The Kingdom of God is the “already/not yet” Kingdom. It has “already” come in Christ, breaking into the fallen kingdom of the world, and yet will come in fullness only when Christ returns. In that sense, it is “not yet.” So we live out of the Kingdom now, but we will not live fully in it until the King ushers it in in fullness.

Professor David Briones got at this “already/not yet” reality nicely when he wrote:

According to Scripture, believers are

• • alreadyadopted in Christ (Romans 8:15), but not yet adopted (Romans 8:23);
  • alreadyredeemed in Christ (Ephesians 1:7), but not yet redeemed (Ephesians 4:30);
  • alreadysanctified in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:2), but not yet sanctified (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24);
  • alreadysaved in Christ (Ephesians 2:8), but not yet saved (Romans 5:9);
  • alreadyraised with Christ (Ephesians 2:6), but not yet raised (1 Corinthians 15:52).

We live in a theological tension…Underlying this theological tension is a theological structure: the already–not yet framework. It is, according to Cullmann, “the silent presupposition that lies behind all that [the New Testament] says.” The New Testament authors thought, wrote, and lived through the grid of this biblical framework or mindset. It determined the way they spoke about God’s dealings in this world in light of the world to come.

If we don’t understand this mindset, the theological tension we live in will become a theological disaster. We will inevitably misread Scripture. And if we misread Scripture, we will live misled lives.[1]

I believe this is very well said and very true! We most hold to an “already/not yet” mindset. We previously considered the “already” mindset when we considered the strange customs of the Kingdom. Let us now consider the “not yet” dynamic and how Jesus spoke of the Kingdom as not having arrived in fullness yet.

Jesus spoke of the Kingdom as “not yet” when He corrected those who thought it was only “already.”

In Luke 19, in setting up one of Jesus’ parables, Luke makes an interesting aside:

¹¹ As they heard these things, he proceeded to tell a parable, because he was near to Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. ¹² He said therefore, “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.”

The popular conception of the Kingdom of God in first century Judaism was that a kingly figure would come and purge the holy city and the land of the Gentiles and establish an earthly rule. So the city of Jerusalem was laden with all manner of Kingdom assumptions in the popular mindset. It is telling, then, that, as Luke points out, Jesus took the occasion of their proximity to the city to tell a parable about a figure who “went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.” This parable speaks of the second coming. It also speaks of the Kingdom. In other words, the Kingdom is not only “already.” It is also “not yet.” It has yet to come in fullness until the Son returns with it.

If the Kingdom of God is spoken of only as “already” and not also as “not yet” then two realities are likely to happen:

• The belief that the church is the Kingdom.
• The belief that the church can make the world into the Kingdom.

On the first point, Anglican theologian Gerald Bray has written about “[t]he progressive identification of the church with the kingdom of God on earth” in medieval Christianity. He points out that when the institutional church became associated with the Kingdom of God, then the belief took hold that to be outside of the church was to be outside of Christ. Furthermore, “[o]ne important effect of the identification of church and kingdom [was] that things that had previously been regarded as secular matters, outside the church’s competence, were no longer left to Caesar’s jurisdiction.” In other words, the church came increasingly take over or attempt to take over the secular sphere.[2]

You can see the early seeds of this in the famous statement by Cyprian in the 3^rd century: extra ecclesiam nulla salus, “Outside the church there is no salvation.” That is a phrase that can be understood and debated in a few different ways, but what it came to mean, effectively, was the identification of the institutional church with the kingdom. So, in that sense, to be outside of the institutional church was to be outside of Christ.

But Christ the King is bigger than His church, as is His Kingdom. In the sense that all who are in Christ are part of His invisible body, the church, there is a kind of truth in it. But the invisible body of Christ is not coterminous with the institutional expression of it. Beware of churches that claim that if you are not in them you are not saved! The church is not the Kingdom, though the church is a very important part of the Kingdom.

On the second point—the belief that the church can make the world the Kingdom—this is the path of liberal Christianity, though it can be found on the right as well. In this way of thinking, the world can become the Kingdom of God through social action and so social action becomes the gospel. There is no longer any need to call men to trust in the Christ who is coming. We need only work to make the world better in the name of the Christ who is as present as He will be. And the answer as to how to make the world better is inevitably collapsed into the various political templates offered the church at any given time and in any given place. So that, without fail, making the world into the Kingdom means alignment with this or that platform of this or that political party.

This is tragic.

This is disastrous.

In the first case, the church becomes the gospel.

In the second, social action becomes the gospel.

But the “already/not yet” understanding of the Kingdom guards us against these things. The Kingdom, yes, is breaking into the world, and the church is the key manner through which this becomes visible. But the Kingdom has not yet come in fullness, so the church dare not claim to be the Kingdom!

And the Kingdom is impacting society, yes, and we should busy ourselves with this! But the Kingdom that is “not yet” reminds us that the transformation of society from within will never elevate it to the status of the Kingdom, for the Kingdom will break in definitively only with the second coming of Christ!

Jesus spoke of the Kingdom as “not yet” when He spoke of it as the final, eternal reality.

Jesus also spoke of the Kingdom in future, final, eternal terms, contrasting it with a purely “already” understanding of it. So, in Mark 14

²⁴ And he said to them, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. ²⁵ Truly, I say to you, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”

Notice the emphasis on the futurity of the Kingdom: “until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” That is a day that was not fully present. That was a day that was to come. The Kingdom was “already” but the Kingdom was “not yet.”

Jesus did not hold what is called an “over-realized eschatology.” Over-realized eschatology is a theological error in which the future or “not-yet” aspects of the Christian life are assumed to have largely or completely already happened or to be largely or completely already present.

The idea that the Kingdom is only “already” and not “not yet” would be an example of an over-realized eschatology. The futurity of the Kingdom must not be pushed back into the presence of the Kingdom just as the presence of the Kingdom must not diminished by the futurity of the Kingdom.

Jesus’ words in Mark 14 establish that there is a “not yet” aspect to the Kingdom.

Jesus spoke of the Kingdom as “not yet” when he contrasted it with eternal separation from God.

The same principle is established in the way that Jesus spoke of those who would not enter the Kingdom. In Matthew 7, Jesus said:

²¹ “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

In other words, it is possible to not enter the Kingdom. But this is an eschatological picture of judgment to come. For the individual, it is a picture of post-mortem reality. In other words, this is clearly a “not yet” reality for the living and an ultimate “not yet” eschatological reality for the world at large.

The same can be seen in Luke 13.

²⁸ In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God but you yourselves cast out. ²⁹ And people will come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.

This is clearly eschatological in nature. This is the picture of the culmination of all things, final judgment for those who reject the Lord and salvation for God’s people.

“Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets” are “in the kingdom of God.”

The wicked are “cast out.”

And the nations gather “from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the kingdom of God.”

This is final judgment and final restoration. This is a “not yet” picture of the Kingdom.

Jesus spoke of the Kingdom as “not yet” when He spoke of it as the inheritance of His people.

The “not yet-ness” of the Kingdom can also be seen in the language of inheritance, of the people of God as heirs. James, in James 2, writes:

⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?

Inheritances—that which heirs receive—are “not yet” by definition. There is a figure in the New Testament who asked for his inheritance early, and we call him “prodigal.” While the Kingdom has come with the coming of Christ, we must not demand that it be the fully “already” Kingdom. It is not. It is “already” and “not yet.” It is the inheritance of the people of God. It is what we will receive!

Why, then, does the “not yet” aspect of the Kingdom matter? It matters because it keeps us from despairing. It reminds us, in the midst of our Kingdom labors, that the Kingdom that has already come has not yet fully come. So when you work and work and work to feed the hungry and the hungry keep coming and coming, you do not lose heart. Because one of these days King Jesus will show up and all hunger will end.

The “not yet” aspect of the Kingdom keeps us from the despair we would feel if what we see really is all of the Kingdom we are going to get! What a despairing thought! If the Kingdom is only “already” and not “not yet,” then what kind of Kingdom do we really have?

But if the Kingdom is “already” and “not yet,” then we can trust in the thrilling hope that something we cannot imagine is coming! The “not yet-ness” of the Kingdom gives us endurance and perspective when we struggle to see the “already-ness” of the Kingdom.

The day will come when the Kingdom comes in fullness. And that day will come when the King comes in power.

 

[1] https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/already-not-yet

[2] Bray, Gerald. God Has Spoken. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), p.547–48.