Schreiner, Patrick. The Kingdom of God and the Glory of the Cross. Short Studies in Biblical Theology 6. Wheaton: Crossway, 2018. 143pp excluding end matter.
Summary and Critique
This is one of the best books in the SSBT series. The Kingdom of God is clearly one of the major themes throughout the entire Bible and one that must be understood in order to understand the Bible. Schreiner clearly and compellingly explains how the Kingdom of God is power, people, and place. He stays true to his goal of not overemphasising one aspect over the other, especially “place.”
The biggest weakness of the entire book comes at the end of the book in chapter 6 where he fails to clearly state where the Kingdom of God is located (the place).
Summary of Each Chapter
Introduction: The Importance of the Kingdom
The kingdom of God (KOG) is the thread the stitches the entire biblical canon together; it is the thematic framework for the narrative of Scripture (13–14). Schreiner will argue that the KOG has three realities: power, people, and place (17–19). Most evangelicals neglect people and place, lifting power to a preeminent position. Thus, this book “will focus on how people and place must be included with power in a definition of kingdom” (24).
Schreiner offers the following definition of kingdom:
“The kingdom is the King’s power over the King’s people in the King’s place”
(Schreiner, KOG, 18).
This definition could be expanded to include the king’s presence and the king’s law(18, note 9). Thus, a fuller definition of kingdom could be: the kingdom is the King’s power over the King’s people in the presence of the king in the King’s place under the king’s law.
Schreiner’s definition comes from Graeme Goldsworthy’s definition of kingdom as “God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule” (The Goldsworthy Trilogy, 53–54). Bruce Walke also has a similar saying, “A nation consists of a common people, sharing a common land, submissive to a common law, and having a common ruler” (“The Kingdom of God in Biblical Theology,” 18).
Part 1: Kingdom in the Old Testament
Chapter 1: The Law (Reviving Hope in the Kingdom)
The concept of kingdom started in the garden of Eden and has always concerned people, place, and power (30). “The earth was divinely designated to serve as the place of the kingdom for the people of the kingdom” (30). The following is a great summary of the entire chapter:
“God is the King of the cosmos, and he made his subjects [Adam and Eve] to be rulers with him, but they failed. Pseudo-kingdoms arose after the fall. Cain’s city continued the downward movement after Eden, and the Tower of Babel was the rebellious metropolis after the new creation with Noah. With Abraham, kingdom hope was revived. God promised that Abraham’s children would rule with a great multitude of people in a place God was preparing for them. A coming King would complete this kingdom mission, so the righteous seed of Abraham had to be preserved. Yahweh preserved his people by bringing them into and then out of Egypt. Once they were out, he gave them the law at Mount Sinai, instructing them through a covenant how they could ascend the mountain of the Lord. At the center of this plan stood the idea that someone must take their place” (42).
Chapter 2: The Prophets (Foreshadowing the Kingdom)
In the prophets the kingdom is foreshadowed. This is true when Israel enters the promised land; the kingdom has not been consummated as they might expect; rather the kingdom is foreshadowed in the promised land (48). The purpose of the promised land was to be a home for God’s people where they could commune with God and be a light to the nations through a right relationship with God and with one another (50). This did not happen, however, because of sin. When David was crowned king, the promises given to Abrahm were reaffirmed with a new promise: David’s dynasty would last forever; the Davidic kingdom also foreshadows the kingdom waiting to be inaugurated in the NT by Jesus (51–52).
The major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel) each speak of a transformed people and a renewed place, looking forward to the consummated kingdom. The minor prophets focus on kingdom through covenant and material blessings.
Chapter 3: The Writings (Life in the Kingdom)
“Each piece of Wisdom Literature teaches the citizens of the kingdom to walk in the ways of the Torah, like their virtuous king, so they can be established in their land. The Wisdom Literature focuses on the king (power), the Torah (law for people), and the land (place)” (67). The Wisdom Literature “focuses on what it means to flourish, to be blessed, to prosper—to live this good life. Death is avoided and kingdom life is attained in three ways: (1) acquiring wisdom and following the Torah, (2) fearing the Lord, and (3) submitting to suffering” (69).
The message of Ezra-Nehemiah, Chronicles, Esther, and Daniel is that “Despite the exile, God is still establishing his kingdom through—even in spite of—the people” (75).
Part 2: Kingdom in the New Testament
Chapter 4: The Gospels (Embodying the Kingdom)
Everything Jesus says or does relates to the kingdom and how it is at hand “because Jesus is the kingdom. Jesus alone truly fulfills the demands of the kingdom. He personalizes it, embodies it, and takes his seat on the throne” (87, italics original).
Each Gospel highlights a distinctive aspect of the kingdom of God:
- Matthew focuses on the place of the kingdom. “Jesus reorders the place of the earth to make it look more like heaven” (87).
- Mark emphasizes the King’s authority.
- Luke directs his gaze to those who will inherit the kingdom (the weak, poor, neglected, sinners, etc.)
- John presents the kingdom through the lens of life, even eternal life.
All three promises to Abraham (land, a great nation, and blessing) were fulfilled in Jesus: “Jesus restored the land (Matthew), Jesus formed a new community (Luke), and Jesus was the promised ruler (Mark). A good summary statement of this truth is that those who submit to the King can have life (John), and the means that life comes to us is through the King’s death” (99–100).
Chapter 5: Acts and the Epistles (Kingdom Community)
Acts and the NT letters “trace the expansion, advance, and hope of the King’s community” (101). They essentially answer the question ‘what happens in the kingdom now that the King is gone?’
The book of Acts “shows that the risen Lord’s power is given to people through the Holy Spirit, and they spread this message to every place (‘the end of the earth,’ Acts 1:8)” (102). Paul’s letters “are kingdom dispatches. He writes ofChrist the King, to the people of the King, in the current manifestation of the kingdom, the church” (107–08). The General Epistles treat “community life implications” that arise because of Christ’s enthronement as King and Lord (115).
Chapter 6: Revelation (Achieving the Kingdom Goal)
Schreiner twice says that the role of Jesus in the book of Revelation is “to establish God’s kingdom on earth” (124, 128). The entire earth/cosmos now becomes the location of the kingdom of God with a city (the New Jerusalem) as its centre (128–30).
The section on “The Place of God” (128–30) was not entirely clear what the location (place) of the Kingdom of God is. Is it earth? The cosmos? Or just the New Jerusalem? For a book that focused heavily on place, the section on the place/location of the kingdom should have been crystal clear.
Conclusion: Kingdom through Cross
“Through Jesus the Messiah, God reclaims his rule over Israel and the world. But God reclaims his rule paradoxically through the cross” (136). “If the kingdom is the goal, then the cross is the means” (136). The cross is how people enter the entrance to the kingdom, which is a place (140).
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