What did Jesus and his first disciples mean when they talked about the Gospel of the Kingdom?
What does Gospel mean?
You might think this a silly question, but asking and answering it now will probably save some time and confusion later. We want to make sure we are all thinking the same thing when using the word Gospel.
Is The Gospel Good Advice?
Many people act like the word “Gospel” means something like Good Advice, and like all advice, you can take it or leave it, as it suits you.
By Good Advice, we’re thinking about things like “How to live a good life,“ or ”How to please God,” or even “How to go to Heaven when you die.”
To be honest, living a good life, pleasing God, and going to heaven are good things and may happen for you if you hear and respond correctly to the Gospel of the Kingdom, but the Gospel isn’t really about those things.
The Gospel is Good News
The word translated ‘Gospel’ in the new testament is actually a technical term that means to announce the news that something important has happened. Gospel was a familiar word used around the Roman Empire in the time of Jesus.
For example, if the Emperor’s armies were victorious in a military campaign, there would soon be an official announcement, a ”gospel,” telling about the victory. The announcement or “gospel” wasn’t just a bit of interesting trivia, either. If the Emperor’s victory made you a new subject of Rome, you can be sure that there would be very real and unavoidable consequences for your life.
In the case of Jesus’ Gospel, the Good News is about the events concerning Jesus that radically changed the whole world for everyone, even if they don’t know it yet.
The world-changing Jesus-events announced in the Gospel of the Kingdom cannot be ignored in the hope they will go away. The news about what has happened cannot be dismissed as only applying to people who are into that sort of “religious thing.”
When we see the Gospel as an announcement about what God has actually done and how the world is now changed, the sometimes puzzling language about ”obedience” and the Gospel in the New Testament suddenly makes more sense.
In Romans 1 Paul wrote, “we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations”
Later in Romans 15 he said, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God”
And finally, in Acts 6 we hear that “a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”
In summary, the Gospel of the Kingdom is not good advice that we are invited to consider as an option for our lives.
Instead, it is good news about events that affect everyone and everything, news about what the Sovereign Creator has done in Jesus, news that requires a response when you hear it.
Some will say, “Yes, Lord,” and others will say “No, thank you,” but no one can just ignore what has happened.
Tab Content
[acf field=”resources” post_id=”203″]