Review: The Kingdom of God and the Glory of the Cross

Patrick Schreiner. The Kingdom of God and the Glory of the Cross.  Wheaton, IL: Crossway, March 31^st, 2018.  160 pp.

4 out of 5

Purchase: Westminster | Amazon

This is the fourth book I read from the “Short Studies in Biblical Theology” series published by Crossway.  I have immensely enjoyed the other three volumes that I read from this series and since they were so good I want to eventually read all the works in this series.  This present work explores the theme of “the kingdom of God” in the Bible and is authored by Patrick Schriener.  If the last name jumps out at you that’s because he’s the son of New Testament scholar Thomas R. Schreiner.

The book is made up into six chapters besides the introduction and the conclusion.  The main body of the book is a survey of the Kingdom of God from Genesis through Revelation.  The book is divided into two parts with the first part surveying the Old Testament and the second part surveys the New Testament.  Each part has three chapters with the first chapter covering the law, the second chapter is on the prophets and the third chapter is on the Writings.  These are the three division the Jews have for their Scripture which I appreciated the author considered in the structure of the book.  In part two chapter four is on the Gospels, chapter five is on Acts and the Epistles with chapter six on Revelation.

I thought the best part of the book was the introduction which the authored titled “The Importance of the Kingdom.”  Not only did he argued why the kingdom of God is important but he also made a persuasive case that a wrong definition of the kingdom or one that is reductionistic poses real challenges in biblical interpretation and biblical theology.  After noting the danger the author points out that the kingdom of God must encompass three components:  There must be the power of God with a people of God and located at a place.  While not all of these three aspects are always mentioned simultaneously in Scripture nevertheless these are the three “Ps” that are the characteristics of the kingdom of God.  I thought that was very helpful.  With this in place Schreiner defined the kingdom of God as the King’s power over the King’s people in the King’s place.

Like other books in this series this book might be short in length with 160 pages but it is packed with insights, and amazing truths concerning biblical theology, structures of books in the Bible, etc.  Personally there were so many things that I learned from the book that I won’t be able to share them all in this review.  Here are some of the things I learned:

• The Bible begins and ends with a tree; see Genesis 2:9 and Revelation 22:2. But throughout Scripture the kingdom of God is often portrayed as a tress such as in Daniel 4:10-12 and Jesus comparison of the kingdom to a tree in Matthew 13:31 and Mark 4:31-32.
• Jesus hung on a tree to be cursed to undo the curse of the first tree and ultimately to provide God’s people access to the second tree: the tree of life.
• Genesis lays the foundation for so much of what appears later in the New Testament. Schreiner did a good job pointing out of how the Gospel of Matthew opens up with a “book of genealogy” that echoes Genesis 2:4, 5:1 of origin of Adam and Eve and thus in Matthew the theme of New Creation and people is seen, with God’ New Creation about to begin!
• In the middle of Wisdom literature in the Hebrew order of the canon of Scripture is the book of Ruth and Ester. Chronologically this might seem odd since Ruth is before David and the split of the kingdom.  But Ruth in the order of the canon serves to function to remind the people that God will bring a Rescuer King even as the people are in “Exile” like Ruth in Moab.
• If the Kingdom of God is the goal, then the cross is the means according to the New Testament.

Again there are more things one will learn than what is summarized above. Overall the book was wonderful and helpful but there are a few criticism I have of the book.  In talking about the Old Testament Patrick Schreiner mentioned that punishment accompanied every mention of Seraphim.  But I think that is not totally accurate since Seraphim is mentioned twice but is mentioned only in Isaiah chapter 6.  There the Seraphim is not there for judgment per se for they are even involved with cleansing Isaiah for the forgiveness of his sins (see verse 6-7).  I felt Schreiner’s comment about Seraphim didn’t tell the whole story.  Also in the chapter talking about the book of Acts there was an error in which Schreiner referred to Acts 20:31 when he meant Acts 28:31 concerning Paul mentioning the Kingdom of God.  With the two criticism I have of the book it should not take away any reason why one should read this book.

NOTE: This book was provided to me free by Crossway and Net Galley without any obligation for a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.