The Cross and the Kingdom

Mar 25, 2010 by Kevin

This is part five in a series called “What Every Christian Needs to Know about the Kingdom.”

The cross is the centerpiece of human history. It is a crucial pivot point that changed the world forever. To truly understand the kingdom, we must learn how and why the cross changed everything.

When Christians discuss the significance of the cross, we commonly jump right to the personal benefits. We talk about how Jesus paid the penalty for our sin and rebellion, so that we can one day experience eternal life. This is true, as far as it goes, and we can count on it. However, the Bible paints a much broader picture than one focused on individual salvation.

Not only is the cross the centerpiece of human history, it is also the centerpiece of God’s kingdom on earth. When the nation of Israel was being judged and sent into captivity (see part three), the prophets promised that a day would come when the penalty for its sins would be fully paid and its exile would end. The way that this redemption would happen would be for Israel to go through an even more intense time of suffering and woe, after which God would proclaim that they had endured enough and that their curse had been removed.

Though most people at the time seem to have missed it, Isaiah at least understood that this suffering would be endured by one person, the Messiah, who would take upon himself all the pain and suffering of Israel’s punishment. By doing so, he would inaugurate the coming age, the age of shalom, where God was to make right everything that had gone wrong in the world (see Is. 40–55, commonly known as the servant songs).

On the cross, Jesus paved the way for a new Israel, and, in fact, a new kind of humanity. Those who repent of their sin and rebellion against God and place their faith in Jesus are brought into this new kingdom, the kingdom of God. One of the benefits of being part of this new covenant is eternal life in the kingdom, but this (if you can imagine it) is a secondary benefit. God’s primary goal at the cross, was to deal with the sin problem, so he could form a new nation, a new kingdom, that would represent him to the world and participate, by the power of the Spirit, in its redemption.

There is much, much more that can be said about the cross. I have only scratched the surface. But we must not say less than this: The cross was God’s means of establishing a new covenant, a new kingdom, and a new kind of humanity, redeemed by Christ’s suffering.

The cross, though, as crucial as it is, would lose all its significance if not for the resurrection. That is where we will turn next.

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