Having finished the marvelous After You Believe by my good friend N. T. Wright, I moved into my next summer read, The Kingdom of God, a collection of sermons about just that by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. I would highly recommend both books (though I have yet to finish the latter).
Today, in The Kingdom of God, I read the following passage. The Biblical passage that Lloyd Jones discusses (Luke 11:14-20) and perhaps more clearly its counterpart in Mark (Mark 3:22-30) show us that Jesus, in ushering in the kingdom, binds Satan in his first coming. Although though Satan still works in this world, God in Christ has ultimate power over him. Consequently, we long for the final coming of the kingdom of God in full power and the abolishment of all evil. At the same time, we work for the kingdom, seeing how through Jesus' life and death Satan has been bound.
"The kingdom of God comes, and came, with the very presence and power manifested by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. There is a wonderful illustration of that in Luke 11:14-20: 'And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered. But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils. And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against a house falleth. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. And if I by Beelsebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges. But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.'
Now that is what I mean. The kingdom of God came when the Son of God was in this world. The kingdom of God is a manifestation of the power of God; a manifestation of the fact that God is superior to the elements of nature, that He is superior also to the devils and to everything that is evil. The kingdom of God is God's reign and when Christ was here on earth, and when He worked His miracles and manifested His marvelous powers, He said: 'This is the kingdom of God.' Not legislation, not one army conquering another, but the manifestation of the power of God. And did you notice what Christ did? He could calm a storm at sea; He could heal the blind, heal the lame, heal the deaf. He could even raise the dead! He was the Master of creation; He was the Master over all the devils, and He said that that was proof positive that the kingdom of God had come." -Lloyd-Jones, 57
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