# “The kingdom of God comes in power, but the power of the gospel is Christ crucified” by Jeremy Treat

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2020/04/15/the-kingdom-of-god-comes-in-power-but-the-power-of-the-gospel-is-christ-crucified-by-jeremy-treat/
- Published: 2020-04-15T12:00:41-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“The thief on the cross looked at the man from Nazareth being crucified next to 
him and said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom’ (Luke 23:42).
Somehow this man conceived of the crucified Jesus as ruling over a kingdom.

While the title on Christ’s cross—’The King of the Jews’—makes explicit that there
is a connection between the kingdom and the cross, perhaps the crown of thorns provides
the best image for explaining how they relate. This is not, after all, the first
time that thorns have shown up in the story.

Adam was to be a servant-king in the garden, but because he did not exercise dominion
over the ground and the animals, the serpent ruled over him and the ground was cursed
by God. Thorns first appear as a direct result and manifestation of the curse (Gen
3:17–18).

Jesus comes as the last Adam, the faithful servant-king who not only fulfills Adam’s
commission of ruling over the earth but removes the curse by taking it onto Himself.
As Jesus wore the crown of thorns, He bore the curse of God. He is the ‘[seed] of
a woman’ who crushed Satan with a bruised heel (Gen 3:15).

He is the seed of Abraham who ‘redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming
a curse for us . . . so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come 
to the Gentiles’ (Gal 3:13–14). The thorns, which were a sign of the curse and defeat
of Adam, are paradoxically transformed into a sign of the kingship and victory of
Jesus.

As Augustine said, the crown of thorns is a symbol that ‘the kingdom which was not
of this world overcame that proud world, not by the ferocity of fighting, but by
the humility of suffering.’

Jesus is the king who reigns by bearing the curse of the people whom He so loves.
The connection between the cross and the curse, however, does reveal that the title
given to Jesus during his crucifixion—’The King of the Jews’—was only partially 
correct.

Inasmuch as the task of the Jews was to bring God’s blessing to all the earth (Gen
12:3) and thereby reverse the curse of sin in Genesis 3–11, Jesus—the Jewish Messiah—
was claiming His throne not only over Israel but over all the earth. God accomplished
His mission of restoring His creation through Jesus as He was enthroned as king 
on the cross.

The kingdom of God comes in power, but the power of the gospel is Christ crucified.”

–Jeremy R. Treat, [_The Crucified King: Atonement and Kingdom in Biblical and Systematic Theology_ ](https://amzn.to/34EUaeq)(
Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014), 252-253.

More on [Pierced For Our Transgressions](https://tollelege.net/category/pierced-for-our-transgressions/)