Latest / Reformed Thinking / Genesis: The Beginning of God’s Kingdom Plan | Thomas R. Schreiner

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Genesis: The Beginning of God’s Kingdom Plan | Thomas R. Schreiner · Reformed Thinking

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When you open the Bible, you're not just looking at a collection
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of, you know, 66 separate ancient books.
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It presents itself as one single cohesive story.
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But what is that story? What's the actual thread that
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holds the whole thing together? That's the big question.
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Today, that's what we're doing. We're taking a deep dive into
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the very structure of the Bible itself.
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Who want to trace that central theme of God's rule, how he
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makes that rule happen, and really why any of it is
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happening in the first place? Right, and welcome to Reform
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thinking. Our whole goal here is to get at
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that grand structure. When you approach the Bible from
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a biblical theology perspective, you see that a lot of folks land
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this idea of the Kingdom of God as the theme.
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But, and this is a big but, you have to define it broadly enough
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to actually hold everything together.
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OK. So our mission for this deep
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dive is to unpack that, to really distill these core ideas,
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Kingdom, covenant, and God's glory so that you can see how
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they connected to one single story.
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So let's jump right into that definition.
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Then. The central theme is the Kingdom
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of God. But you said it has to be
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flexible. What's the risk if we defined it
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too narrowly? Well, the big danger is you end
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up just counting words. You know?
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You reduce this huge theological concept to a simple word study.
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If you only look for the words king or rule or reign, you're
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going to miss massive chunks of the Bible where the idea is
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absolutely present. Like where can you give an
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example? Sure, a perfect one is the
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wisdom literature. Think about the book of
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Proverbs. You could search that book all
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day for the word Kingdom and you won't find much.
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But the concept of God's rule? It's everywhere.
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How does it show up if not with the word king?
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It shows up in the phrase the fear of Yahweh.
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That's what it is. That fear is just a practical,
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everyday acknowledgement of God's lordship, living wisely,
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being just, doing the right thing, and all the small details
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of your life. That is what it looks like to
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live under God's rule. So the ethical instruction of
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proverbs is really a picture of life inside the Kingdom.
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It is the title King might be absent, but the reality of his
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rule is not. The theme is this conceptual
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reality of God's total sovereignty.
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OK, so the Kingdom is the theme. It's the storyline, the action.
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Let's make a distinction right up front, then.
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The difference between the theme of the story and the ultimate
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purpose. The why behind it all, Yes.
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That's a critical distinction. The Kingdom of God is the theme,
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the storyline. It's the plot as it unfolds.
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And this theme is best understood through a sort of
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threefold dimension that really covers the whole scope of the
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story, from Genesis all the way to Revelation.
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The. Threefold dimension.
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What are those three? They sound pretty foundational
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for. This they are.
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So first you have the one with the Authority, Goddess King, the
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rule itself. But this isn't straightforward
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because it works in 2 levels. The 2 levels, yeah.
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The first level is God's eternal sovereignty.
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He is always, and without any exception, the King over
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everything. His authority is absolute and it
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never stops. But if that's true, if he's
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always king, why does the Bible need to tell a story about it?
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I mean, what's the drama? And that is the central tension
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of the whole narrative. The story exists because God's
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rule has been well, it's been flouted, it's been rejected
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since the rebellion in the Garden of Eden.
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So the Bible is the story of the Kingdom regained.
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It's God's active historical campaign to restore and reassert
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his rightful lordship over a rebellious creation.
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OK, so if we're talking about a campaign to reclaim territory
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that implies conflict, it must involve more than just saving
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people. It has to for the Kingdom to be
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truly regained, God's rule must include both salvation for his
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people and, just as necessary, judgement on his enemies.
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God shows he's king by destroying evil, by cleansing
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his creation of corruption, and by punishing those who set
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themselves up against his rule. And this isn't just, you know,
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random anger. It's the legal necessity of a
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just king making sure the rebel Kingdom doesn't win that.
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Reframes things so judgement isn't an interruption in the
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story of salvation, it's a necessary part of God's royal
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action. So where's an Old Testament
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example of that where judgement is needed to secure the Kingdom?
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I mean the flood is a huge one. God looks at the world and sees
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that wickedness has corrupted everything.
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His action cleansing the earth was a massive act of judgment,
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but it was necessary to preserve a righteous line through Noah so
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the Kingdom could even continue. It was like a reset.
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It was a decreation to allow for a recreation or think about
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Sodom and Gomorrah. That judgment secured the space
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for the covenant to move forward through Abraham's family.
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God judges evil to clear the path for His good rule.
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OK, so that's the first dimension, the rule.
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What's the second? The second involves the
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participants, human beings as subjects.
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This is about the relationship. Humans are made to be the high
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point of creation. We were designed to function as
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vice regions like servant kings. And this rule is personal, it's
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relational, it's established through covenant.
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We'll get into more detail on later.
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And the third piece, the setting.
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The third is the universe as the realm, the place, the Kingdom
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isn't some abstract idea in the clouds.
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God made a physical world and the story happens right here on
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earth, so place matters a lot. The story starts in a very
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specific place, the Garden of Eden, which is like God's throne
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room, and it moves toward a future reality, the new heaven
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and a new earth. So how do we hold those two
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ideas in our head at the same time?
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His eternal rule and this this campaign to regain it.
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Yeah, that's the tension. I I think an analogy might help
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here. Think of it like a a royal
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colony. OK, a royal colony.
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Go on. The King, that's God.
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He always owns the province. The deed is his.
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That's his eternal sovereignty. But there's a rebellion sparked
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by the serpent. The local territory rejects his
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laws. And the Bible is the detailed
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history of the long campaign, the story to reclaim that
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rebellious land. The Kingdom regained.
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Exactly. And that campaign requires
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punishing the rebels. That's judgment and appointing
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loyal local governors, the vice Regents, to manage the realm for
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him. That framework helps a lot, but
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it brings us to the next big question.
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Why? Why does God do all this?
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If the Kingdom is the story, what's the ultimate reason for
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it? The ultimate reason, the purpose
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for the whole thing, is the glory of God.
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OK, so the Kingdom is the how, the glory is the why.
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He does it all for the glory and praise of his name.
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But that can sound a bit, well, bit narcissistic to modern ears.
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Does God seeking his own glory mean he's selfish?
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I know it can sound that way because when humans seek their
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own glory, it's usually at someone else's expense.
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But with God it's the complete opposite.
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The sources we're looking at argue that God's glory is
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completely unified with his love.
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When God glorifies himself, he does it by giving himself to his
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human beings in love. So His glory is most on display
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when His people are saved and satisfied in Him.
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Precisely, He is honored as King when people receive His love,
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depend on Him, and experience the salvation He provides.
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His glory is the shining forth of all His perfections, His
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justice, His mercy, His wisdom, and His self giving love.
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You can't separate God's glory from His love.
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So maybe another analogy could help here.
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Let's say there's a charity hospital run by the world's
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greatest surgeon. OK, The day-to-day work of the
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hospital, healing patients, restoring them to health.
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That's the story. That's the Kingdom, but the
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reason the hospital even exists is to display the surgeons
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incredible skill and his benevolent heart.
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That's the glory. I like that the display of his
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skill and kindness, his glory, is the very means by which the
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patients are saved, and that reflects his love.
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The patients aren't just saved, they're saved in a way that
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magnifies the honor of the surgeon.
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Right. OK, so with that purpose and
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theme set, let's go back to the beginning, the original design.
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How are people even made to be a part of this?
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Let's go to Genesis 1, the image of God.
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You're saying it's mainly a regal or kingly idea?
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Yes, the image is functional. It's not just that we have an
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intellect or a soul that reflects God.
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It's about delegated authority. We were created to be the Vice
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Regents of Creation. And the proof for that is in the
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command God gives them. It's right there in the text,
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the mandate to subdue the earth and have dominion that defines
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what being in his image means. In the ancient world, a king
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would set up a statue, an image of himself in a conquered
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province. The point wasn't to show people
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what he looked. Like it was to show them who was
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in charge. Exactly.
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It was a sign that the King's authority extended to that
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place, so humans were placed in the world as the living,
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breathing signs of God's own sovereign authority meant to
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enforce His claims as Lord. So we're like living statues.
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We are servant kings and sons of God.
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That status is ontological. It's part of who we are.
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But our rule is always derived. It's dependent.
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We rule the world for God's glory, not our own.
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Now the sources also link this kingly role to a priestly 1.
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That seems like an interesting mix.
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King and priest. How does that work in Genesis?
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It works through the specific Hebrew words used.
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Adam is told to work and keep the garden.
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If you trace those two verbs through the Old Testament, you
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find they were the exact same verbs used to describe what the
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Levites and priests do in the Tabernacle.
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So guarding language is actually temple language.
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It is a priest's job was to work to perform the services and to
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keep or guard the sanctuary from anything unclean or hostile.
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And Adam was placed in this temple garden to do the same
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thing, to rule there and then to extend God's holy reign outward
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from that starting point. So he was the original priest
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king. The very first it shows that all
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of human life, all of culture, is supposed to be a sacred
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service to God. Which means the garden itself
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was more than just a nice place. It was the blueprint for God's
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rule. It was the architectural
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prototype, a throne room or a temple garden.
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The whole rest of the biblical story is about expanding and
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purifying that temple idea and until it covers the whole earth.
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OK, this is where the details get really interesting.
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These specific connections between Eden and later
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Tabernacle and Temple, they show this amazing unity in the story.
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Can you walk us through some of those parallels?
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Of course, let's start with the divine Presence.
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In Genesis 3 it says the Lord was walking in the garden.
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It's a picture of God physically dwelling with his people.
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Then in Leviticus, God promises Israel he will walk among them
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in the Tabernacle. It's the same language, the same
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intimacy. OK.
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And what about the security? The guardianship?
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Both spaces are guarded. After the fall, Cherubim are
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placed at the East of Eden to block the way back in and in the
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Tabernacle and Temple. What do you see everywhere?
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Images of cherubim. On the curtains, on the
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furniture, right on the ark of the Covenant, they are guarding
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the holy presence of God. And even the direction you
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approach from matters right the orientation.
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It does. Humanity was driven out of
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Eden's to the east, and access to the Tabernacle and temple was
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always from the east. Moving W the path to salvation
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is a westward journey back into God's presence, literally
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reversing the direction of the fall.
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That's a detail that is so easy to miss that it connects the
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physical layout to the whole story of Exile in return.
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What about the materials inside? The symbolism is consistent
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there too. The precious materials mentioned
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in the Eden account, Gold, Onyx, stone.
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These are the very same materials used to build the
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Tabernacle and to make the High priest garments.
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It's as if the sanctuary is a restored, accessible piece of
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Eden. And the Lampscan I've heard that
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connects too. Many scholars argue that the
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seven branched lampstand, the menorah, was a symbol for the
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Tree of Life. It provided light and was shaped
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like a tree standing in the holy place where life with God was
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found. So Eden set the entire pattern.
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God's presence, guardianship, materials, all of it.
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It was the model. It was, and it also established
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the rule of law. That first command, don't eat
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from that one tree was a simple test of submission to God's
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lordship. It was a loyalty test.
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And that simple rule anticipates the whole structure of the
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Mosaic covenant, where God's people show their loyalty by
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obeying his commandments. It all comes down to who gets to
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define good and evil. Always.
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And so Eden points forward. It sets up the hope for the
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final joy of the new creation, a new Eden, a temple city that's
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secured not by our failed obedience, but by Christ's
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perfect obedience. OK, so we have the rule, the
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subjects, and the realm. Now let's talk about the
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mechanism that holds the relationship together, the
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covenant. You said if the Kingdom is the
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rule, the covenant is like the charter of rule.
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That's a great way to put it. The covenants are the means God
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uses to establish his personal rule on earth.
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Without them, his rule could feel like just raw, impersonal
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power. The covenant makes it a defined
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personal relationship. It formalizes everything.
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It gives it a legal and relational framework.
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Exactly. And the heart of that
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relationship is captured in that one recurring line you see over
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and over again, I will be your God and you will be my people.
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That's the covenant promise in a nutshell.
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It's a commitment. But I have to ask, if God is
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totally sovereign, why does he need to bind himself with an
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agreement? I mean, his will is going to
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happen anyway, isn't it? That's a great question, and it
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gets to the heart of God's character.
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He chooses to relate to us not just by force, but through a
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defined relationship. By making a covenant, God
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voluntarily commits to acting toward humanity according to the
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terms He himself sets out. It displays his faithfulness and
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His righteousness. So another analogy, it's like a
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constitutional monarchy. The king has inherent authority,
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that's a given. But the covenant is like the
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Charter or the Constitution that defines the terms of his
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relationship with his people. It assures them of His
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protection and His blessing. Yes, it ensures His sovereignty
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is exercised in a faithful, personal and predictable way.
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OK, so after the fall, the story of the Kingdom regained is
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basically a long demonstration of humanity failing to keep our
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side of that charter. Constantly, which makes God's
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sovereign grace the only thing that can move the story forward.
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And the absolute turning point for this is the covenant with
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Abraham, especially that strange ceremony in Genesis 15.
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It's all all about God's unconditional guarantee.
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You really have to know the cultural background to get how
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shocking this moment is. What was the normal way to make
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a covenant back then? The standard ritual was pre
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dramatic. Two parties would take animals,
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a heifer, a goat, a ram, and cut them in half.
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They'd lay the pieces out in two rows, creating a kind of path
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between them. A path of blood, basically.
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A path of blood and then both partners would walk together
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between the pieces and in doing so they were making a self
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meledictory oath. They were saying may what
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happened to these animals happen to me if I break this promise?
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So they were calling a curse down on themselves.
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They were. It sealed the deal with the
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threat of death. Both parties were equally
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responsible. But that is not what happens in
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Genesis 15. Not at all.
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It completely flips the script. Abraham prepares the animals,
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but then God puts him into a deep sleep.
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He's completely passive. He can't walk, he can't make a
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promise, he can't do anything. He's taken out of the equation.
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Entirely. And while he's asleep, God,
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alone in the form of a smoking firepot and a flaming torch,
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passes between the pieces. So God walks the path for both
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of them. What does that mean?
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It means God alone guarantees the covenant by passing through
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those pieces by himself. God was taking the curse of the
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covenant entirely upon himself. He was essentially saying, if
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this promise fails, may I be the one who is torn in 2 The
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fulfillment of the whole Kingdom promise, the seed, the land, the
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blessing. It all rests on God's
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faithfulness alone. That changes everything.
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It's not a partnership of equals, it's a gift.
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It is. It's sovereign grace.
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I mean, think about who God chooses.
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He picks Abraham, who we're told was an idolater from a family of
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idolaters. He chooses Jacob over his older
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brother Esau based on nothing they had done, just on his own
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election. And Jacob's life of scheming and
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deception only proves the point way.
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God's choice was pure grace, not based on Jacob's character.
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The Kingdom would have collapsed immediately if it depended on
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the patriarchs. Instantly.
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And the whole narrative of Genesis just hammers this home.
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God has to keep intervening just to preserve the promised line.
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That conflict between the offspring of the serpent and the
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offspring of the woman is the engine of the plot.
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And you see it in the recurring problem of barrenness.
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Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel. Exactly why does that keep
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happening? It's to show that the promised
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child isn't a product of human strength or natural ability.
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It has to be a miracle from God. The line only continues because
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God sovereignly acts. And sometimes the patriarchs
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themselves the biggest threat. Oh, absolutely.
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When Abraham and then Isaac lie about their wives to foreign
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kings because they're afraid, they are actively endangering
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the purity of the covenant line. But God steps in.
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He sends plagues. He sends dreams.
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He protects Sarah and Rebecca from the failures of their own
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husbands. God's faithfulness overrides our
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faithlessness every time. And the clearest picture of
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God's sovereignty over human sin has to be the Joseph story.
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It's the perfect case study in Providence.
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His brothers do this terrible evil thing, selling him into
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slavery. It's pure malice.
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It should have destroyed the family, but years later, what
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does Joseph say? You intended it for evil.
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But God intended it for good. To save lives.
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God took the circumstances of their sinful actions, the
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betrayal, the slavery, all of it, and He wove it into His plan
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to preserve the covenant people and advance the Kingdom.
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So all of these failures, the lies, the jealousy, they all
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make it crystal clear that these men are not the final answer.
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The story has to be pointing forward to someone else, a
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future ruler who can actually succeed where they all fail.
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And this is where the focus narrows down to 1 specific
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tribe. The kingly trajectory of Judah,
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even though he wasn't the first born, the line of leadership is
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secured through him. And the Bible includes that
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really messy story about Judah and Tamar, which seems like a
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weird detour, but it's there to show that the royal line is
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secured through his lineage, even in the midst of terrible
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sin. It's the same theme again.
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God's purpose moves forward through human messiness, and
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Jacob's prophecy in Genesis 49 seals it.
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He says the scepter, the symbol of kingship, won't depart from
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Judah until the one comes to whom it belongs.
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The one who will command the obedience of the peoples.
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Right. And he calls Judah a lions cub.
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That sets the whole trajectory. The Kingdom will be established
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through a king from Judah's line.
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And of course, that connects all the way to the end of the story
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in Revelation, where Jesus is called the line of the tribe of
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Judah. It's 1 continuous line from
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Genesis to Revelation. It is.
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OK, before we wrap up, let's just take a quick look at the
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method we're using here. The way we read the Bible shapes
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what we get out of it, and this framework we're discussing was
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designed for a pretty specific audience.
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It was It's written to be accessible for college students,
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laypersons, seminary students and pastors.
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The goal isn't to win academic debates.
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It's to help people see the beauty and the coherence of the
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biblical message for themselves. And that focus on accessibility
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affected some of the choices, like the order of the books.
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It did. The choice was made to follow
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the familiar English order of the Old Testament, not the
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Hebrew order of law, prophets, and writings.
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It's a practical choice because that's the Bible most people
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hold in their hands, and the argument is that the main
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theological storyline is clear either way.
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And maybe more importantly, it uses a canonical method of
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reading. What does that mean practically?
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It means you focus on the Bible in its final, completed form.
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You're less concerned with theories about how the text was
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pieced together over time and more concerned with the theology
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of the finished product, the book that the church has
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received a Scripture. And why is that so important for
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seeing the big theme of the Kingdom?
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Because it acknowledges that there are two authors.
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There's the human author writing in his specific time and place.
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We have to respect that. But there's also the divine
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author, God himself, whose meaning is revealed across the
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entire Canon. The divine author sees the whole
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story from beginning to end. So this allows us to see
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connections and foreshadowing that the original human author
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might not have even been aware of.
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Exactly. Let's take a famous example
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Genesis 1.26 where God says let us make man in our image.
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Now from the human authors perspective an ancient Israelite
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probably would have understood that as God speaking to his
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heavenly court, maybe the angels or as a plural of majesty like a
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king saying we decree. It's unlikely Moses was thinking
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about the Trinity as we understand it.
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But when we read it with the whole Bible in our hands, the
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finished Canon, we see more. We see much more.
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A canonical reading absolutely supports a full Unitarian
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reading of that verse. Why?
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Because the rest of Scripture gives us the key.
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In Genesis 1.2 you have the Spirit hovering over the face of
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the water. So the Spirit is there at
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creation. And the New Testament tells us
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the sun was there. John's Gospel starts by saying
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the sun is the word through whom all things were made, which is a
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direct echo of Genesis. Colossians says Christ is the
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image of God by whom all things were created.
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So because the completed Bible reveals the Spirit and Son were
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active creators, we can look back at let us and see an early
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glimpse of the Triune God in conversation.
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Yes, it's a perfect example of how later revelation from the
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divine author illuminates the earlier text.
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It's sort of like a mystery movie.
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When you're watching the first scene, a character says
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something that seems minor. You the audience don't get its
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full meaning yet, but when you watch the whole finished film
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you realize the director intentionally put that line
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there to foreshadow the final reveal.
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The finished Canon lets us see the divine directors full
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intent. That's a great way to describe
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it. OK, this has been a fantastic
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look at the architecture of the biblical story.
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Let's try to quickly sum up the King's grand design.
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Sure. The Bible's main storyline is
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the Kingdom regained. That Kingdom has three parts,
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God's absolute rule administered through His human subjects,
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happening in the physical realm. And the mechanism for that is
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the covenant. Yes.
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The rule is established through covenant, which is God's
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unilateral, unbreakable guarantee that His Kingdom will
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succeed even when His people fail.
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And the whole reason for all of it.
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The glory is God, which isn't selfish, but is actually tied
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directly to His love for his people.
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Exactly. The Kingdom is the story, the
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covenant is the vehicle, and the display of God's perfect
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character, His glory, is the ultimate purpose.
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We talked about how the Fall was really about Adam and Eve trying
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to seize God's right to define good and evil for themselves.
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They rejected His Lordship in one specific area.
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It always comes down to whose rule we live under.
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So here's a final thought for you to consider.
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If the fear of Yahweh is just another way of saying living
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under God's lordship in the small details of life, what is 1
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specific everyday area? Maybe it's your finances, your
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use of time, how you handle conflict, where recognizing
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God's absolute sovereignty is King actually changes how you
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act as his vice Regent today. That's the challenge, isn't it?
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Connecting the huge cosmic story to the tiny details of your own
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life. The King's faithfulness in the
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big story demands our faithfulness in the small one.
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Something to reflect on. Thank you for joining us for
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this deep dive into the King's charter.