By Joshua Arnold

Election years are often filled with discussions about the candidates’ policy agendas — whether they are genuine, whether they can enact them, and whether they will work. Sometimes it’s invigorating to support a candidate who reflects your values. Sometimes it’s discouraging when there seem to be no good options. Sometimes it’s disorienting when candidates sprint away from their long-held positions.

But have you ever considered Jesus’s policy agenda? I don’t mean a policy agenda reverse-engineered from the parable of the good Samaritan. I don’t even mean policies for our present world derived from careful study and application from the whole counsel of God. I mean the policies that Jesus himself will implement when he comes and reigns as king. When earthly campaigns promise more “joy” than they deliver, we can rest assured that Jesus’s policy agenda is certain and unchanging, because “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).

Scripture has so much to say on this topic that the following list cannot be comprehensive. However, I pray that it will whet your appetite, dear reader, to search the Scriptures for yourself.

Foreign Policy

When Jesus comes to reign, his foreign policy will be universal dominion. In Psalm 2, the Lord establishes his Messiah as king over the nations with the decree, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Psalm 2:7-9). Here God the Father is speaking to his Son, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:5), and his decree will be fulfilled in Jesus’s final conquest (e.g. Revelation 19:15).

Jesus’s reign will be so mighty that he will even “rule in the midst of [his] enemies” (Psalm 110:2), so that “he will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses” (Psalm 110:5-6). This will take place “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:10-11). When Jesus comes to reign, there won’t be elections, political parties, separation of powers, or a threat of foreign wars because he will be supremely sovereign over all.

Social Policy

King Jesus’s social policy will be built on perfect righteousness and justice. “Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice,” foretells Isaiah (Isaiah 32:1). When the Messianic kingdom comes, those entrusted with authority will refresh, not oppress. They will be like “a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place” (Isaiah 32:2). The king will establish justice and righteousness from the wilderness to the fruitful field and everywhere in between (Isaiah 32:16).

King Jesus will establish this realm of perfect righteousness by meting out perfect justice. He promises, “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done” (Revelation 22:12). This is a warning as well as a promise, and it should provoke us to think of ourselves soberly and of God with fear. Ecclesiastes concludes, “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil” (12:13-14). Repentance now is the way to salvation then.

This realm of perfect righteousness and justice will also establish perfect peace. Isaiah continues, “And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness, and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places” (Isaiah 32:17-18). Peace in our homes, peace in the streets, security from economic hardship — these may seem basic, but we don’t realize how important they are until they become scarce.

Environmental Policy

Based on how much the Bible talks about it (even if metaphorically), environmental policy will be another major issue for King Jesus’s eternal reign. Unlike earthly governments, which have limited control over the environment, Jesus is the one by whom, through whom, and for whom all things were created, and the one in whom all things hold together (Colossians 1:16-17). Jesus’s environmental agenda focuses on the restoration of all things.

The Lord promised in the coming Messianic kingdom to “create new heavens and a new earth,” so that “the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind” (Isaiah 65:17). To make way for these, God has ordained that “the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire” (2 Peter 3:7). This fire will be so intense that “the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn” (2 Peter 3:12). This cleansing fire will wipe away evil, and God will preserve the good.

The result will be a new creation, complete with a New Eden. In Revelation 22:1-5, John receives a vision of a garden-like city, featuring a river, fruit trees, a tree of life, and an angel. But, whereas before the angel guarded the garden to keep man out (Genesis 3:24), now God’s servants will worship him there. At this time, “creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21).

Church-State Relations

Best of all, Jesus will once-and-for-all dissolve the barrier between church and state. There will no longer be any need for such a separation, just as there will no longer be any need for a sun (Revelation 22:5). In that day, God himself “will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4).

Theologians use the word “consummation” to describe the intimate fellowship believers will enjoy with the risen Lord Jesus in this restored paradise, using marriage as a picture. Moses described the first marriage, “a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). Paul quoted Moses and added that this profound mystery “refers to Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:32). When all things are restored, physical marriage will pass away (Matthew 22:30) only to be replaced by something better. Christ Jesus will hold fast to his bride, the church, and they will be one in spirit. King Jesus and his church will be like newlyweds on their wedding night, only happier, and our honeymoon will never end.

Already, and Not Yet

During an election, politicians make promises about what they will do once they are in power (except for those who already are). But Jesus’s kingdom “is not of this world” (John 18:36), and therefore it works differently. In some senses, Jesus is already reigning, and he already established his kingdom in the church at his first coming. There are hints and signs of its working (e.g. Matthew 13), but the full enactment of Jesus’s policy agenda awaits his second coming.

Rebels against Jesus’s reign should shudder with terror at the thought of his return because they can only expect from him fearful judgment. Yet the Lord is patiently delaying until the time is complete, “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

But, for those who are in Christ, nothing can compare with seeing him face to face. Therefore, “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come’” (Revelation 22:17). To this prayer, Jesus responds, “Surely I am coming soon.”

“Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.