdom is better rendered reign, and it’s talking of God’s dynamic rule rather than tracing out the locus. The same word, both in Hebrew and in Greek, covers both meanings and you have to judge which one it is by the context.

B) Providential sovereignty versus the kingdom under which there is life

Sometimes references to the kingdom of God are equivalent to speaking of his providential sovereignty, and sometimes references to the kingdom of God refer to that aspect of the kingdom under which there is life. There are many passages to which we could refer.

Consider this passage from Daniel. Daniel, chapter 4, verse 3. Nebuchadnezzar is speaking. “How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; his dominion endures from generation to generation.” You see, it’s speaking of God’s sweeping, sovereign reign. You’re in that kingdom whether you like it or not.

You don’t have to enter that kingdom; by existing, you are in that kingdom. You don’t have to be born again to see or enter that kingdom; you are in that kingdom whether you’re a Buddhist, a Muslim, an atheist, a secularist, a Christian, or a Jehovah’s Witness; it doesn’t matter. You’re in that kingdom. That kingdom is inescapable. Many times that theme surfaces in the Scripture.

Think, for example, of this passage from Psalm 145. Verse 1: “I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts. They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty—and I will meditate on your wonderful works.”

Verse 13: “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations.” On the other hand, also in Daniel, but this time now in chapter 2, verse 44, Daniel interprets to Nebuchadnezzar the significance of one of his dreams, and he says, “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever.”

Clearly this is not speaking of God’s sweeping sovereignty. God’s sweeping sovereignty doesn’t have to be set up; it’s already there. You can’t speak of God’s sweeping sovereignty coming. It is invariable, it is inescapable, and that kingdom comes along and crushes other claimants to majesty. It crushes other claimants to kingship, and eventually it becomes the sole king dominion, the sole reign.

Similarly in the New Testament, you can look at the parable of the wheat and the tares. The parable of the wheat and the tares says that the kingdom is like a man who plants seed, but the Devil comes in and plants tares, weeds. So you have in this one kingdom wheat and weeds, and all of this still remains the kingdom.

God’s sovereignty is over the whole lot. Over against Jews who expected God’s kingdom to come with a big bang, God is saying, “No, no. It’s not going to be like that; it’s going to come in measure now with good seed being thrown onto the ground and producing good fruit, but meanwhile, the Devil is still sowing bad seed, and only at the end will it get sorted out.” So here is still a picture of God’s sovereignty.

On the other hand, in John 3, unless you are born again, you cannot see or enter the kingdom of God. In that sense, you’re not talking about all of God’s sovereignty; you’re talking about that subset under which there is life. After Jesus rises from the dead he says, “All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth.” That’s sweeping. But there’s another element in that one that we’ll come to in due course. Another distinction is …

C) Absolute versus constitutional

Of course, most of us in this hall are Americans. So we’re familiar with republican government. We are not too keen on kings. The last one we had, George III, didn’t work out all that well. Therefore, if we think of kingship we tend to think of, perhaps, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, but Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is a constitutional monarch.

She has precisely two legal powers besides whatever moral suasion she has and despite the various functions she has as head of state. She has precisely two legal powers, and if she exercised either one of them without sanction of her prime minister, there would be a constitutional crisis, a national election, and the government would get returned with an even greater majority. That’s what would happen.

So when we think of kingship, if we think about it at all, and when we think of monarchy, our minds tend to gravitate to golden-encrusted carriages at royal weddings, pomp and ceremony, and that sort of thing, but in the ancient world monarchy was associated with rule, absolute rule. Think the kingdom of Saudi Arabia rather than the United Kingdom. In that regard, then, the king is simultaneously the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch.

We’re just not used to thinking in those terms. We have a nice separation of powers. But there was the king in ancient Israel and the King, God himself, who is the Supreme Court. The King passes the legislation, the King rules. That’s what kings do … they reign and they rule, and that is what you must bear in mind constantly when you understand the biblical passages that speak of kingship. Now for the last distinction to be made, which you must bear in mind as you read the various passages.

D) Future versus inaugurated

Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” That’s future oriented; that is, it’s not being done yet. Now in one sense, God’s reign is being done perfectly. He is sovereign. You cannot escape his providential reign. Whatever he wants to do, he does.

Yet, in another sense, in this subset of the kingdom under which there is life, we’re waiting for that kingdom still to dawn; it’s being contested now. Oh, in one sense, it’s already here. In another sense, we are waiting for it to come. It is inaugurated, but it is not yet consummated.

We see Jesus claiming all authority is his in heaven and on earth, and all of God’s sovereignty is currently mediated through him. But according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, he is reigning in such a way that his will is being contested at front after front until he knocks down all of his opponents, and the last enemy to be destroyed is death itself. Then this mediatorial function to his kingdom; that is, his rule exercising all of God’s sovereignty to crush all the enemies until the consummation arrives.… That mediatorial function will end. There will be no more enemies.

So Christians have learned to think of the already and the not yet. In one sense, Christ is already reigning. In one sense, we can be born again and enter the kingdom and see the kingdom now, and in another sense, we’re still crying with the church in every generation, “Your kingdom come.”

Now unless you remember all of these polarities all the time, it is easy to make mistakes in the interpretation of Scripture. But once you bear those polarities in mind, you see that in passage after passage after passage the texts slot into these categories and make a great deal of sense. Those are the categories that are simply assumed and developed again and again.

Now let me run through the Old Testament rather quickly. Obviously, we’re not going to have time to probe every Old Testament text, but we’re going to probe a few of them. When I was a boy, we had sword drills. I think they’re just about gone now, but the aim was to look up passages as quickly as you possibly can. If you’ve never had a sword drill, now is your chance.

Begin with creation. The word kingdom is not used in Genesis 1, but what you see is God powerfully reigning by his word. No constitutional monarch, this. “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” He rules by his powerful word. He even brings things that did not exist into being by his powerful word.

He reigns. He is already the King in the very act of creation. Of course, you don’t read too far into the Old Testament before you find that God sovereignly calls Abraham and constitutes a new covenant people. This covenant people become a national covenant people in connection with the Exodus. In Exodus 19, we read these words:

“On the first day of the third month after the Israelites left Egypt—on that very day—they came to the Desert of Sinai. […] Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, ‘This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests.” ’ ”

Now clearly in that context the kingdom is not focusing on God’s reign, although in the background is God’s saving reign under which there is life for this people, but the people themselves are called a kingdom of priests. That’s the locus in which God is exercising this saving reign. It defines who these saved people are, and that terminology is picked up and applied to Christians in 1 Peter 2:5 and Revelation 1:6. In that sense, the covenant people of God are his kingdom, a kingdom of priests.

But God foresees a time in dealing with the Israelites after they have entered into the Promised Land when they will have, when they will need, a king … a human king. So instructions are given in Deuteronomy, chapter 17, verse 14. “When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, ‘Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us,’ be sure to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from among your own fellow Israelites.”

This may sound strange, indeed, that that should have to be specified, until you read something of the history of Europe, and then you discover how the royal families of Europe so intermingled that when one nation was lacking in a king, it could come from a royal family from quite another country. Some of the kings of England could barely speak English; they spoke German, for example.

That is not to be the way it is in Israel. They are supposed to be true-blood Israelites, just as I can’t be an American president; I wasn’t born here. They’ve got to be true-blue Americans born here. Well, so also the Israelites. They had to be true-blood Israelites and belong to the people without any desire to bring them to some other sovereignty.

“Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not an Israelite. The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself …” Read, tanks. “… or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the Lord has told you, ‘You are not to go back that way again.’ He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray.”

Not only because you’re breaking the initial picture of marriage mandated in creation itself, but because kings regularly married princesses from other surrounding petty kingdoms in order to build treaties. At that point, you’re compromising the uniqueness of the people of God, as Solomon eventually did and started building temples for his wives in support of their favorites gods and compromised the integrity of godly faith in Jerusalem. “He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.”

That was a kind of anticipation of Lord Acton’s famous dictum, “All power corrupts; but absolute power corrupts absolutely.” “When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law …” Now whether this law refers to the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, or just to Deuteronomy or some part of it, I’m not quite sure, but there were no printing presses. There were no copy machines. There were no PDF files.

The only way you made a copy was by taking out a quill pen and actually making a copy, word by word, word by word. And this king, his first duty is precisely to do that from a master copy owned by the priests. “… he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life …” He is to have his devotions from it, and that means it must be written with a certain amount of clarity.

It can’t be scribbled off and completely illegible. It is going to be his reading copy. “… all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel.”

Now what is going on here? Who is the king? God or this human appointee? Well, what you discover is those who act like God in some dimension or another are said to be sons of God. So, Jesus says in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.” That is not telling you how you become a Christian; make peace and become a Christian.

It’s presupposing that God is the supreme peacemaker, and insofar as you make peace, you’re acting like God, and thus, show yourself in some measure to belong to the God family. So also if you become king under God, you show yourself to belong to the God family so far as rulers go. But that means you are supposed to do what God wants. What God wants has been disclosed in revelation, which is exactly why copying it out and reading it daily is supposed to be part of the king’s primary responsibility.

God reigns with justice, so the king of Israel is to be a just ruler, a just judge. God provides only good laws, and the king is supposed to enforce those good laws. God rules with equity, and the human king, insofar as he is imitating God, also rules with equity, and thus, shows himself to be son of God. Now son of God, in fact, can be used in quite a lot of different ways, just as kingdom can be used in quite a lot of different ways.

But that’s why I read the passage to you a few moments ago from 2 Samuel, chapter 7, the passage with which I began. When God speaks of his promise to David, that is the language he uses. “The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you …” 2 Samuel 7:11. A house; that is, a household, a dynasty. There’s a pun here. David wants to build a house; that is, a temple for God. But God wants to build a house for David; that is, a dynasty.

“When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you …” Your own flesh and blood. “… and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name …” That is, he, the heir, will in fact establish the temple, the house in that sense. “… and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son.”

Now this does not mean that this human king does exactly what God does in every dimension. There are ways in which we are to imitate God and ways in which we can’t imitate God and ways in which we mustn’t try to imitate God. The texts of Scripture say, “Be holy, for I am holy.” They do not say, “Be omnipotent, for I am omnipotent.”

But insofar as this king is exercising kingly functions, pursuing justice, equity, the mind and will of God, righteousness, good legislation, all the rest, then he is acting like God. “I will be his father, and he will be my son.” Is that referring to Jesus? Well, not directly, because the next line reads, “When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by human beings, with floggings inflicted by human hands.”

Jesus doesn’t do any wrong. Texts of Scripture remind us again and again he was without sin. This is a reference to Solomon. What God says is when he does what is wrong, what happened to Saul won’t happen to him. God destroyed any possibility that Saul would have a dynasty, but in the case of David’s line, it would be protected with human, temporal punishments, but no more.

“But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.” Now logically speaking there’re only two ways in which this could be fulfilled. They are not mentioned here, but there are only two.

One is to have succession after succession after succession in the Davidic line, world without end. The other is to have, eventually, a king in the succession who himself rules forever and ever. That’s not mentioned here, but later Old Testament prophecies become rich with this vision. For example, in words that we recite every Christmas season, that we sing with Handel’s “Messiah,” quoting Isaiah 9, we read,

“Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress … in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.”

On the one hand, we’re told of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom. This is the Davidic king in the Davidic line. On the other hand, we are told, “And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

Here is a vision of kingship that outstrips any mere David or any mere Saul or any mere Josiah or any mere Hezekiah. That’s eight centuries before Christ. Then, a text like this from Ezekiel 34, now six centuries before Christ. God is against the shepherds of Israel; that is, a generic term that covers all of their rulers: priestly rulers, kingly rulers, the aristocracy.

“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?’ ” And then he berates them in many, many ways, and eventually then, God says, verse 10,

“ ‘I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.’ For this is what the Sovereign Lord says …” Get this, about 25 times he says things like this. “ ‘I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep.

I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered.… I will bring them out from the nations.… I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel.… I will tend them in a good pasture.… I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak … the strong I will destroy.… I will shepherd the flock with justice.… I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats.’ ”

About 25 times, and then he says, “I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. “Which for any thinking person surely must make you ask, “What is the relationship between Yahweh doing all of this and David?” The only reasonable answer that I can come up with is the same one Isaiah came to two centuries earlier. Though in the line of David, he is also the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

You have in Old Testament times these adumbrations of incarnation. If you have not read a good book on the shepherd theme, I warmly recommend the book by Tim Laniak, Shepherds After My Own Heart, and recall, not only that shepherd often stands as a metaphor for God and for other rulers, but shepherd is the word that we know from the Latin root as pastor.

One more Old Testament passage. We could cite many more, but one more. Micah, chapter 5, verse 2. This passage becomes important when magi come in Matthew, chapter 2 and ask, “Where is he to be born who is called king of the Jews?” And the religious and biblical authorities say, “Bethlehem,” and they quote Micah 5:2.

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Here is an anticipation, in other words, of a king in David’s line who is, nevertheless, identified with Yahweh himself, who is eventually coming … not yet here, eventually coming … reflecting the very reign of God.

It’s still a subset under which there is life of God’s total sovereign reign, which is utterly inescapable, and thus, there is this pulsing anticipation along this axis … though there are other axes … from the Old Testament to the New Testament of a coming kingdom, a coming reign, a coming powerful figure with perfect justice in David’s line who is, nevertheless, the Everlasting Father, the Mighty God.

Then we turn to the New Testament. Here the references are thick on the ground. Keep asking this question in the next few minutes as I run through some passages.… When does Jesus become King? You come to the first chapter of the New Testament, and you stumble across this genealogy.

The whole genealogy is configured into three 14s, with the central 14 being the years of the Davidic monarchy under David. Before that, David has not yet come to the throne. After that, in the third 14, then you have the years following the exile when the last Davidic king on the throne is carted off to Babylon, and there is no more Davidic king on the throne in Jerusalem until you turn to the New Testament pages.

In other words, three 14s, and the central one is all about David. Not only so, but those 14 generations are themselves significant. In English, and in most languages today, we have one sign for letters, so there is an A, and then a B, and then a D, and then another sign for numbers. There is a 1, a 2, a 3, and so forth. We have separate symbols for letters and for numbers.

But in the ancient world, they didn’t do that. So an A is an A in literary contexts, but it’s a 1 in numeric contexts. All letters have number values. That means that it’s possible to look at a word and calculate its numeric value. We’d never think to do that in English unless you’re some sort of small-time code breaker or something like that.

But in the ancient world, it was an obvious thing to do. In fact, graffiti have been found in ancient Rome that say things like, “I love her whose number is 566.” Now there could be a lot of people with the number 566, depending on how the letters add up. Nevertheless, that’s common in the ancient world.

You know, there are two ways of spelling David in Hebrew, but one is dalet, vav, dalet: 4 plus 6 plus 4, and 4 plus 6 plus 4 equals 14. That might sound strange to us, but it’s a symbol-laden way that Matthew has of getting across how God has ordained things to focus on David and his line. The mark of the Beast, 666, is almost certainly some kind of gematria, this way of counting numbers.

So already, therefore, in Matthew 1 the focus is on David, and in case we haven’t got it, in the list reading through the genealogy, we’re told in Matthew 1:17, “Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.”

Then in the following verses of chapter 1, “You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Jesus is the Greek equivalent of Joshua, which means Yahweh saves. So this Davidic king you will give the name Yahweh saves, and that’s placarded right at the front of the book, which means everything you read in Matthew’s gospel is under this flag: “Yahweh saves. That’s who Jesus is. Yahweh saves. That’s who Jesus is.”

When we read the Sermon on the Mount, we’re supposed to remember, these are the words of instruction from Yahweh saves. This is what it looks like when he saves his people from their sins. And then when you turn to Matthew 8 and 9 and you have this collection of miracles where demons are cast out and the sick are healed, you are to remember these are the deeds of Yahweh saves.

But now you find more and more things being intertwined. Before we look at how they’re intertwined in Matthew 8, pause at Matthew 3. There, John the Baptist begins his preaching. What does he preach according to Matthew, chapter 3? “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” That is, you are on the cusp, on the very dawning of this arrival of the kingdom. When Jesus, in chapter 4, begins his preaching in public, the first words reported of him in Matthew’s gospel are, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

The same words, but they mean something different now. John the Baptist says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near,” as the forerunner, but this forerunner points out who Jesus is. When Jesus says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near,” it’s pretty obvious pretty quickly in this gospel that he is the King. Sometimes explicitly so.

When he tells, for example, the parable of the sheep and the goats, it’s very obvious in the text in Matthew, chapter 25, verses 31 and following that he himself is the King. So sometimes kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven pictures God the Father as the King, and sometimes he himself is presented as the King by his own teaching as Matthew has set it all up according to the genealogy in the introduction right at the very beginning.

Then in chapter 8 where you have these miracles taking place, where the word of the king is enough to accomplish anything, you stumble across some very important things. When he heals, for example, the servant of the centurion, the centurion says,

“ ‘Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, “Go,” and he goes; and that one, “Come,” and he comes. I say to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it.’ When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, ‘Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.’ ”

Why? Why does he say that? The point is that when the centurion says to a lowly foot soldier, “Go and do this,” it’s not just one man telling another man; it’s Rome speaking, because through the chain of command, that centurion has the authority of the tribune, and the tribune has authority all the way back to Caesar.

When a foot soldier defies the centurion, he’s defying Rome, and the centurion sees that as some kind of analogy. When Jesus speaks, God speaks. You don’t have to come; just speak, and it will be done. My foot soldiers can’t defy me because I speak for Rome. The demons, sickness, later on storms, anything, it can’t defy you because you speak for God.

Then it gets more enmeshed yet. After he has performed these miracles, we’re told in verses 14–17, “When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.’ ”

Where is that quotation from? That quotation is from Isaiah 53. “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, and included in the fruit of all he does he took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” Do you see what Matthew is saying by quoting this passage here?

He is saying that when Jesus exercises his kingly authority to cast out demons and bear our iniquities and triumph over them he does so in the light of the cross that has not yet taken place. Jesus is not casting out demons simply as an act of authority. He is doing so as a function of the cross that is still around the corner. Thus, the notion of Jesus’ kingly authority is now being tied to his suffering servant work.

Just as there is effect that flows onward in history from the cross, so there is effect that flows backward in history from the cross, so that when Jesus was casting out those demons and healing those sick people, according to Matthew, it was not merely a display of power (though it was that), it was also part of the effluent that came from the cross which was still around the corner. But there are other passages that tie together Jesus’ kingship and the cross, many of them. Let me pick up one more. Matthew 20:20:

“Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. ‘What is it you want?’ he asked. She said, ‘Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.’ ” She was still thinking of a political kingdom. “There are 12 apostles, and it would be nice if my two boys had the two primary jobs, maybe secretary of state and minister of defense, you know. Could you arrange that?”

“ ‘You don’t know what you are asking,’ Jesus said to them. ‘Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?’ ” By which he was referring to his cross. “ ‘We can,’ they answered.” Not having a clue what he was talking about, and with remarkable aplomb. “We can. Leave it to us,” they say. “Jesus said to them …” Here he has to have a twinkle in his eye.

“ ‘You will indeed drink from my cup …’ ” One of them would become the first apostolic martyr. The other would be banished and end his life in exile on a little island. “ ‘… but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father.’ When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers.” Not of course because they thought they were wrong, but only because they didn’t get their dibs in first.

“Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ ”

Now it’s this and parallel passages that have driven many of us to speak of servant leadership. Well, what does it mean? It certainly does not mean that Jesus loses his kingly authority. The same Jesus says, “You call me Master and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am, but then why don’t you do what I say?” This is not in any sense stepping back from his authority. What’s the difference between his authority and the authority of the rulers of this world?

It’s this: The rulers of this world, they may well start off making vast promises about how they want to the be servant of the people and they will pursue the good of the people, but sooner or later, sooner or later, because we’re a fallen, damned breed, power corrupts, and people, whether in high positions in companies or any hierarchy at all, sooner or later begin to think they deserve to be there, they are better than other people, they are not to be questioned. To use “Jesus” language, they lord it over people.

By contrast, Jesus in the exercise of his reign seeks their good so passionately, so unqualifiedly that it takes him to the cross. And thus, for the first three centuries of the Christian church, Christians talked with a wry ironic smile of Jesus reigning from the cross. Of course, Matthew plays with those themes as well.

When he describes the crucifixion, he uses irony again and again. In Matthew, chapter 27, irony is a figure of speech when it’s at its purest, which says one thing but means exactly the opposite. “ ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ ” Matthew 27:29 and following. That’s what the soldiers say to Jesus as they beat him, put a crown of thorns on his head, and laugh at him. “ ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ ”

But they don’t mean he’s the king of the Jews; they mean he’s a scumbag, that he’s a disgusting traitor, that he’s weak and he’s foolish and he’s stupid and he’s condemned. He’s about to be crucified. “ ‘Hail, king of the Jews!’ ” They think this is ironic barracks-room humor, but while they are using irony to laugh at Jesus, as Matthew writes this, Matthew knows, and the readers know, and God knows that there is a deeper irony, for Jesus is the King of the Jews, and he does reign from the cross, and this is how he exercises his reign to redeem his own people.

To pit kingship against substitutionary atonement is simply blind to the very structures of the gospel narrative. I wish I had time to tease this out in the rest of the Gospels. There is Jesus in the light of passages like Ezekiel 34 where Yahweh promises to be the shepherd of his people, Israel, there is Jesus saying, “I am the good shepherd,” and then adding, “The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.”

And then after he rises from the dead, he says, “All authority is given to me in heaven and on earth.” All authority. All of the sweep of God’s sovereignty, but now it’s dawning in some new mediatorial way that is driving toward the consummation, and under this authority is that subset of God’s kingdom under which there is life transformation. New birth. Unless you’re born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.

So when does Jesus become King? Well, in one sense, he was born a king. “Where is he who was born King of the Jews?” the magi ask. In another sense, he begins his kingly rule when he begins his public ministration, when the Spirit falls upon him at his baptism and God the Father says, “This is my Son whom I love,” which is picking up language from 2 Samuel 7; it begins there.

In one sense, it’s Jesus hanging on the cross, and yet in another sense, it’s Jesus after the resurrection claiming that all authority is his. But although all of these things reflect Jesus’ role as King, in the New Testament they cluster more around his death, burial, resurrection, and exaltation than any other theme, which is why in the first distinctly Christian sermon reported, on the day of Pentecost, we read these words,

“Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay.

God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God …” The right hand of kingly authority and power. “… he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear.” Small wonder that we come to the book of Revelation and read, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever.”

2. Pastoral theological reflections

Let me take a couple of minutes to conclude with some reflections that stem from this survey.

A) It is folly to set the gospel of the kingdom over against Paul’s so-called soterian gospel.

The kingdom motif in the Gospels.… I focused on Matthew. I could have done something similar with Mark, Luke, or John. The kingdom motif is full of the cross. It’s full of Jesus’ death. This same Jesus who is the King says on the night he is betrayed, “This is the blood of the new covenant, shed for many for the remission of sins.”

Never pit the kingdom against the cross. Similarly, the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians, chapter 6 says that the unclean, the unworthy, will not enter the kingdom. It’s not as if Paul says nothing about the kingdom. All of it is focused on Jesus and why he came.

B) It is important to see how the kingdom motif is only one theme that can fruitfully be traced through all of Scripture.

Others include sin, tabernacle/temple, priesthood, Passover (Christ our Passover has been crucified for us. From 1 Corinthians, again), the Jewish feasts (John’s gospel shows how Jesus is also the fulfillment, for example, of the Feast of Tabernacles), the Exodus motif, garden, Jerusalem, covenant, promise, sonship, and more.

Had we time, we could trace these out and discover all of them are tied to the Old Testament and to the Gospels and to the Epistles, and, in being tied to all three, they bring you to Jesus and the gospel. We’ve done it very briefly, for a small smattering of references connected with kingdom, but all of these can be traced through.

They are the tendons, the ligaments that tie together the very books and themes and structures of all of Scripture, and they bring us to Jesus and the gospel. It is folly to set the gospel of the kingdom against Paul’s so-called soterian gospel, it is important to see how the kingdom motif is only one theme that can fruitfully be traced through Scriptures, and finally …

C) It is wisdom to uncover how many of these themes are, in fact, intertwined.

Go back to the passage that I read at the beginning, 2 Samuel, chapter 7. Clearly there is the Davidic king there, but in 2 Samuel, chapter 6, the temple is brought to Jerusalem. When David becomes king, he rules in Hebron for 7 years. After 7 years, he moves his capital to Jerusalem, and now you have the Jerusalem theme and, for the first time, the tabernacle theme, and the kingly dynasty all in Jerusalem, all intertwined.

All three of those … temple/tabernacle, Jerusalem, and kingship … run through Scripture and become intertwined. The kingly theme is tied to the sonship theme. In 1 Corinthians 15, he must reign until he has put the last enemy under his feet, and then, when the last enemy is destroyed, he delivers the kingdom to his heavenly Father; that is, his mediatorial kingship comes to an end. So you have kingship and mediation, and that’s in a chapter where he is the resurrected Lord, which is the fruit of his cross at the beginning of the chapter.

The gospel is tied to the cross. “This is the gospel,” he says. “Christ died for sinners and rose again the third day according to the Scripture.” All of these things become tied together. All of these gather around the gospel and support the gospel and explicate the gospel. Do you not see? The whole Scripture is shaped by the gospel. I simply cannot think of a better way of concluding than by reading these verses,

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.” Let us pray.

Open our eyes, merciful heavenly Father, so that our vision of the gospel will not be picky or piecemeal but will begin to glimpse the sweeping scope, the drama of redemption, the unimaginable grace that brought our Maker and Judge to this world to become one of us, to be our Savior, our suffering servant, our risen King, our priest, our temple, our seal of the new covenant, our brother, our shepherd, our Redeemer.

O Lord God, give us grace to see the King in his beauty and worship him with thanksgiving, adoration, crushing humility, freeing awe, and holy joy. To the praise of his glorious grace we beg of it. In Jesus’ name, amen.