I had the privilege of playing football at the University of Alabama. It was an opportunity that I wouldn’t trade for anything. However, if anyone thinks that college football is all about the excitement that takes place on autumn afternoons, they are highly naïve. Most of a college football player’s time is spent in the drudgery of offseason workouts.
The Kingdom of Wingo
While at Alabama, my strength and conditioning coach was Rich Wingo, a former linebacker for Alabama and the Green Bay Packers. He is the toughest human being I have ever encountered, and I’m convinced that he must have played without a helmet. If you survived a Wingo offseason conditioning workout, it was a point of great satisfaction.
But Wingo also knew that, no matter how great a motivator he was, he needed incentives to encourage the players to push the limits of their endurance. So, in the spring of 1989, he told us that, at the end of winter workouts, he would hand out “Bama Pride” workout shirts to those who excelled in the offseason conditioning program.
To my delight, I was one of five players who earned the “Bama Pride” shirt. Possessing this shirt set you apart as a devoted and disciplined disciple of the Wingo kingdom.
But then came a day of reckoning. We were in a spring training scrimmage in our indoor practice facility. Then the fullback came out to block me and went for my knee. My knee hyperextended, putting me in extreme pain, so the trainers pulled me to the side and placed ice on my knee.
Five minutes into my injury, Wingo saw me. He said, “BP, get on the stationary bike and peddle at 1500 RPM’s.” I knew this was a good time to reason with him, so I said, “Coach Wingo, I just injured my knee and what you’re asking would be a challenge for two healthy legs.”
He looked at me and said, “BP, get off the bike.” “Ah,” I thought, “he does have a heart.” But at that moment, he started pushing the bike and told me to follow. He pushed it outside, where it was sleeting. He then looked at me and said, “Now maybe you can get it to 1500 RPM’s.” I decided that he needed to be reasoned with again. So I said, “Coach Wingo, if I can’t peddle this hard in 72 degrees, I will probably have a harder time peddling in 35 degrees.” He looked at me and said, “BP, lift up your arms.” As I did, he pulled that “Bama Pride” shirt off my back and said, “you don’t deserve this anymore.” At that point, I started peddling, because I didn’t know what else he might pull off.
Wingo’s method was effective. He knew how to motivate and push you beyond your perceived limits. We knew the terms of his kingdom, and we knew the consequences of not meeting those terms. But, in his kingdom, our inner attitude toward him was irrelevant. As long as we showed outward respect to him and met his terms and demands, love or hate toward him was utterly inconsequential.
That is, in a nutshell, the difference between human kingdoms and the kingdom of God. In the former, outward conformity, apparent submission and external allegiance and obedience are all that matters. But in God’s kingdom, why we do what we do is as important as what we do. This is what Paul means when he writes that, all that we do is to be done with “sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord,” and “heartily, as for the Lord” (Col 3:22-23).
It’s important, when we think about the kingdom, that we know what it is and how it erupts into the present age.
The Kingdom of God: God’s Reign over All of Creation Through the Messiah
Scripture begins with the announcement that God, as creator, is the sovereign king of the universe. In this sense, the entire universe is God’s kingdom, and he alone is to be worshipped and obeyed. Indeed, “The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all” (Ps 103:19). It is undeniable that the Lord reigns (Ps 93:1; 97:1; 99:1).
But if God’s kingdom is already universal and comprehensive, how do we make sense of Jesus’ prayer that God’s kingdom come (Lk 11:2)? Jesus is referring to something new – a need brought on by human sin, rebellion and death.
Before the fall, God created a world that he described as “very good.” Yet now, in light of a human revolt, God’s rule over creation is rejected by humankind. Consequently, we now stand under God’s sentence of condemnation, guilt and death (Gen 2:16-17; Rom 3:23; 6:23).
It’s at this juncture that the Old Testament makes a critical distinction between the sovereign reign of God over the entire creation and the coming of his saving reign, by which he makes all things right. This salvation plan becomes the theme of the Bible and of redemptive history. Israel’s hope becomes a messianic redeemer who will set creation right – to usher in the saving reign of God. This is the kingdom that Jesus tells us to pray for – a kingdom that will dispel all sin and rebellion and include a redeemed people who serve as his vice-regents over a new heaven and new earth.
In the Old Testament, this hope for a messianic redeemer is announced by the prophets. This redeemer, who is mysteriously both “Mighty God” and a descendent of David (Isa 9:6-7), will have “dominion from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth” (Ps 72:8). To say it another way, God’s plan was to glorify himself by establishing his saving reign over all of creation through the agency of the Davidic Messiah.
The New Testament proclaims that, in Jesus Christ, the long-awaited kingdom has come and, with him, the deathblow to the rule of sin, death and the devil. In the cross, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, this divine plan has been actualized and God’s saving reign has moved into the world to reconstitute, reconcile and renew a people and the cosmos. Because of Christ’s victory, the kingdom goal is accomplished. There is nothing that can or need be added. God in Christ has overcome the alienation that characterized fallen creation.
Yet not everyone recognizes or submits to the reign of Christ. This brings us to the means of the kingdom. The kingdom is brought about by God through Christ by the Holy Spirit. Yet, as the Bible makes clear, God employs human means.
**Look out for Part 2 of this series soon. This article originally appeared in A Guide to Evangelism by SBTS Press. You can download the full PDF for free here or from at the link below.
A Guide to Evangelism
by Dan DeWitt
A Guide to Evangelism, edited by Dan DeWitt, will equip Christians and churches with the tools they need for more faithful evangelism. With chapters focusing on the role that a church’s preaching and polity can play in the task of evangelism, as well as chapters with practical advice for Christians engaging different groups, such as Muslims, skeptics and nominal Christians, this book will help Christians fulfill their role in spreading the gospel so that grace extends to more people to the glory of God.
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