And this concept, that the New Testament writers have, is in stark contrast to what you would see in mainstream Second Temple Judaism, especially in the Pharisees. The idea was that there was a wicked age, and at the end of the wicked age would come the messianic age. And it's just basically two ages. But what the New Testament speaks to is that there's a wicked age, and into this age comes the age of the Messiah, but for a while there's an overlap, there's a living in between both ages. Now, the wicked age is destined to fall away and we look forward towards when there'll only be the full kingdom. Jesus speaks to this in the Gospel of John. Think about the story of when Lazarus is dead and Jesus' coming is going to raise him out of the grave, and before he gets there Lazarus' sister, Martha, comes to him and is pleading with Jesus, "If you'd only been here things would have been different." And Jesus says to her, "Your brother will rise again." And she says, "I know, I know, on the last day." She's working within that eschatology idea of a wicked age, and that at the end will be the new age when the resurrection occurs. But Jesus wants her to understand so much more, wants us to understand so much more, that it isn't at the end of history, that, when this resurrection will occur, but that it's actually in the middle of history and it's occurring in Jesus, in his coming, that he is the resurrection, that he brings this new age. And I think this impacts us as believers, that we don't think of eternal life as something that will happen. We don't think of the kingdom as something yet to come, but that we already are enjoying the eternal age, we already are living in this kingdom. And at the same time, we yearn and we hope for that great second advent, that second day when Christ comes in his glory, when the inaugurated eschatology gives way to just the kingdom of God.
Dr. Mark Jennings teaches New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston MA.