The New Testament gives a surprising report of Roman centurions. It mentions six, each a “commander of 100 men in the Roman army.”1 They all had a positive connection to the kingdom of heaven.
Matt 8:5–13 presents the New Testament’s first centurion. His perception of the kingdom caused Jesus to marvel. The Lord said, “Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel” (Matt 8:10). Five other centurions appear (Mark 15:39; Acts 10:1–48; 22:25–26; 23:17–22; 27:1, 42–43).2
The Jews did not expect this centurion-kingdom relationship. They despised the Romans who occupied their land. The foreigners taxed them (Luke 2:1) and controlled their power structures (John 11:48). Jewish Zealots—“a militant, anti-Roman, revolutionary faction”3—dedicated themselves to the overthrow of Roman rule. The centurions were a vital part of the oppressive regime. How could God bless them?
But God was about to rock Israel’s world. And, he would use Roman centurions to do so. This post will discuss three important lessons based on the first recorded interaction of a Roman centurion with the kingdom.
The Kingdom is Many
The centurion’s actions teach kingdom optimism. Here are Jesus’s words after his interview with the centurion. “And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 8:11). The centurion represented a great host that would enter the kingdom.
This “many” agrees with several Old Testament passages. God said he would give the nations to Christ (Psa 2:8; emphasis added). David said, “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the LORD: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee” (Psa 22:27; emphasis added). Isaiah said, “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD’S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it” (Isa 2:2; emphasis added). The list of passages that describe “many” in terms like these is long.4 This the uniform testimony of the Old Testament.
Commentators often nullify this optimistic view. They make the “few” of Matt 7:14 reverse the “many” of Matt 8:11. Jesus taught, they say, that only a “few” will enter the kingdom during the messianic age. This misunderstanding leads them to see kingdom-history in pessimistic terms.
The number of the saved cannot be both “few” and “many.” The law of non-contradiction says “that a thing cannot be thus, and not thus, in the same sense, and at the same time.”5 The number of people in the kingdom of God cannot be “few” and “many” in the same sense and at the same time.
Some commentators suggest Jesus’s “few” (Matt 7:14) relates to the earth’s total population. At the final judgment, only a small percent of these will enter heaven. But the redeemed will also be “many” in some way. The number for comparison is seldom stated. One wonders, “many” compared to what?
This approach makes those in heaven both “few” and “many” at the same time. If the “few’ and “many” refer to the same number—earth’s population?—this idea is self-contradictory.
Inmillennialism takes another approach. It distinguishes between these terms in both sense and time. Jesus was speaking to a Jewish audience in the Sermon on the Mount. He was doing so during the “last days” (Heb 1:2) of the Mosaic age. Only a “few” in Israel after the flesh (1 Cor 10:18) would enter the soon-coming kingdom. This is why Paul said, “at this present time also there is a remnant (i.e., “few”) according to the election of grace” (Rom 11:5; emphasis added). The “few” referred to Paul’s generation. Its comparison was to the total number of Jews living at that time.
This understanding avoids a collision with Matt 8:11. There, the “many” refers to the messianic age. During that age, “all the kindreds of the nations shall worship” God (Psa 22:27). David said, “All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name” (Psa 86:9). The redeemed are “many” compared to the earth’s total population.
The Roman centurion was not part of Israel after the flesh. Therefore, he was not part of the “few” in Matt 7:14. He was, however, among those who would come from the east and the west to enter the kingdom during the messianic age. He was among the “many” of Matt 8:11.
The Kingdom is Now
John and Jesus had announced that the kingdom was at hand (Matt 3:2; 4:17). Jesus had taught the ethics of that kingdom (Matt 5–7). Now, the Lord declares “many” like the Roman centurion would enter that kingdom (Matt 8:11).
This kingdom was Israel’s promised inheritance. The centurion would “sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 8:11; emphasis added). God was about to fulfill his promises to Israel’s patriarchs.
God established the kingdom in the “last days” (Heb 1:2) of the Mosaic age. These were also the days of the Roman kings (Dan 2:44).
We can think of this using typology. (See Typology and Inmillennialism.) God sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, creating a spiritual nation in a day (cp. Isa 66:8). This fulfilled the type. God had given the law on Mt. Sinai to create a physical nation.
The spiritual nation entered the kingdom of heaven under Jesus. This resembled Israel entering her earthly kingdom under Joshua. Both transitions lasted forty years.
We know the kingdom is a present reality through another line of thought. The Gentiles’ entrance would coincide with a certain event. Jesus said God would cast “the children of the kingdom . . . out into outer darkness” (Matt 8:12). Jesus mentioned this again a few months later. Speaking to Jewish leaders he said, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matt 21:43). And, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate” (Matt 23:38). This would happen in that generation (Matt 23:36; 24:34).
God fulfilled this prophecy in AD 70. Kingdom fellowship with Abraham is a present reality. The Roman centurion is already enjoying it.
The Kingdom is by Faith
One of Daniel’s prophecies combines our first two kingdom lessons. He said,
I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. (Dan 7:13–14)
The fulfillment came when Jesus as the Son of Man ascended after his resurrection (Acts 1:9). The kingdom is, therefore, a present reality. In it, “all people, nations, and languages” will serve Christ. This is the “many” of Matt 8:11.
Daniel said this kingdom belongs to “the people of the saints of the most High” (Dan 7:27). To whom does he refer? To Israel after the flesh?
Jesus’s exchange with the Roman centurion answers this question. Jesus said, “I assure you: I have not found anyone in Israel with so great a faith!” (Matt 8:10, HCSB). The people who enter the kingdom and sit down with Abraham are those who have faith in Christ.
This answer is foundational to the New Testament. The kingdom of heaven does not belong to Israel defined by physical descent from Abraham. The sons of God—the “Israel of God” (Gal 6:16)—are those “that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12–13).
Paul labors at length to establish this point. Abraham is “the father of all them that believe . . . And the father of [those] who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham. . . . It is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham (Rom 4:11–17).
The apostle also said, “They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed” (Rom 9:7–8; emphasis added).
God cast the unbelieving Jews out of the kingdom. At the same time, he welcomed the believing Roman centurion. This shows that “they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham” (Gal 3:7).
The kingdom of heaven belongs to the children of Abraham by faith, not to the children of Abraham by physical descent. The Roman centurion was “an Israelite indeed” (John 1:47).
Conclusion
Roman centurions in the New Testament teach surprising lessons. Through them, we learn “many” will serve Christ. Other passages show this “many” means “all the kindreds of the nations.” The Lord will convert the nations before the resurrection (Psa 110:1; 1 Cor 15:25–26).
The centurions also show the kingdom God promised Abraham is a present reality. They came into the kingdom when God expelled the unbelieving Jews.
And, God has redefined Israel. The “holy nation” (1 Pet 2:9) now comprises those with faith in Christ. The Roman centurion of Matt 8:5–13 belongs to that nation.
May we learn these lessons and rejoice in God’s kingdom. “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Rom 14:17).
Footnotes
- Walter A. Elwell and Philip W. Comfort, Tyndale Bible Dictionary (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 2001), 260.
- The image in this post is Vision of Cornelius the Centurion by Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (1621–1674). This file (here) is in the public domain (PD-US).
- Elwell and Comfort, Tyndale Bible Dictionary, 1321.
- See He Must Reign. Other examples will appear if you click on the “Optimism” button at the bottom of this post (or anywhere else it appears in this blog.)
- R. L. Dabney, Systematic Theology (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1985), 46.
