Prior to 1436 artists in Europe depicted their subjects on a flat surface, without dimension. The colors were bright, the drawings were brilliant, and the themes were clear. But the paintings were flat. They didn’t “look like” people and scenes such as one might observe during the course of a day. Something was missing, and nobody understood quite what.

Then Leon Battista Alberti published his book, Della pittura – “On Painting” – and everything about art in the West changed forever.

Alberti explained that works of art should not be seen as a flat surface, but as a window. The scenes in a work of art should be posed as on a pyramid, which the viewer observed through the base toward the top. Four triangles comprised the pyramid, and everything should be painted on those triangles with reference to the point which marked the top of the pyramid. The point provided the referent for everything else on the pyramid, which the viewer observed as lying on its side. Alberti insisted that artists should “have no other aim but to make the shapes of things seen appear on the surface of the picture not otherwise than if this surface were of transparent glass and the visual pyramid passed through it, the distance, the lighting, and the point of sight being properly fixed.”

Leon Battista Alberti had discovered perspective, a technique for creating the illusion of depth and the sensation of dimension on a flat surface. Western art was forever changed, and Alberti’s technique continues being taught and practiced to this day.

Lift up your eyes

The coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh signaled a change of perspective more significant, more radical, and more all-encompassing than Alberti’s introduction of perspective to painting. Prior to Jesus, faithful men and women anticipated the promised day when God would redeem His people, establish His Kingdom, and begin the work of reconciling the world to Himself. That would be a glorious day – the Jubilee – in which all the precious and very great promises of God would finally come to fruition, and all the world would be transformed and blessed.

Jesus declared that, by His coming to earth, the Kingdom of God had come near. The Incarnation inaugurated the consummation of history. The day of promise had arrived. The long-awaited in-breaking of the rule of God on earth as in heaven had begun. And the reconciling of all creation, culture, and humankind to God was under way.

With Jesus, everything changed. And this was no illusion, but a new reality – the Kingdom of God. And with the outpouring of God’s Spirit on that first Christian Pentecost, power arrived to carry out the promises of God, according to the teaching of Jesus, for the life and hope of the world.

When Jesus told His disciples to lift up their eyes, He wanted them to see that the end of history had broken into the middle, and from that moment forward, nothing would be the same. He, through them, would begin making all things new. The various tributaries of human history, which had for centuries and millennia meandered their separate courses, were now draining into a new channel – the channel of the Kingdom of God – and, by a new and irresistible power, were being carried along according to the purpose of God to a consummation and conclusion He had determined and He would accomplish.

The Kingdom turn

Everyone who truly comes to faith in Jesus Christ is responding to a call from God, the Creator of the world and Father of the redeemed. He calls us into His Kingdom, there to know and live for His glory, as He works through us, by His Word and Spirit, to make all things new (1 Thess. 2.12; 2 Cor. 3.12-18; 1 Cor. 10.31).

Coming to faith in Jesus Christ creates a turning point in a person’s life, from a flat, lifeless, hopeless existence into the glorious depth, dimension, and direction inaugurated by the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. If you are a believer, if you have heard and answered the Father’s call, then you have made a turn in life, the Kingdom turn, and now everything about your life must be forever new.

The Kingdom turn is a watershed experience, and it begins with a dramatic shift in perspective, in which we lift up our eyes and understand that the world we live in is bigger, brighter, and more fraught with possibilities for glory than we ever imagined before. If you’ve made this Kingdom turn, then every day is an adventure of lifting up your eyes to a horizon bright with hope, broader than the material cosmos, and brimming with possibilities for glory and love.

This perspective – this Kingdom turn – provides a vantage point for living that brings new depth and dimension to every aspect of our lives, as we engage in everything Him Who declares, “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21.5).

Next steps

How would you explain your experience of making this “Kingdom turn”? Talk with a Christian friend about what it means for you to have answered the Father’s call and to have entered into His Kingdom and glory.

Additional Resources

Download this week’s study, The Kingdom Turn.

T. M. has written two books to complement this eight-part series. You can order The Kingship of Jesus by clicking here, and The Gospel of the Kingdom by clicking here.For a brief study of what it means to pursue culture every day for the glory of God, order T. M.’s book, Christians on the Front Lines of the Culture Wars by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.