Two world orders are opposed to one another (Paul calls them flesh [sarx] and Spirit [pneuma]). This represents a break with any idea that human beings can make progress toward bringing the kingdom of God to pass. Only God can do that, by inaugurating a wholesale change of regime. This is what he has done in the invasion (not too strong a word) of the old order by the new in Jesus Christ. The New Testament speaks of our citizenship in either one sphere of power or the other, baptism being the passage “from the dominion of darkness” into “the kingdom of his Son” (Col. 1:13).
