THE GOSPEL IS BIGGER

We have reduced the gospel to "even though you are a sinner, Jesus died for you, and if you ask Him into your heart, you will be granted entrance to heaven when you die".

And it's so firmly ingrained in the church's mindset, that even the scholars with doctorates don't question it.

But the New Testament presents a much bigger gospel: God's Kingdom has been reestablished on earth, Jesus is the saving King, and He will one day return to earth to fully actualize His authority as King.

The first time the word "gospel" is used in the New Testament is at the advent of Jesus' earthly ministry:

(Mat 4:23) And Jesus went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

"The gospel of the kingdom"! This is His message 3 years before His death.

And then look at Luke 9:

1 And Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. 3 And he said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. 4 And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. 5 And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet has a testimony against them.” 6 And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.

Here again, the gospel is clearly equated with Jesus' proclamation that the kingdom of God had arrived.

And, considering the disciples would later be completely caught off guard by Jesus' death and resurrection, they obviously were not proclaiming the same message that we today call "the gospel"! 

KINGDOM TALK

I skipped writing last night because I wanted to get to bed "early" - 10:15 pm. 

In general, I am starting to recall that I would feel a lot better if I had a more regular bedtime routine at an earlier hour.

Unfortunately, I woke up at 2:45 am, so it didn't necessarily help. I will try again tonight!

Anyway - Now it is 5 am and I am still ruminating on Dallas Willard's words in The Divine Conspiracy. I am resonating with his observations about the lack of a proper preaching focus in the American church. 

What important topic is lacking, according to Willard?

The very thing that Jesus Himself focused on: the Kingdom of God.

Speaking of the sort of vibrant life which disciples of Christ ought to be living, Willard writes:

"This cannot come about unless what Jesus himself believed practiced, and taught makes sense to us." (Emphasis in original, p. 59)

(THERE is the need for proper teaching. The gospel has to be explained in a way as to make sense to believers. You can't "live out" something which is muddled in your own head.)

"And [Jesus'] message must come to us free of the deadening legalisms, political sloganeering, and dogmatic traditionalisms long proven by history to be soul-crushing dead ends."

(Amen! All three of these continue to be issues within the church today.)

"Obviously it does not so come to us now, and this is a fact widely recognized." 

"At the 1974 Lausanne Conference on World Evangelization, Michael Green asked rhetorically, 'How much have you heard here about the Kingdom of God?' His answer was, 'Not much. It is not our language. But it was Jesus' prime concern.'"

(Yes! Why have we latched on to a phrase used once in one gospel (John) - "born again" - and completely skimmed over "Kingdom of God" and "Kingdom of Heaven", which are used repeatedly throughout the gospels?)

"Dr. I. Howard Marshall of the University of Aberdeen has commented, 'During the past sixteen years I can recollect only two occasions on which I have heard sermons specifically devoted to the theme of the Kingdom of God. ... I find this silence rather surprising because it is universally agreed by New Testament scholars that the central theme of the teaching of Jesus was the Kingdom of God.'" (p.59)

How has this happened? 

How does it get reversed?

JESUS THE TEACHER

Just a relevant quote from Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy tonight - one which echoes much of my thinking about current American church trends and where the disconnect lies:

The situation we have just described - the disconnection of life from faith, the absence from our churches of Jesus the teacher - is not caused by the wicked world, by social oppression, or by the stubborn meanness of the people who come to our church services and carry on the work of our congregations. It is largely caused and sustained by the basic message that we constantly hear from Christian pulpits. We are flooded with what I have called "gospels of sin management," in one form or another, while Jesus' invitation to eternal life now - right in the midst of work, business, and profession - remains for the most part ignored and unspoken. (p.57)

He continues:

We who profess Christianity will believe what is constantly presented to us as gospel. If gospels of sin management are preached, they are what Christians will believe. And those in the wider world who reject those gospels will believe that what they have rejected is the gospel of Jesus Christ himself - when, in fact, they haven't yet heard it.

And so we have the result noted: the resources of God's kingdom remain detached from human life. There is no gospel for human life and Christian discipleship, just one for death or one for social action. The souls of human beings are left to shrivel and die on the plains of life because they are not introduced into the environment for which they were made, the living kingdom of eternal life. (p.58)

GOSPEL APPEARANCES

The word euangelion/gospel (literally, good news) appears 76 times in the New Testament. 

I think it's always interesting to examine the first appearances of key concepts in Scripture.

Here's the context of the first appearances of "gospel" in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John:

Matthew

4:23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

Mark

1:1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 

1:14-15 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Luke

The noun form of gospel doesn't occur, but the verb form does:

The first to Zechariah. 1:19 And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.

The second to the shepherds in the fields. Luk 2:10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

John

None of the forms of the word "gospel" appear in John!

Interesting!

In Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the word "gospel" is most often attached to language about the "Kingdom of God" or the "Kingdom of Heaven". And it seems there are some historical connections between "good news" and human kings of the day. Worth exploring!

But all this raises the question in my mind: Why does modern talk of "gospel" sharing so often leave out any mention of the Kingdom?

RESCUE THEN PROSECUTE?

In looking closely at Paul's letter to the Colossians, I am struck by the imagery used to describe what Jesus has accomplished in the lives of sinners:

[The Father] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col 1:13-14)

It's an incredible metaphor: Jesus came to earth on a rescue mission - scooping up the weary, the battered, and yes the wrong-doers trapped in Satan's dark territory and delivering them safely into the Kingdom of Light.

Other images of God "rescuing" (undeserving) individuals from danger and darkness are prominent on the pages of the Old and New Testament. 

The most obvious in the Old Testament, of course, is the Exodus of Israel from Egypt.

And off the top of my head, I can think of two from Jesus Himself:

Jesus compares Himself to a shepherd who would leave the 99 sheep to go after the one who wanders away. 

And Jesus tells the story of a father who receives his battered son back from a distant land, welcoming him into the safety and  comfort of his home and even throwing a party. 

So, here's the question that strikes me tonight as I think of the rescue motif:

How does "rescue" fit with the image of God desiring nothing so much as to pour out His righteous wrath on sinners?

Is it God's intent to rescue us and then prosecute us for their sins? Save, then smash?

But we are saved a second time only when - thank goodness - He is willing to pour out His wrath on His own Son instead? The Son who rescued us? 

So in the end, God sends His Son to rescue us and then smashes Him in our place? 

I just don't understand how people rationalize a belief in Penal Substitutionary Atonement.