Speaking about Christ and the Kingdom, Peter describes the spiritual movement connected with the spread of...
Speaking about Christ and the Kingdom, Peter describes the spiritual movement connected with the spread of the Kingdom in the world, a movement in which a person takes the most direct part. The risen Christ first appears to those who received Him during His earthly ministry, and they in turn bear witness to the rest about the resurrection.
At first glance such witness may not appear to be the most effective: the process turns out to be long and not always fruitful, both because of the witnesses themselves and because fallen humanity so readily distrusts everything connected with spiritual reality. Would it not have been simpler for the Savior to appear to the world Himself, in the way He describes His appearing at the end of time? Then everyone would surely have been convinced and believed.
And yet Jesus does not do this. One of the reasons can be considered His respect for our freedom: He does not want to pressure us with the obviousness of His power, which surpasses every human understanding and would become obvious to us if He appeared to us in the full fullness of His divinity. He does not need followers who have chosen Him not freely, out of love, but under compulsion, under the influence of superior and overwhelming power.
There is another reason as well: our salvation. If the full fullness of the Kingdom had been revealed to the world already in the days of the resurrection, and this was entirely possible, there would hardly have been many saved. Of course, God cannot guarantee anyone's salvation; He can only give each person everything necessary and sufficient to be saved, which He does through the Messiah He has sent.
But human participation in the process of the Kingdom's unfolding in our world, which is already being transfigured though not yet transfigured to the end, makes salvation closer and more accessible to those who seek. On the one hand, the full and final triumph of the Kingdom is postponed, giving those who have not yet decided additional time to choose and make a decision. On the other hand, the participation of concrete, living people who already now live the life of the Kingdom and can bear witness to this life helps seekers understand that the Kingdom is not only a manifestation of God's power but also the breath of God's love. And it makes it more possible that those who choose God and the Kingdom will choose Him not only because He is the fullness of power, but above all because He is the fullness of love.
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10:42 It is he who is ordained by God the Judge of the living and the dead - Of all men, whether they are alive at his coming, or had died before it. This was declaring to them, in the strongest terms, how entirely their happiness depended on a timely and humble subjection to him who was to be their final Judge.
10:43 To him give all the prophets witness - Speaking to heathens he does not quote any in particular; that every one who believeth in him - Whether he be Jew or Gentile; receiveth remission of sins - Though he had not before either feared God, or worked righteousness.