DESCRIPTION
THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT
God’s covenant with Abraham and Israel is seen primarily in five passages:Genesis 12:1-3; Genesis 13:14-17; Genesis 15:4-21; Genesis 17:1-21; Genesis 22:15-18). The covenant was also confirmed between God and Jacob (Genesis 26:1-4; Genesis 28:10-14; Genesis 35:9-12; Genesis 48:3-4). God promised Abraham that He would make Abraham a great nation (Genesis 12:2; Genesis 13:16; Genesis 15:4-5; Genesis 17:6) and that His physical descendants, the people of Israel, would possess the land of Canaan forever (Genesis 12:7; Genesis 13:14-15, 17; Genesis 15:7; Genesis 17:8). This results in great blessing upon the whole earth (Genesis 12:3; Genesis 22:18; Genesis 28:14). The fact that God promised Abraham’s physical descendants (ethnic Israel) the land of Canaan forever as an everlasting covenant means that Israel will never perish as a people. Should Israel ever perish as a nation, then it could not possess the land forever, and the Abrahamic Covenant could not be everlasting. Parts of the Abrahamic Covenant have been fulfilled already. For example, God blessed Abraham with great wealth and other blessings in his lifetime (Genesis 24:1, 35), He has made his name great among the nations, and He has given him a multitude of physical descendants. After 400 years of slavery, God gave the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants and they have never perished as a distinct, ethnic, people group. Through the death of Jesus, a descendant of Abraham, great blessing has been made available to the nations of the earth through His death and resurrection. God gave the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession to Abraham’s physical descendants (Genesis 17:8).
DAVIDIC COVENANT
The Davidic Covenant is recorded in 2 Samuel 7:11-16 and in 1 Chronicles 17:10-15. There are several other passages that refer to God’s covenant with David (2 Samuel 23:5;2 Chronicles. 7:18; 2 Chronicles 21:7; Psalms 89:3-4, 28-29, 34-37; Jeremiah 33:19-26). God promised David an everlasting lineage, and an eternal throne and kingdom. Jesus will sit on the throne of David forever in Jerusalem. David’s realm was the physical land and people of Israel. While it is clear that Jesus is already exercising His kingly rule and authority as He sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven, the Bible indicates that Jesus will also fulfill God’s promises to David by reigning over a natural kingdom on this present earth in the future.
RESULTANT CLAIM
David’s throne, hence Christ’s Kingdom, is a physical kingdom located in Jerusalem, ruling over natural Israel. Christ will not sit in His Kingdom until the Millennium, when He reigns from Earthly Jerusalem
ANSWER
Jesus Christ is seated on David’s throne now, and is already a King in His Kingdom.
MAIN POINTS
- Jesus is seated upon the throne of David right now (Acts 2:29-36 ).
- Christ is ruling and reigning in his kingdom, the church, right now and will do so until the Second Coming (Hebrews 10:11-13).
- At the second coming, Jesus will give up the throne to God so that the Father may be all in all (1 Corinthians 15:25-28).
- Some teachers teach that at the Second Coming Jesus starts to rule in his kingdom, and that Jesus is a King without a kingdom now, but the Bible teaches the exact opposite!
- David’s Throne is God’s throne. David sat on the throne of the Kingdom of the LORD, as a precursor to Christ (1 Chronicles 28:5; 1 Chronicles 29:23).
DEVELOPMENT
Peter made the definitive statement in His message to the Jews on the day of Pentecost. Jesus was seated on the Throne of David at His ascension to the Father, unequivocably at the words of the apostle Jesus called the ‘rock’.
Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. And so, because he was a prophet and knew that GOD HAD SWORN TO HIM WITH AN OATH TO SEAT one OF HIS DESCENDANTS ON HIS THRONE, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY. This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear.
For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says:
THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND,
UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET.Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.
Acts 2:29-36 NASB (emphasis mine)
This is echoed later in the Words of Paul, where He repeatedly says that Christ has been seated until His enemies are made His footstool. This seating is categorically his reigning, as described in the scripture.
Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET.
Hebrews 10:11-13 (emphasis mine)
This verse clearly states that Jesus has already sat down at the right hand of God.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death. For HE HAS PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET. But when He says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.”
1 Corinthians 15:22-28 (emphasis mine)
This passage says that Christ will reign in the Kingdom until all things are made in subjection to Himself. Once all things are made in subjection to Himself, then will be His Second Coming and the End. This is directly the opposite of the claim that Jesus will take his seat on the Throne of David at His Second coming at the beginning of the Millennium. After all things are made in subjection, the Second Coming will happen, and Jesus will leave the throne because He is handing it back over to the Father, not take His seat as some suggest.
Note the language from Hebrews 10 which makes the case. Jesus has already sat down and is waiting from that time onward, through now, until all things are made subject under His feet. Therefore, there cannot be another sitting between v23 and v24 in which which the subjection will come forth, because Paul has already placed the time of waiting for subjection in the current sitting, that is, at the right hand of God. Hebrews 10 places the 1 Corinthians 15:25 as Christ’s current seat, at the right hand of God, whereas 1 Corinthians 15:24 directly ties it to the the Kingdom.
Further, the “throne of David” is directly called the “throne of the LORD”, and Israel is called the “Kingdom of the LORD” in 1 & 2 Chronicles.
- Of all my sons (for the LORD has given me many sons), He has chosen my son Solomon to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel. (1 Chronicles 28:5)
- Then Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king instead of David his father; and he prospered, and all Israel obeyed him. (1 Chronicles 29:23)
- Blessed be the LORD your God who delighted in you, setting you on His throne as king for the LORD your God; because your God loved Israel establishing them forever, therefore He made you king over them, to do justice and righteousness. (2 Chronicles 9:8)
- So now you intend to resist the kingdom of the LORD through the sons of David, being a great multitude and having with you the golden calves which Jeroboam made for gods for you. ” 2 Chronicles 13:8
And, finally, Paul’s metaphor in Romans 11 of the Gentiles being grafted into the root of Israel and His calling the reconciliation believing Jew and Gentile “One New Man” in Ephesians 2:15 indicate that the Gentiles have entered into the Kingdom that David was seated in. According to Paul, there is not a Jewish church and a Gentile church, but there is One man, the true Israel, because the believing Gentiles have been added where certain of the unbelieving Jews have been broken off.
Thus, Jesus’ true church represents the Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of God is, indeed, heavenly. It’s scope is universal, as it is the throne of God, and, this is indeed what David was sitting on when he was king of Israel. This is the entrusting of God to man with such power and authority, and this was the name and the honor given to David, and his Descendant, Jesus Christ.
Christ Jesus, according to Peter, sat down at the right hand of God, on the Throne of the LORD, on the Throne of David, when He ascended to the Father. Daniel 7 indicates that at His ascension, He received dominion, glory, and a Kingdom, which He Himself testified to in Matthew 28:18, saying that all authority in Heaven and in Earth had been given unto Him.
For additional proof, we can look to Zechariah 6:13 where it says Christ will be a priest upon His throne. This in itself may not indicate much, but when we compare it to Hebrews 8:4, we see Christ’s throne cannot be on the Earth. It reads, “If He were in Earth, He would not be a priest…” Clearly, if His throne was on Earth, He would not then be a priest, and Zechariah 6:13 could never be fulfilled. But, in the same way the Aaronic priesthood was Earthly, but Christ’s is heavenly, so David’s kingship was earthly and Christ’s is heavenly. As Hebrews 8:6 reads, “But in fact, the ministry Jesus received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which He is a mediator is superior to the old one.” If the priesthood is superior because it is heavenly, so also the Kingship.
Christ is now reigning forevermore on the true Throne of David.
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
1 Corinthians 15:25