The Kingdom of God is at Hand

Living in the light of God's saving rule

“Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mark 1:14–15)

---

Jesus’ ministry opened on a note of extreme eschatological significance — which is the theologically sophisticated (and slightly dorky) way of saying that His ministry started with a bang. It started with an uproarious proclamation that turned the world on its head, an announcement that held implications for both this and all future ages: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” 

The Lord’s announcement contains several parts. The first — “the time is fulfilled” — is a statement regarding history, and refers to the fact that a time previously appointed by God has now reached its conclusion; a previous age has come to completion. In other words, according to Jesus, the commencement of His public ministry marks the overlap of ages: a former age is coming to completion and a new one is dawning. Jesus’ arrival therefore isn’t simply one more event on the historical horizon, one more dusty turn in the endless motion of world occurrences. Rather, Jesus’ coming marks the start of something new entirely. The time is fulfilled! And the world is pregnant with anticipation. 

What has arrived with the coming of Christ, and indeed in the person of Christ Himself, is the kingdom of God. As Jesus says, the kingdom is “at hand”: it is near, close, immanent. What this means is that all of the Old Testament expectations concerning the rule and reign of God — all the promises concerning the victory over the serpent (Gen. 3:15), worldwide blessing through Abraham (Gen. 12:3), universal dominion through a Davidic son (2 Sam. 7:13–14), the promise of a new covenant, a new exodus, and a new creation — are now fulfilled in Jesus.¹ The Old Testament hope of a world restored through the saving rule of God has burst onto the historical scene in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The point I want to draw from this is that we who stand on this side of the incarnation, cross, and resurrection ought to live with a sense of eschatological purpose and destiny. We ought to live, as Paul said, like those upon whom the end of the ages has come (1 Cor. 10:11) — because this is precisely what has happened. There are no chapters left in God’s redemptive story, no eras waiting still to be fulfilled. The world has entered its final moment, and all that now remains is the conclusion: the final judgement and the restoration of all things in a new heavens and new earth. 

Practically, this means we ought to attend carefully to the final part of our Lord’s announcement, the command to repent and believe. If the world has indeed undergone the kind of drastic, time-altering transformation Jesus announced, there is only one response that is appropriate. Renouncing the futile pattern of the world and its rebellion, we must embrace by faith the kingdom that has dawned in the incarnate Son of God. 

So if you’re a mother, raise your children like they’ll one day storm Pelennor Fields with Theoden and the Rohirrim. If you’re a husband, love your wife like it’s the end of the world. If you’re a pastor, preach the Word to your people as if they teeter each day on the brink of eternity. And if you’re a layperson, offer your work to God as a humble sacrifice of praise and thanks. 

Whatever your hand finds to do, in other words, do it in a way that adorns the gospel and accords with the nature of God and His coming kingdom. This, really, is the heart of what it means to repent and believe.

So get busy, Christian. And insofar as all these are offered to God in humble faith, may He bless our efforts.

1.  This summary is adapted from Schreiner, The King in His Beauty, 455–56.