The early church arrived at a belief that the royal presence of Jesus would be the central feature in a cosmic denouement that could occur at any time...[The Apostle] Paul had expected the kingdom to be ushered in all in one. The resurrection of Jesus, however, has forced him to divide the "end" into two "moments," with the church living in between, grounded on the first and longing for the second. The first (Jesus' resurrection) gives the content of the second (the final resolution) in a nutshell, expressing as it does God's victory over death and the transformation of the physical world. It also guarantees the second, since the risen Lord is now already ruling the world... when the heavenly dimension is finally unveiled, so that the royal presence of Jesus is visibly and tan- gibly with us at last, the dead will be raised and the living transformed, to share his new humanity within a transformed world. This will be the fulfillment of the new world, which began in Jesus' resurrection.
— N.T. Wright, The Meaning of Jesus
