Second, the place of Jesus’ reign became the ground for mission to the ends of the earth. The rest of the New Testament essentially recounts the growth and struggle of these Jesus communities as they popped up all over the Greco-Roman world. They spread out because Jesus reigns in heaven. The spread of the gospel geographically and the birth of the church is inseparable from Christ’s cosmic reign in the heavens. Earthly space was reordered by the heavenly Christ. Christ’s reign in heaven became the
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