Figure 2. Five stages in the growth of the spiritual seed.
We are now prepared to complete the diagram of the two seeds. There are really five stages in the sequence, instead of the two which we originally showed…
In the Old Testament, God established both the natural and the spiritual seeds. The Old Testament provides numerous object lessons in His repeated deliverance of His people from the wicked. He also gave the law to teach men of His righteousness, of man's sinfulness, and (in the sacrificial system) of the salvation which He had prepared for His elect in Christ. This served as an important prelude to the coming of our Lord to lay down His life for His sheep.
In Galatians 3:24, Paul tells us that the Law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, and in the subsequent verses, he teaches that this period of childhood ended when Christ died at Calvary. We may thus think of this first stage as the childhood of the spiritual seed… a time of preparation.
An important characteristic of this first stage is that the spiritual seed was entirely contained within the natural seed. Scripture sometimes refers to the spiritual seed as a "remnant" of the natural seed…
Romans 9:27 – Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, "THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BE LIKE THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED;Stage 2 - Gathering.Romans 11:5 – In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice.
When Peter took the gospel to Cornelius, a Gentile, the other apostles responded by glorifying the Lord and saying "God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life." (Acts 11:18). God then appointed Paul to be an apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 13:2). Paul took his responsibility very seriously, and after his missionary journey, reported back to the church at Antioch, saying "how [God] had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.." (Acts 14:27). This began a period of Gentile evangelization and ingathering.
We have already examined the principal passages which address this from a doctrinal perspective. To summarize, God is now grafting the Gentiles into Israel. He refers to the Gentiles as branches from a wild olive tree, and refers to Israel as a cultivated olive tree. The Gentiles do not become ethnic Jews, but have been grafted into the spiritual seed, the community of believers, God's elect. This present age is a time when God is reaching outside the natural seed, gathering men from all nations into the spiritual seed to be heirs of Christ's coming kingdom.
Stage 3 - Establishment.
When Christ returns to earth, God will pour out His Spirit upon the Jewish nation, and they will repent of their part in murdering the Messiah (Zechariah 12:9-14). Paul tells us, in Romans 11:25-29, that God will one day remove the sin and blindness from ethnic Israel, and that He will do it because "they are beloved for the sake of the fathers" (Romans 11:28), and because "the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable." (Romans 11:29).
Figure 2. Five stages in the growth of the spiritual seed.
So, when Christ returns again, to set up His kingdom on earth, He will cause the Jewish people to turn to Him in true faith and repentance. At that time, the entire natural seed will be brought into the spiritual seed, which is a reversal of the relationship in stage 1, when the spiritual seed was but a remnant of the natural seed. Thus, the establishment of Christ's kingdom commences with the fulfillment of His promise to save ethnic Israel and to make them a blessing to the nations.
Stage 4 - Expansion.
Paul speaks of a future time of Israel's fullness, which will result in even greater riches for the Gentiles than they are receiving during the present age of ingathering.
During the present age, Israel is under a judgment of partial blindness which results in the riches of salvation for the Gentiles…
Romans 11:12 – Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!This present period of blindness will end when Christ returns to establish His earthly kingdom. As we have observed in stage 3, God will pour out His Spirit upon the entire Jewish nation at that time and they will repent and turn to Christ in faith. Notice that the apostle says, in Romans 11:12, that the "fulfillment" of Israel will result in even greater riches for the Gentiles than the present blindness has provided.
God promised Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed through his seed…
Genesis 12:3 – And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."Zechariah spoke of a day in which the Gentiles would flock to the Jews to learn of God…
Zechariah 8:23 – "Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."'"In contrast, the present-day blessing of the Gentiles through the blinding of Israel is declared to be a divine mystery… something which had never before been revealed by God…
Romans 11:25 – For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;God had never prophesied that Gentiles would be saved in this way. All the Old Testament passages predicting the future salvation of the Gentiles taught that the Gentiles would be blessed through Israel, as a result of Israel receiving the blessings promised to her.
In summary, when our Lord returns to earth and saves the Jewish nation, He will make them a blessing to all nations, and His kingdom will spread throughout the earth as Gentiles come to Christ through the ministry of the Jewish people. This will be a time of expansion of Christ's kingdom.
Stage 5 - Consummation.
The last stage results from the final judgment and the creation of new heavens and a new earth. This is the eternal state, in which there will be no sin and no curse. It represents the final and complete fulfillment of God's purpose to redeem and glorify His people. It is this time to which God's people have looked with confident hope and eager anticipation throughout the ages. Hence, it may properly be termed the consummation of human history.
Figure 3. Chronology of Redemptive History.
Eventful Boundaries separating the Five Stages.
Major events mark the boundaries between these stages…
The Lord's first coming.
The division between the 1st and 2nd stages is marked by the Lord's first coming… His incarnation, earthly ministry, death, resurrection and ascension, as well as the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the ingrafting of the Gentiles.
The Lord's second coming.
The 3rd stage occurs quickly when Christ returns to earth to establish His earthly kingdom, to destroy the armies of the ungodly and imprison Satan, and to "turn away ungodliness from Jacob". This also forms the division between stages 2 and 4.
The Creation of the New Heavens and New Earth.
The 4th and 5th stages are separated by the loosing of Satan, the final judgment, the establishment of the new creation, and the final and complete elimination of all sin and suffering from God's universe.
Since stage 3 represents the establishment of Christ's kingdom, we may regard stages 1 and 2 as "The Kingdom Anticipated" and stages 4 and 5 as "The Kingdom Realized".
Above all, we should recognize that each stage represents an advance in the growth and spread of the spiritual seed.
The eternal kingdom teaches us much about God… about His holiness and purity… His awesome power to create and heal… and the exceeding riches of His love and kindness toward His elect. It holds out to us a compelling hope which motivates us to greater faithfulness, devotion and witness.
Living in an affluent society can lull us into complacency and a false sense of satisfaction. It is not wrong to gratefully enjoy what God has given us, but too often we allow the comforts of this life to blind us to the fact this world is under the curse of sin and death, that many in this world do not share the blessings we have been given, and that the best this world has to offer cannot satisfy for very long…
John 4:13-14 – 13Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."These passages speak of the indwelling Spirit, and of a contentment which believers may enjoy today. But as we have previously noted, the Spirit's blessings today are only a foretaste of what is to come. In Christ's kingdom, we will enjoy the Spirit's blessings in their fulness, apart from the competing influences of sin and suffering.John 6:35 – Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.
The glory of the eternal kingdom stands in stark contrast to the wretchedness of this present evil world, exposing both its frailty and its wickedness. If we had no hope or future beyond what this present world provides, we would be most miserable indeed.
As we contemplate the kingdom, we also see more fully the contrast between what we are now and what we will someday be. Again, the kingdom provides a twofold revelation… revealing both our mortality and our depravity. We grow older each passing day, drawing closer to that day when our feeble bodies will perish. Yet, we who know and love the Lord Jesus can take courage that God will raise us up from the dead to live forever with Him in His glorious kingdom…
Job 19:26-27 – 26"Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God; 27Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!God's kingdom should be our consuming desire in life. Listen to the parable of the hidden treasure...
Matthew 13:44 – "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.Once we truly begin to realize how wonderful God's kingdom will be, it will become our passion in life. Notice that the man with joy went and sold all he had. How often do we regard it a burden to make sacrifices for the Lord? Once we realize how much the kingdom excels in delight and glory above anything we have known in this life, we will joyfully part with any earthly thing that might keep us from the kingdom of God.
The same thought is expressed in the parable of the pearl of great value...
Matthew 13:45-46 – 45"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, 46and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.Obviously, these parables are not about buying your way into Christ's kingdom. Rather, they tell us of the mindset of the child of God who has discovered how delightful the kingdom is... it fills him with such joy that earthly treasures lose their glitter and obedience to Christ becomes his greatest pleasure. An individual who clings to his earthly possessions has never yet caught this vision.
The prospect of Christ's kingdom should fill us with hope and joy, and should give us a sense of purpose and direction that transforms the very way we look at life, death and earthly relationships. Such change only comes through the power of the Holy Spirit, to be sure. But the promise of the kingdom set forth in God's Word is meant to be a powerful instrument in the Spirit's hands as He sanctifies us and conforms us to the image of our Lord.
May it be our ceaseless prayer to ask: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Let us eagerly desire the day when our Lord will be visibly present with us and will rule the earth with righteousness.