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The Kingdom of God Is Reality Because the Son Has Risen

The Kingdom of God is reality. It’s what is real. We often walk around as though we are the sovereign ones and as if we have the crowns on our heads.

April 22, 2025 by: Chris Castaldo

Look Up

The kingdom of God is reality. It’s what is real. We often walk around as though we are the sovereign ones and as if we have the crowns on our heads. Life is self-referential. But we understand there’s one true King of heaven and earth—and it is Jesus.

When I was at seminary at Gordon-Conwell, I went on a retreat to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. You know how it goes. I was in a cabin with a bunch of guys, there was someone who snored, and I thought he was going to have a hernia. So at about five o’clock in the morning, I decided to go for a walk. I went down to the lake where we had been the night before, and I remembered the s’mores that we enjoyed eating and the worship songs. I was trying to read my Bible in the moonlight, waiting for the sun to rise—which always seems to take longer than you anticipate.

As I was mulling around and praying, at one point I looked at the mountain behind me and noticed on the treetops way up high that the sun was shining. It occurred to me that while it was still dark down below where I was standing, the sun had already risen up there.

That’s the good news. The Son has risen. Jesus is King. He’s advancing his kingdom in this world, and we have the privilege every day of bowing the knee to him, of surrendering our lives, and submitting and proclaiming his message so that others would give their lives to his reign and his rule. And that’s what Jesus means when he says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Chris Castaldo is the author of The Upside Down Kingdom: Wisdom for Life from the Beatitudes.

Chris Castaldo (PhD, London School of Theology) is the lead pastor at New Covenant Church in Naperville, Illinois. He is the author of Talking with Catholics about the Gospel and coauthor of The Unfinished Reformation.

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What Does the Cross Have to Do with Justice?

We are justified by the blood of Christ. And as a justified people, we are then called to seek justice for every image-bearer on the planet.

April 18, 2025 by: Jeremy Treat

A Level Playing Field

Justice is such an important issue today, and the cross speaks volumes to this. In fact, for followers of Jesus, you can’t have a biblical understanding of justice apart from the cross of Christ. And at the cross, we see the greatest demonstration of justice in human history: God pouring out his judgment on our sin.

It’s at the cross where we learn, ultimately, that God is a just God. So we have a vision of justice from the cross, but then what we have to learn is that the cross makes us a just people. We are justified by the blood of Christ, and as a justified people, we are then called to seek justice for every image-bearer on the planet.

For us as Christians, I really believe the cross makes us a people of mercy and justice. The cross levels the playing field. You can’t look down on anyone else when you’re at the foot of the cross, because we recognize that we’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And yet it’s the grace of God that motivates us to go and serve, to show mercy, to seek justice for all. We really need the cross to understand this today.

Jeremy Treat is the author of The Atonement: An Introduction.

Jeremy Treat (PhD, Wheaton College) is a pastor for preaching and vision at Reality LA, a church in Los Angeles, California. He is also an adjunct professor of theology at Biola University and is the author of Seek First: How the Kingdom of God Changes Everything and The Crucified King: Atonement and Kingdom in Biblical and Systematic Theology. 

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I’ve Heard It Said, “God Will Accept Me Because I Know I’m a Good Person”

Our culture just despises the idea of sin, of breaking moral rules from God. And if there is a God, you can earn his approval by living well.

April 15, 2025 by: Andrew David Naselli

This article is part of the I’ve Heard It Said series.

Are Humans Basically Good?

I’ve heard it said, “God will accept me because I know I’m a good person.” Our culture loves to celebrate that humans are basically good, not sinful. If a human does something that’s harmful, then it must be because of a complex of sociological factors that negatively affected that person. Our culture just despises the idea of sin, of breaking moral rules from God, and if there is a God, you can earn his approval by living well.

Here’s an example. Michael Bloomberg is one of the richest people in the world. He was mayor of New York City for three terms, from 2002 to 2013. Four months after he finished his terms as governor, The New York Times published a story about him. The story says that if Bloomberg senses that he may not have as much time left as he would like, he has little doubt about what would await him at a judgment day. Bloomberg thinks he has earned God’s favor on the basis of his work on gun safety, obesity, and smoking cessation.

And he said, with a grin, “I’m telling you, if there is a God, when I get to heaven, I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I’m heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.” That’s a tragedy. How many people today think like that? How many people think they can earn God’s approval by how they live? The truth is that you’re not good. You are bad.

The Bible says, “None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together, they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one.” That’s Romans 3:10–12. So if people aren’t bad, then the good news isn’t good. The good news is only as good as the bad news is bad. And the bad news is really bad. Namely, we deserve God’s wrath because we have rebelled against our Creator.

Andrew David Naselli is the author of Romans: A Concise Guide to the Greatest Letter Ever Written.

Andrew David Naselli (PhD, Bob Jones University; PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is professor of systematic theology and New Testament at Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis. He is planting Christ the King Church in Stillwater, Minnesota.

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Introducing a New Children’s Book from Kristyn Getty

Learn more about Pippa and the Singing Tree, an illustrated storybook by celebrated singer and hymn writer Kristyn Getty that inspires kids to lift their voices to the Lord.

April 14, 2025 by:

Pippa and the Singing Tree: Joining the Song of All Creation

The whole earth is a symphony to God. The universe echoes his glory, and believers harmonize with songs of adoration. In the illustrated book Pippa and the Singing Tree, singer and hymn writer Kristyn Getty teaches children how they can answer Scripture’s call to worship.

Playing outside one chilly autumn day, Pippa is surrounded by the sights and sounds of nature. The great trees, robins, and icy winds—depicted in charming lyrical prose—all witness to God’s majesty. Moved by the beauty around her, Pippa lifts her voice, adding her own song to the chorus.

Combining beauty and rhythm with artwork by P. J. Lynch, this story makes a great gift or church resource. In a special note at the end of the book, Getty shares some of her favorite psalms, along with prompts that will inspire kids to worship the Lord.

  • Written by Kristyn Getty: Grammy-nominated singer brings her lyrical talent to a book on worship

  • Illustrated Story for Ages 5–8: Rhythmic prose and beautiful illustrations capture kids’ imaginations

  • A Great Gift for Families and Churches: Perfect for story time or as a supplemental Sunday school resource

Learn more about Pippa and the Singing Tree today!

What Is the Significance of Joseph’s Bones Being Carried Out of Egypt?

The land of Israel promised to Abraham and subsequently occupied by Joshua and Israel throughout their history is a typological re-manifestation of the Garden of Eden.

April 08, 2025 by: Nicholas G. Piotrowski

Return to Eden

When thinking of exile and return in the Bible, it’s critical to understand that the land of Israel promised to Abraham and subsequently occupied by Joshua and Israel throughout their history is a typological re-manifestation of the Garden of Eden. It is described in similar ways, as is the Garden of Eden.

This is especially true in Exodus, Numbers, and Joshua, but you can also see it in the book of Genesis. The land is not just a generic, geographically marked off space but serves this theological purpose of remembering Eden and hoping that someday the whole earth will return to that edenic state after a resurrection.

And that’s where Joseph’s story comes in. He knows he’s about to die, but he also has hope for a resurrection. And so he asks the children of Israel to remember to carry him up into the land—that new typological Garden of Eden—when they go.

And this does two things. Not only does it express hope for resurrection—why else would someone care so much about their bones?—but specifically where that resurrection will happen. He could be raised just as well in Egypt or anywhere else, but he wants to be raised in that space that represents the Garden of Eden, because someday the whole earth will revert back to those edenic conditions.

To put it in another way, Joseph believes that when he is raised to life, he will be raised in the Garden of Eden, in the very presence of God. This is significant for us because what it teaches us is the Christian hope of resurrection is not just, Oh, I get to live forever, but specifically, I will live forever in the presence of God, where there is true fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.

Nicholas G. Piotrowski is the author of Return from Exile and the Renewal of God’s People.

Nicholas G. Piotrowski (PhD, Wheaton College) is the president of Indianapolis Theological Seminary where he also teaches hermeneutics and New Testament courses. His other books include In All the Scriptures and Matthew’s New David at the End of Exile.

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Answering Kids’ Hardest Questions: Why Can’t I Have Screen Time All the Time?

There is no Bible verse that says, “Thou shalt not use an iPad,” or a commandment that says “You can have twenty-five minutes of screen time per day.”

April 04, 2025 by: Andrew T. Walker, Christian Walker

This article is part of the Answering Kids’ Hardest Questions series.

Safeguard Your Heart

Parents, has your child ever said, “No! Don’t turn off my screen!” Why is too much screen time not good for your child? We have some thoughts that the Bible has pointed us to. As we think about how Christians evaluate technology and screen time, it’s admittedly challenging because there’s no Bible verse that says, “Thou shalt not use an iPad,” or a commandment that says “You can have twenty-five minutes of screen time per day.”

So as we think about this issue, there’s prudence and wisdom involved. I think wisdom and prudence are best informed by what we see in Genesis 1. When God creates us as human beings, our existence is an embodied existence—meaning, it’s something that is real, it’s earthy, it’s there—which means our best attempts to remove real friendships and real relationships and exchange that with a Zoom screen or a FaceTime call is never going to be truly adequate.

Please hear me: I’m not saying we can’t use Zoom or that FaceTime is bad. No, those things can actually be really good. But they shouldn’t be substitutes for what God has designed for us, which is to honor the reality that this life is meant to be lived in fellowship with our friends and like-minded brothers and sisters in Christ.

As we’ve thought about technology in our own home, we’ve thought about it less as an on-off switch and more as a dimmer switch. And so as we’re training our children, we are trying to give them a little bit more responsibility over their technology that they can handle. As we’ve been working with our thirteen-year-old daughter, we’ve been trying to train her with technology a little bit at a time. As we're training her, we’re trying to help her understand that technology is not all bad. Technology can actually be used as a good thing. God gave dominion over the earth when he gave it to Adam and Eve. He gave us dominion over things in order to create with the human creativity he designed us with. And so technology is flowing out of that creativity.

But technology can also be dangerous, sinful, and unrighteous. And so we have to train our children to start to see those differences and be responsible for those. We also want to help our daughter understand that there are going to be times when she has to be aware that what’s going inside of her heart may not be good, and she has to start safeguarding her heart by limiting what’s going in and seeing that what goes in comes out. We are a part of that training of safeguarding her heart and her mind.

God wants us to have physical, intimate, face-to-face community.

We also don’t want her to get so caught up in digital relationships that she loses her face-to-face relationships. God wants us to have physical, intimate, face-to-face community. And so we want to help her limit her technology so that she can have real, live, intimate community relationships.

And finally, we have to parent, and she has to obey. God has authority over us. He safeguards us. He limits us in different ways. And we have authority over our children, to limit and safeguard them. There are going to be times when they don’t agree with what we say when we tell them to turn off their devices, but they have to obey us, because we are doing what we feel is right for them. They are required to obey us just as we are required to obey God—even though sometimes we might not like the limits that he puts on our lives as well. So parents, stand strong against the technology that is looming in your household, and do your best to help transfer the responsibility to your kids, and guard them while you’re doing that.

Andrew T. and Christian Walker are the authors of What Do I Say When . . . ?: A Parent’s Guide to Navigating Cultural Chaos for Children and Teens.

Andrew T. Walker (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is associate professor of Christian ethics and public theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and an associate dean in the School of Theology. He is a fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center and managing editor of WORLD Opinions. He resides with his wife and three daughters in Louisville, Kentucky.

Christian Walker is an accomplished curriculum writer and educator with experience both directing a large children’s ministry in a local church setting as well as spending numerous years in elementary education. She is a teacher at a classical Christian school in Louisville, Kentucky. She resides with her husband and three daughters in Louisville, Kentucky.

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Why Must We Read the Old and New Testament as a Unified Body of Scripture?

We need to recognize that the one God who spoke in the Old Testament also speaks in the New Testament.

April 01, 2025 by: Daniel Stevens

Old Points to New

I would say that the two fundamental things that we need to do is first recognize and then notice. We need to recognize that the one God who spoke in the Old Testament also speaks in the New Testament. We should expect, then, that he knew what he was doing all along, and he knew what he was going to say when he was giving his earlier revelation.

Because all Scripture is God-breathed and because the God who spoke in the prophets to the fathers also speaks to us in the Son, we can be confident that things in the Old Testament do correspond to and do point to the things in the New. We can be sure that it’s a possible project, that reading the Old and the New together isn’t going back in time in a way that’s inappropriate, but is indeed what we were designed to do.

Second, we need to notice. For this I’m going to say we need to notice both parallels and resonances. We need to be able to see where the words of the Old Testament are used in the New Testament. This isn’t an accident or something that happens by chance, rather the New Testament authors, guided by God, were carefully reading and interpreting the Old Testament Scriptures.

Whenever we’re using their words, we should stop and ask Why? and How? What point is this citation being used to make? In what ways are these themes being developed in this new setting in the New Testament books? What context is brought in that we wouldn’t expect or that we might? And then beyond the actual exact words of the Old and the New, we should see resonances. Look for ways in which things in the Old Testament look like things in the New Testament.

God structured history and inspired the Old Testament to point forward to greater realities in the New.

In the book of Hebrews, it is commonly referred to as shadows or types—things in the way that God structured history and inspired the Old Testament that point forward to greater realities in the New. So we can see the tabernacle and see the ways in which that points to the place where Jesus ministers in heaven before the presence of God for us.

We can see the Levitical priesthood and the sacrifices on the day of atonement, and we can use that resonance to see the way that Jesus offers himself once and for all to atone for the people.

So if we have these things in mind—the one God who spoke in the past still speaks in all of his word, and if we see how the words are used again and the themes correspond—we will be able to read the Old and the New alongside one another for our good.

Daniel Stevens is the author of Songs of the Son: Reading the Psalms with the Author of Hebrews.

Daniel Stevens (PhD, University of Cambridge) is assistant professor of New Testament Interpretation at Boyce College, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Daniel lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with his wife, Hannah, and two children.

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The Vinedresser Shows His Love by Pruning the Vine

We have to remember that the vine dresser loves the vine, and the vinedresser loves the branches. And his pruning is not just hacking away or lopping off things carelessly, but he’s very, careful.

March 28, 2025 by: Courtney Doctor

The Father Prunes in Love

Pruning does sound painful, doesn’t it? And so I think it’s important to remember who’s doing the pruning. Scripture says, “My Father is the vinedresser . . . I am the vine; you are the branches” (John 15:1, 5).

We have to remember that the vinedresser loves the vine, and the vinedresser loves the branches. His pruning is not just hacking away or lopping off things carelessly, but he’s very careful. He is very precise, and he only removes and takes away that which hinders bearing fruit. That’s what the text says.

And in fact, it says, “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit” (John 15:2). So we need to remember who he’s pruning. He’s pruning those who are abiding in Christ.

The word abide actually means “to remain” or “to endure.” And so there’s a sense that as we abide in Christ, we trust the vine dresser enough to remain under his pruning. We trust that he is doing a good work—that he is taking things away from us that are not good for us and that hinder the fruit of sanctification in our own lives and also the things that hinder the fruit of good works in our lives. And so the Father, because he is a loving vine dresser, is going to carefully take those things away. And so our job as the branch is to abide, to remain, to trust. And there is great joy in that.

Courtney Doctor is coauthor with Joanna Kimbrel of Behold and Believe: A Bible Study on the “I Am” Statements of Jesus.

Courtney Doctor (MDiv, Covenant Theological Seminary) serves as the director of women’s initiatives for the Gospel Coalition. She is a Bible teacher and the author of From Garden to Glory as well as several Bible studies, including Steadfast; Remember Your Joy; and In View of God’s Mercies: The Gift of the Gospel in Romans.

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What Does It Mean to Be “Above Reproach”?

What does it mean to be above reproach? Some ears, maybe tender consciences, hear “above reproach” and think that’s unattainable.

March 25, 2025 by: David Mathis

Exemplary Christians

For many Christians—and pastors included—when you take a first look or a fresh look at the elder qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 or Titus 1, there can be a little bit of surprise that the first one mentioned is not that he’s a Christian and regenerate. Paul assumes that. It’s not some other attribute which we might consider central to pastoral ministry. Rather, it’s this umbrella term, and it might be a strange term to many of us: “above reproach.”

What does it mean to be “above reproach”? Some ears, maybe tender consciences, hear “above reproach” and think that’s unattainable. Maybe they think of it as a kind of blamelessness or even an utter sinlessness. That’s not what “above reproach” means. “Above reproach” is a very outward-oriented, public-facing qualification. It gets set right at the beginning of the list of elder qualifications—the public nature of the office. Other ears might hear “above reproach” as a really low bar, meaning that I don’t need to have some taint on my public reputation. For many people, that’s not very difficult, and they think this is a really low bar and attainable.

But one thing that it does get at is in addition to the public nature of the office, the exemplary function of the Christian ministry of pastors and elders, they need not be world-class orators or the greatest minds in the world or have administrative savvy. They are typically normal, healthy, exemplary Christians.

The elders are meant to embody—in their leadership and in their teaching—the kind of healthy Christians that we want the whole flock to grow toward. And so it’s important, given the public nature of the office and its exemplary function, that the elders be above reasonable reproach.

In other words, we want to be able to say about every pastor and elder in the church, “Be like him,” and not immediately need to qualify that. There are some men who, by virtue of their own indiscretion, both in the world’s eyes as much as in the churches, are not above reasonable public reproach. And they should not be pastors and elders.

There are others wrongfully have been accused, and we should stand by them and evaluate that clearly. But God means for the leaders in the local church to be those who are above that public reproach.

David Mathis is the author of Workers for Your Joy: The Call of Christ on Christian Leaders.

David Mathis serves as senior teacher and executive editor at desiringGod.org; a pastor at Cities Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota; and an adjunct professor at Bethlehem College & Seminary in Minneapolis. He and his wife, Megan, have four children. He is the author of several books, including Habits of Grace: Enjoying Jesus through the Spiritual Disciplines.

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How Does Our Digital Life Affect Our Theology?

When you’re looking out into the realm of social media, it’s easy to base your theological reflection not on what Scripture emphasizes, but on what social media wants to talk about.

March 21, 2025 by: Samuel D. James

Scripture Shapes What’s Important

Our digital life can shape our theology in several ways. I think one of the most prominent ways it does is that it tends to make us think of theology through the lens of other things, like news or controversies. The whole Bible is given to us for our instruction, but it’s really easy, when you’re looking out into the realm of social media, to base your theological reflection not on what Scripture emphasizes but on what social media wants to talk about.

The internet and social media are not simply mirror reflections of what’s important. These are programs that are engineered with algorithms to bring certain topics to the forefront and marginalize other topics.

So one of the things that I do see, especially of people of my age and even in myself, is a tendency to emphasize in our theology things that have a lot of bite online, and then we don’t want to talk about other things that aren’t as viral—things that don’t have the same kind of capacity for whipping up a big response online.

And so when we bring that kind of attitude to Scripture, we can, if we’re not being careful, instrumentalize Scripture. We can make Scripture’s teaching valuable to the degree that it allows me to argue with people, or it makes the other person look wrong, or it makes my life look righteous or beautiful.

And so that’s one way that technology can shape our engagement with theology for the worse. And we just have to be mindful of that and continually prioritize what the Scriptures prioritize, regardless of what the ambient culture might be saying.

Samuel D. James is the author of Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age.

Samuel James is an associate acquisitions editor at Crossway. He is the author of Digital Liturgies, a regular newsletter on Christianity, technology, and culture. He lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with his wife, Emily, and their three children. 

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