The Reign of God | Theology

by Thomas Scarborough

The “reign of God” is a theme that is dealt with unusually comprehensively in the book “Missional Church”. The text under review represents one chapter: “Missional Vocation: Called and Sent to Represent the Reign of God”. This was drafted by George R. Hunsberger, with input from several leading theologians. Mostly, when one encounters the term “reign of God”, its meaning is assumed, or merely suggested through the context. This represents a rare elaboration of the term. I shall seek here merely to draw out what the text itself communicates, and not to fill in what it does not.

The Churches of North America are in a “predicament”, write the authors, and need “a dramatically new vision”. Two things have “become quite clear”: the Churches have been “dislocated from their prior social role”, and have “accommodated to the American way of life”. How, therefore, is the Church “to give relevant expression and faithful embodiment to the gospel?” The answer: it needs to rediscover its essence “in its origins in the gospel”, and this is “eschatological in character”. That is, the gospel by its character points to the last things. It is “centered profoundly . . . in the announcement that the reign of God is at hand.”

A reign, of course, is not precisely the same as a kingdom. “Reign” is represented in the New Testament by the Greek word “hegemonia” (e.g. Lk. 3:1), while “kingdom” is represented by the Greek word “basileia” (e.g. Mk. 1:15). What therefore is the reason for substituting “reign” for “kingdom”? The authors maintain that the reign of God “better captures . . . the dynamic meaning of basileia”. The word “kingdom . . . too easily identifies the basileia with a temporal entity like Christendom or particular structures of the church”. It is “too static, political, and archaic”. The reign of God, therefore, represents something that is in progression.

With this in mind, the reign of God has to do with “God’s intended future for the world”. It is “God’s mission to reconcile the creation”. It envisions “a world characterized by peace, justice, and celebration”. This may be summarised as “shalom” (broadly: peace). This “shalom”, however, should not be perceived as “a social project” that we ourselves establish, fashion, or bring about. Rather the reign of God is something that we “receive and enter”, and it is “accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus”, and “joined . . . to the presence of the Holy Spirit, who enables it”. That is, it is God’s project, of which we ourselves may become a part.

The Church, on the other hand, represents the “harbinger of the new humanity that lives in genuine community”. That is, it is a forerunner of what the world is to anticipate. The Church is to “show forth the horizon of the coming world of shalom — peace, justice, and joy in the Holy Spirit”. It is to “represent what God fully intends to bring about at the world’s consummation”. Further, it is to “make clear where the real issues of life lie”. Its task is “verbalizing the gospel of Jesus”. In short, the Church is to “represent God’s reign as its community, its servant, and its messenger”.

What, then, are the implications for the daily life of the Church? From a practical point of view, “daily life becomes a discipline of asking how one may move more squarely into the realm of God’s reign and how one may welcome and receive it into the fabric of life this day more than ever before”. “This profound social change within the small community of Christians represents God’s purpose for the world”. Seen in the North American context, “this point is especially crucial for churches that have suffered the loss of focus, and loss of a sense of what lies at the center, the loss of their soul.”

In the past — in fact “many times through the church’s history” — the Church has “lost its sense of this gospel of the reign of God”, which is its “crucial reference point”. It did this by separating “the news of the reign of God from God’s provision for humanity’s salvation”. This made salvation a “private event” by separating “personal salvation” from “the advent of God’s healing reign over all the world”. Humanity’s salvation, therefore, has to do with an “advent”, or a coming, over all the world. “The reign of God is an inhabiting for which we are destined”, and no one should make “the prideful assertion of knowing ourselves to be in the reign of God” in the present.

The authors further expand on what it should mean to “receive and enter” the reign of God. They point out that this touches on “the further issues of repentance and faith”. What, therefore, are repentance and faith? Repentance is “a turning from other hopes and loyalties” — that is, hopes and loyalties other than God’s intended future for the world. Faith is defined as “a turning . . . from sinful rejections of God’s rule as well as carefree disdain for God’s mercy and care”. Further, with this in mind, evangelism is defined as “an invitation of companionship”, and to witness to the “hope that there is a God who reigns in love and intends the good of the whole earth”.

While the above might seem vague, or to beg more clarity, the authors themselves are not much more forthcoming. They state: “Exactly what is this reign of God, then, that Jesus so routinely announces? . . . A definitive answer to the question, What is the reign of God? cannot be given. But we can at least sketch some of its contours . . .” This, then, was a closer look at some of those contours, which I did not wish to misrepresent by adding too much of my own to the original text.

CITATION OF REFERENCE

Guder, Darrel L. (Ed.) 1998 Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Publisher Price: US$26. ISBN 0-8028-4350-6.

Thomas Scarborough is a Congregational minister in Cape Town. He is currently studying for a Master’s degree through Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. “Missional Church” is required reading in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree.