We have seen that the kingdom of God is the aim of all history and that the kingdom has appeared (in a concealed form) with the coming of Christ. Now we must look at the relation between Christ and the kingdom. There are several different perspectives from which we can consider this question, namely, the protological, the present and the eschatological relationship of Christ to the kingdom. These perspectives cannot be easily separated because they overlap and are intertwined with each other. The protological cannot be abstracted from the eschatological as the question of the last things is also the question of the first things,2.67 the final intention is the original intention. The present cannot be separated from the proton, that is, it must somehow fit into God's intentions; and the present also cannot be separated from the eschaton as the eschaton creates history and history provides the ingredients of the eschaton.
For the remainder of this chapter we will concentrate on the protological aspect of God's original and final intention for this world and how Jesus Christ and sin fit into the eternal decree. In the next chapter we will concentrate on the christological character of the present kingdom and the idea that Christ's veil of flesh is undone in the eschaton.