This is another in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon.com.
In previous columns, we looked at the nature of Christ’s return. He’s coming personally, physically, victoriously, powerfully, and suddenly. Now, we turn our attention to the reasons for his return. First, Christ returns to establish his kingdom in fullness.
So, what is the kingdom of God? Simply stated, the kingdom is God’s reign, his authority to rule over all. Jesus taught primarily about the nature of the kingdom so his followers would understand that in his first coming, he inaugurated God’s kingdom. Through the Holy Spirit, he’s expanding the kingdom. And one day, he returns to bring the complete and final consummation of the kingdom, at which time he judges all people, creates new heavens and a new earth, and eradicates sin and its stain.
The king’s agenda
As we look for the return of the king, it may help to briefly survey his unfinished business.
1. The king returns in glory.
In his ascension, Jesus reclaims the glory he shared with the Father before the world existed (John 17:5). His coronation takes place as he ascends to the throne and sits at the Father’s right hand, with all authority given to him in heaven and earth (Matt. 28:18; Mark 16:19; Acts 2:33; Rom. 8:34; Heb. 12:2). When he returns, he bears that same divine glory as “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” (Rev. 19:16).
2. The king sits on the throne of David.
Today, Jesus is seated on the throne in heaven, at the Father’s right hand (Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 12:2). But when he returns to earth in glory, he brings the throne of God with him (Dan. 2:44; Matt. 25:31; Luke 1:32; Rev. 22:1, 3). Then, Jesus’ prayer that the Father’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven is fulfilled (Matt. 6:10). The king arrives and sits on David’s throne, fulfilling God’s promises to Abraham and David. And with the king, the kingdom comes in fullness.
3. The king judges.
All people, as well as Satan and evil spirits, are subject to final judgment with everlasting consequences. And in all cases, Jesus rules as judge (John 5:22). Believers are judged and rewarded for their faithful stewardship. The wicked are judged and punished in varying degrees for their works against the king and his kingdom. Satan and the angels who rebelled with him are cast into the lake of fire, a place prepared especially for them (Matt. 25:41).
Unlike even the most noble earthly kings, Jesus judges in perfect righteousness (Acts 17:30-31; 2 Tim. 4:8; Rev. 19:11). His final judgment evaluates human and angelic works, resulting in everlasting rewards and punishments.
4. The king purges his kingdom.
When Jesus returns, he not only resurrects and judges all people, he removes evil from the earth. Old and New Testament saints receive glorified bodies, similar to the body Jesus bears when he rises from the dead. These new bodies no longer suffer the effects of the Fall. They’re not prone to sickness, frailty, aging, and death. Rather, they are what Paul describes as “spiritual” bodies – bodies fully empowered and preserved by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 15:44). They are bodies fit for everlasting life with Jesus in a perfectly restored earth.
At the same time, people who have rejected God’s gracious offer of salvation are sent away, out of the kingdom and into outer darkness (Matt. 7:21-23; 22:1-14; 25:31-46; Rev. 20:11-15; 21:8, 27; 22:15). Though the wicked continue to exist for all eternity, they are prevented from entering the kingdom of God.
Satan and the angels who rebelled with him also are banished to the lake of fire (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 20:10). The “god of this age” (2 Cor. 4:4) may no longer lay claim to the people and elements of his rogue kingdom; rather, he shares outer darkness with them.
Finally, Jesus expunges sin and its stain from the created order. Peter describes this coming event as a purging by fire – a complete global cleansing comparable to the flood in Noah’s day, yet better by far because it permanently banishes sin from God’s kingdom (2 Pet. 3:5-13).
5. The king restores Eden.
Before the Fall, earth served as an intersection between the unseen realm, where God dwells, and the physical world he created. Adam and Eve enjoyed intimate, face-to-face communion with God, who evidently met with them in the cool of the evening and walked alongside them (see Gen. 3:8).
But sin ruined everything. Adam and Eve are exiled from Eden. The earth comes under a curse, grudgingly yielding its fruit. Rather than bear a promised redeemer, our first parents birth a murderer. And before long, there’s hardly a righteous person to be found on the face of the earth. Even the flood doesn’t improve the wickedness of the human heart. As Paul notes, the whole creation groans with labor pains, waiting to be set free from the bondage of decay (Rom. 8:21-22).
But new heavens and a new earth are coming (2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21-22; cf. Isa. 65:17; 66:22). In what Jesus calls “the renewal of all things” (Matt. 19:28), he cleanses creation of sin and its stain and makes all things new (Rev. 21:5).
The Greek word John uses for “new” when he describes “a new heaven and a new earth” is kainos, which means not only recently made, or fresh, but “of a new kind, unprecedented” (Rev. 21:1).6 In other words, Jesus doesn’t annihilate the world he created and start again from scratch; he redeems the world, clearing out all the effects of the Fall and restoring the sinless perfection of Eden.
When the King of kings returns, he sets everything right.
Next: All who are in the graves