Open Your Ears to the Promise

God promises righteousness and freedom to sinners. That promise contradicts ordinary human expectation. Sinners ought to receive punishment rather than pardon, incarceration rather than freedom. But by the double work of his law and gospel, God teaches sinners to close their eyes to ordinary human expectations and the conclusions of common sense and to open their ears to the promise which offers life and freedom.  -  Robert Kolb

God's Kingdom: It's All About Jesus

Throughout Scripture, God's kingdom is depicted as a place and time of cosmic restoration. In Old Testament prophecies God says, "See, I will create new heavens and a new earth" (Isaiah 65:17; cf. 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21: 1-5). After Jesus conquered sin on the cross and returned from the grave in triumph over death itself, Peter proclaims the good news in Jerusalem, saying "Heaven must receive [Jesus] until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets" (Acts 3:21). Paul also emphasizes the universal scope of God's redemptive work: "For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in [Jesus], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross" (Colossians 1:19-20). Just as nothing in creation remained untouched by sin after Eden, so nothing in creation can remain untouched by God's redemption after Christ's victory on the cross."  - Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen, "The True Story of the Whole World" , 2009, Faith Alive Christian Resources, Grand Rapids, Michigan. pg. 170  

My Righteousness Is In Heaven

One day as I was passing in the field, and that too with some dashes on my
conscience, fearing lest all was still not right, suddenly this sentence fell upon my
soul, Your righteousness is in heaven. And I thought as well that I saw, with the
eyes of my soul, Jesus Christ at God’s right hand. There, I say, is my
righteousness, so that wherever I was or whatever I was doing, God could not say
of me, [John Bunyan] lacks my righteousness, for that righteousness is right
before Him. I also saw that it was not my good frame of heart that made my
righteousness better, nor my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my
righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, the same yesterday and today and
forever. Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed. I went home rejoicing for
the grace and love of God. Here I lived for some time, sweetly at peace with God
through Christ. Oh, I thought, Christ! Christ! There was nothing but Christ
before my eyes.    -    John Bunyan,  "Grace Abounding"