I am re-posting something I wrote 2 years ago about the tension between the Already AND Not Yet dimensions of the Kingdom of God. Have been thinking a lot about being caught in this tension in recent months in light of violence, suffering, disease, and premature death.
“You made them a little lower than the angels;
you crowned them with glory and honor
and put everything under their feet.”
In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them.
Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them.
But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” (Hebrews 2:7-9)
There is a tension between the Kingdom of God which has arrived and the kingdom of Satan which seems to be still very present and powerful in our current world. God created us to be his ambassadors, his co-workers, joining him on his mission. But we handed that authority over to Satan in the fall. However, when Jesus came he defeated Satan in principle, breaking the back of sin, hell, and death. But we are in an in-between time. If we place our faith in Jesus, trusting him as Lord, we have a new identity, we have been reconciled to the Father, and we now have taken back the authority Satan stole in, by and through Jesus Christ. But there is still evil, suffering, sickness, disease, and death.
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This passage in Hebrews says at present “…we do not see everything subject…” to us. But we fix our eyes on Jesus, and are now empowered to be hell plunderers, manifesting the beauty, hope, and love of the kingdom of God now. We manifest the joy and peace of the Kingdom of God in the present. When Jesus returns the kingdom will come fully into blossoming, fruition, manifestation, etc.
See Greg Boyd’s Easter sermon on the resurrection called “Defiant Flower”
http://whchurch.org/blog/4354/defiant-flower
Listen to the song ‘Tension’ by my friend and sister Nina Landis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGoulvnt87k
Thy Kingdom Come 