What is the concept of "already but not yet"?

We have the kingdom of God today in just this mysterious form, and we enter it by conversion and forgiveness, for thus it is that the authority of God is established in our hearts. We are still waiting for the kingdom in its displayed glory and power.

So here clearly the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews explains the eighth Psalm to his readers and says, We see now that this has not yet been fulfilled. This is not in contradiction with Ephesians where the same Psalm is mentioned and where it is said He has put all things under his feet. In Ephesians we have the counsel of God. The counsel of God is that all things are to be put under the feet of the glorified Christ, and when God takes a counsel it is as good as accomplished. But here in Hebrews 2 the writer speaks about the time aspect, and therefore says, at present the Lord Jesus is at the right hand as in Ephesians, but we do not yet see all things visibly and practically subjected under His feet.

You find the same thing in Hebrews 2, where the apostle, citing Psalm 8, shews how far it is accomplished. "But one, in a certain place, testified, saying, What is man that thou art mindful of him? or the Son of man that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him." That time is not yet come. "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour." Mark what we have got here. Here is God's purpose of putting everything in subjection under Christ without any exception - there is nothing excepted that is not put under Him. In fact He created it all, and therefore is heir of it all. But the point is this, that what He created as God He takes for an inheritance as Man, in order that we might take it with Him; but that time is not come yet. We do not see all things put under Him; but we do see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honour; we see that half accomplished, but not the other half; we do not see all things put under Him. This is what the apostle states, and the reason of it we get in Psalm 110, which the apostle also quotes in the Hebrews, and to which the Lord Himself appealed in reasoning with the Pharisees on this very matter. "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." And therefore in Hebrews 10 the apostle says, "He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" - that is, the work of their redemption - "from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool," till they are all put under His feet by God.

Thus the subjection of all things to Him risen is already true to faith, according to the use made of Psalm 8, while at His coming from the right hand of God His enemies will be made His footstool, and He will rule in their midst. To this last answers the necessity of His reigning till He put all the enemies under His feet, death's annulling included at the last. It is what scripture calls the kingdom, during which the Lord is to reduce all rule and all authority, and power, and then render it up to Him who is God and Father. (Ver. 24.) This will be at the end of the thousand years' reign, which reign is characterised in verse 25, verse 26 adding what will be at its close. Verse 27 states the universality of His present title, as bound up with His resurrection; as verse 28 the eternal condition, when the universe has been subjected in fact, and the Son Himself shall be also, to Him who subjected it all to Him, in order that, not the Father exclusively, but God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) should be all in all, instead of the kingdom of man in Christ exalted and reigning. Thus is the lie of Satan met by the truth, grace, righteousness, and glorious counsels of God: man in Christ governing all first; and finally God all in all, where righteousness needs not to rule, but can dwell in endless blessing and peace.

The new age, however necessarily distinct from all before, is a stewardship, an economy. It will have its peculiar object — for Christ to put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. Though He has the title already (Head over all things, which God has put under His feet), He is not yet making good that title against His enemies. While sitting at the right hand of God, and on the Father's throne, He is acting as priest, etc., for His friends, till God makes His enemies His footstool. Then He will come, having received the kingdom, rule in the midst of His enemies, and strike through kings in the day of His wrath. It is a new age marked by its own special principles and ways, wholly distinct from what He or we are doing now, when He is gathering the co-heirs who are associated with Himself in a heavenly way for His reign over the earth at His coming.

These purposes may be looked at, first as regards the kingdom, and next as regards the Church. The kingdom in its Jewish form is postponed. In outward display, it cannot be set up till Israel shall say "Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord." But Jesus speaks of "the mysteries of the kingdom," and it is in this mysterious or unrevealed form, that the kingdom now exists. During this epoch, Christ, not having received His own throne, is seated on the Father's throne, waiting till God shall give him the nations for His inheritance. It is the day of His "patience," not of his "power." He is not taking vengeance on His enemies, but beseeching them to be reconciled. Satan is allowed to sow tares in the field without provoking immediate judgment; the leaven to work in the meal till all is corrupted. God still tarries in grace, not willing that any should perish, and seeking to gather out a people from the ruin and judgment which are impending. Such is the kingdom in its mysterious form. On God's side it is the display of perfect grace and matchless forbearance; on man's, it is but a sadder disclosure of his proneness to depart from God, and to corrupt the best gifts entrusted to his hands.

The Jews having refused their king, the kingdom was not set up in manifestation at that time and it is still held in abeyance. In the meanwhile it is 'the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.' Rev. 1:9. Christ is represented as having gone to receive a kingdom, and to return. Luke 19:12. In the meantime the kingdom has been produced, and goes on in its mysterious form: cf. Matt. 13:11. There are multitudes who profess obedience to God and to the Lord Jesus, and who look to heaven as the throne from whence come all their blessings, while they are passing through a world of which Satan is the god and prince; but to the saints the kingdom of God is very real. They by faith anticipate the kingdom in power. Righteousness, peace, and joy characteristics of the kingdom, are already theirs in the Holy Ghost. Rom. 14:17. In this sense the kingdom of God is often referred to in the Epistles. A person must be born again really to enter into it (John 3:3, 5), but this idea, is distinct from the form which the kingdom has taken, and the dimensions it has attained in the hands of man.

Few portions of Scripture contain fuller instruction as to God's present ways than this parable. Its object is disclosed in the opening verse, where we learn that Jesus spoke it "because He was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear." Just afterwards, as he entered Jerusalem, His disciples hailed Him as King, saying, "Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord." (v. 38.) They expected, as the two disciples on the way to Emmaus declared, that He would at that time "have redeemed Israel" (Luke 24:21), and that the kingdom of God would thus be manifested. We see, indeed, from Luke 17:20-21, that the kingdom had already come, but it was not yet with outward show or "observation." It was even then "among" them, but neither then, nor now, as a visible kingdom, recognizable by the world. The real "children of the kingdom" may recognize it in its present hidden form; others in Christendom may acknowledge it as a kingdom in word, but with no true sense of God's sovereignty. The rest of the world can see in it nothing but a religious profession, with no character of a kingdom about it.

The point there is the Son of Man coming, rather than the kingdom itself; and what follows in our chapter is only a partial illustration of the glory of the rejected Son of Man. Partial though it be, nothing could be more blessed, save the kingdom itself; and faith brings us into a very real present realizing of that which is to be. It is "the substantiating of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The kingdom, of which our Lord spoke, is not yet arrived, of course. When it is said, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," He speaks of a kingdom which we do enter now. For John does not present it as a thing of mere outward manifestation, but gives a deeper revelation of the kingdom, true now, into which every one that is born of God comes, and which shall yet be displayed in its heavenly and its earthly power. But Matthew, who takes up the Jewish part, or Old Testament predictions of the kingdom, sketches us the presentation of the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.

It is equally wrong to suppose that the reigning time is now. God overrules no doubt, at all times restraining, if not judging iniquity, and causing man's evil to subserve His will; but it cannot yet be said in the language of our Psalm, "Jehovah reigns." The times of the Gentiles are still running their course, the Beasts have not yet had their dominion taken away, nor has the Son of man been invested with His royal power. To suppose that the reigning time has come is to fall into the disastrous error of the Corinthians to whom the apostle said, "already ye are full, already ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us and I would to God ye did reign, that we also might reign with you." Reigning time had not come for the apostle, whatever the carnal Corinthians might think. He faithfully bore the stigma of the cross, and was content to be as the filth of the world, and as the off-scouring of all things, quite unwilling to be in honour and comfort where his Lord had only a cross and a tomb. It is Babylon who glorifies herself, and lives deliciously, and says in her heart "I sit a queen and am no widow" (Rev. 18:7). The kingdom during the present is connected with tribulation and patience (Rev. 1:9; Acts 14:22); presently it will be displayed in power and glory. Now Christ is hidden, then He will be manifested; now the righteous suffer and the wicked are exalted, then the righteous will be exalted, and the wicked be as ashes beneath the soles of their feet. Now creation groans and travails, then it will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. How complete the contrast!