The Spine of Scripture: God’s Kingdom from Eden to Eternity
A short primer outlining the teleological framework of what the gospel is about—and what it is doing. The Spine of Scripture asks: why does the Bible consistently call it the “gospel of the kingdom”…and why isn’t that how we think about the gospel today?
I start at the locus classicus of the gospel message, John 3:16, and show that it is fundamentally about God transforming Adam’s ruined kingdom into his own eternal one. I then go back to Genesis to explain the origin of this kingdom, demonstrating that the image of God in Adam is actually representative rulership and sonship. From there, I trace the history of this kingdom through the fall in Eden to the disinheritance at Babel—all the way to the occupation by Satan’s forces by the time of Jesus. This then sets up a comparison between the way that the New Testament preaches the gospel, and the way modern evangelicals do.
My conclusion is that the gospel of the New Testament is fundamentally the message of the triumph of Jesus as king of the cosmos, which he now reigns from the right hand of God, impressing the patterns of heaven into the earth, through his body the Church. The Great Commission is therefore a directive to conquer the lands ruled by Satan, in the name of the now-reigning King, Jesus; a directive which consciously mimics the dominion mandate given to Adam, and should be seen as God’s end-game in retaking the whole earth as his kingdom—a plan that will succeed through “the power of God for salvation” by the time Jesus returns.