Matthew 11:4–6 “Jesus answered, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind
receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and
the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And
blessed is the one who is not offended by me”.
I read that the Jewish interpretation of the
messianic prophecies of the old covenant in the period leading up to the birth of
Christ was one-sided, emphasizing the political nature of the kingdom of God at
the expense of the spiritual. That is why so many Jews were unprepared for
Jesus when He came preaching the kingdom of God.
Mark 1:14-15 Now
after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee,
preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and
saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
In a study of this Matthew 11:4-6 passage, it points out that few things are taught more
clearly in the New Testament than the fact that Jesus brings the kingdom of
God. However, He brought it in a manner that many of His contemporaries were
not expecting. It did not come all at once with a crushing display of military
might; rather, it began small, with only a handful of disciples, and even now
continues to grow to fill the whole earth. This kingdom is the fruit of the
covenant of grace, which finds its fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus
Christ.
Matthew 11:4-6 teaches that
Jesus fulfills the restoration prophecies that are part of the covenant of
grace. Our Lord’s description of His draws from Isaiah 35 and its promise of
the glory of restored Israel. Notably, Jesus does not quote Isaiah 35:4, which
predicts the vengeance of God in the restoration. His point is that there will
be an extended period of time during which the kingdom becomes present in the
new covenant administration. First, the Lord will show mercy and bring healing
so that people will be drawn into His kingdom, and then vengeance—the final
consummation of this kingdom and destruction of His enemies—will come after
this period of growth.
Christ Jesus has brought the
kingdom and in this age of Grace, we now await that final Day of Judgment. The lesson reminds us all that at that point, our bodies
will be made alive in the resurrection of the dead, and our foes and the
enemies of God will be cast down forever. If we are in Christ by faith alone, we
already enjoy new spiritual life, and this spiritual life will one day bear
fruit in renewed physical life. In the new covenant, God restores the cosmos,
and we will one day enjoy an embodied existence in the new heavens and earth.
Christ kept the covenant of works to this end—that we might enjoy eternal life
as a gift of the covenant of grace. Let us never cease to rejoice and to praise
our Lord for this blessing.
Blessings in Christ
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