The Elusive Essence of the Kingdom of God

About 25 years ago, after surveying the theological literature on the kingdom of God written during the last century, Marcus Borg, in an article titled "The Kingdom of God," concluded that theologians had NOT provided the church with a "clear and compelling" understanding of the kingdom of God.  Borg did provide a strong but underdeveloped hint that the Holy Spirit and the kingdom of God were closely tied together as did Howard Snyder in his book A Kingdom Manifesto.

Recently, in a short essay titled "Does anyone know what the kingdom of God is?" Roger E. Olson concludes that the NT itself, though it highlights the importance of the kingdom of God, never defines the kingdom.

If Borg and Olson had read their NT using the NEB translation, they would have discovered an important clue that could provide an answer to their quest for the essence of the kingdom of God.  Paul and Jesus agree that justice is the key.  Mt. 6:33 "Set your mind on God's kingdom and his justice above everything else."  Roman 14:17: "The kingdom of God is justice. . . . "

The NEB could have and should have made the point even clearer by translating the beatitudes "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after justice. . . . "  "Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of justice. . . . "

Then they should have turned back and read the Messianic passages from Isaiah (9:7; 11:1-4; 16:5; 28:16-17; 42:1-4; and 61:1-2 --- read 'oppressed poor'.); these very important verses confirm that justice is the essence of the kingdom of God here on earth.

While the kingdom  of God is not specifically mentioned in Luke 4:18-19, I think these key verses are a mission statement about the kingdom---Spirit, poor, oppressed, Jubilee justice.

So I would paraphrase Mt. 4:17 and Mk 1:16---"Repent, for the kingdom of God is here." in the following fashion:  "First, thoroughly and decisively repent of your deep-seated ethnocentrism and oppression; then get busy doing Jubilee justice on behalf of the oppressed poor; this is the essence of my kingdom.  MY SPIRIT WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH THE WISDOM AND POWER TO ACCOMPLISH THIS."