Prophets and Apostles alike know that "The Lord is King" - and that, not in spite of what they see happening in the world, but because of it. The story they tell of the coming Kingdom is not a compensation for its present failure, but a corollary of its present reality. As the prophets see in the death of the sinful kingdoms of Israel and Judah at the hands of Assyria and Babylon not a disproof but a vindication of the sovereignty of the Lord, so S Paul finds the righteousness of God supremely triumphant in the Cross of Jesus, the sinless King of the Jews. In the prophets' story, God's unrevoked choice of Israel to be the place in which His sovereignty shall be revealed is pictured in the figure of the anointed Son of David who will rule in righteousness by the Spirit of the Lord. In the Apostles' story the same figure is central - but with the difference that while for the prophets there had been only one that should come, for the Apostles He is one who has come already. …
The Church's belief that Christ will come again in glory is the faith that in that same Jesus … we may hope to see the glory of God.
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