[TLDR – the “gospel” is NOT that Jesus came to die on the cross to forgive my sins. The gospel is the announcement of Christ’s Kingdom, and our invitation to join it. (since I know this will be long, and I want at least this point to get across. Read on for more explanation in the patented meandering Kev way)]
I’ve been thinking a lot about “the gospel” lately. What is it? If I was on a elevator with someone for 60 seconds, and they said “you’re a christian, right? What’s the gospel?” What would I say? Do you know what you’d say?
I grew up in the Assembly of God in the 80s and 90s. I started doing ministry when I was in high school, and was a worship leader (or assistant to the worship leader) for many years. I was even a missionary for a brief time. If you would have asked me why, I would have said “to spread the gospel.” Because, that’s what we did in the Assembly of God. We spread the gospel as best we could.
And yet, I don’t know if I ever read the Bible to ask the question: What is the gospel? I knew what the preachers and teachers meant, of course. But did I ever read the Bible and say “What did Jesus/Disciples/Paul mean when they said it?” Well, let’s take a look.
The Traditional Answer
There are certainly the easy Sunday School answers – The gospel is this:
1 – You and I are hopeless sinners because of original sin.
2 – We want to go to heaven and not hell.
3 – Jesus (who was also God) came to earth, died, and took our place.
4 – I can now say the sinner’s prayer, accept Jesus in my heart, and go to heaven.
That’s the “Good News,” which is what I was told “gospel” meant. I was a sinner in line for God’s wrath, and Jesus took my place.
But (and you knew there was a ‘but’ coming), I do not think this is the “gospel” in the Bible. Translations from one language to another isn’t always easy, but in this case, I would argue the word is better translated as “good announcement.” So, if I read everywhere it says “gospel” as “the good announcement,” does it make sense?
Consider – do we ever see someone in the Bible pray the “sinner’s prayer” or anything like it? Where someone says “Dear Jesus, come into my heart/life, and take me to heaven”? Not really. There are elements of it, but that’s not the message.
Of all the sermons in the New Testament, I don’t think any of them talk about “hell” directly, and few even allude to it. Getting out of hell was just not what the disciples were talking about.
The Good Announcement
So what is the “good announcement” then?
The way this word was used in the ancient world was to announce a new king/emperor. It was a joyful celebration of “the king has come into his kingdom.” And I would argue this is exactly what the disciples were doing in the New Testament. The Jewish people were waiting for a king, and they said “I’ve got great news – he’s here.” Paul expands this to Gentiles and says by a “wonderful mystery,” the gentiles are invited into the kingdom too. (This merging of Jew/Gentile under Christ is the theme of much of Paul’s writings.
So what?
I know there are few people who I grew up with in church that would disagree with any of that. Of course Jesus is the king.
But, I think we don’t often think of it this way, and don’t often teach/witness with this concept in mind. How does it change “the gospel” that we share with others?
#1 – It makes the gospel less about me.
Saying that “Jesus came to die” means that I had a problem, and I decided to let Jesus help me with it, and now he’s solved my problem. End of story. But if the gospel is about Jesus being King, then it’s the king inviting me, a lowly peasant, into his throne room, to put my hands before him, and take an oath of service. I believe the gospel and Scripture is about Jesus, not me, and so if I have a view of the gospel that centers me, I need to examine that carefully.
#2 – It answers a lot of the “tricky” theological pieces.
Are you saved once forever, or can you lose your salvation? This is easily answered – you are “saved” by accepting Christ’s offer to be in his kingdom. You serve him. If you are not serving him, then you have left the kingdom. It’s not about “did you get your heavenly passport stamped.” It’s “are you still serving the king?” Thinking about the gospel in this way moves the question from technicalities to actual living with Jesus, and I think that’s central to the gospel.
#3 – It balances vocation
When I was growing up, there was this “sense” in the AG that the really saved people were missionaries, the pastors were good runners-up, and the other people were in church to financially supply for those ministries. That is just not the model we see in scripture. EVERY job is good – whatever we do with our work is glorifying to God. Why? Because we are just doing what the King tells us to do. Is it missions work? Then do it to God’s glory. Is it painting road lines? Do it to God’s glory. Everything we do is Godly, because it’s not up to the servants to tell the King what work is worthwhile. We know that He is guiding the Kingdom, and we just serve our part of it. It removes the “God wants you to do great things” kind of false pressure. He may very well NOT want you to do great things, by our human views. But everything we do is “great,” because we are serving a great king.
#4 – It re-establishes our responsibility of the earth
The “get saved quick” model gives this impression of “just get people to say the sinner’s prayer before the rapture happens.” That is not the model we see in the New Testament, or through most of church history. Instead, there is an understanding that our job is to spread the kingdom, wherever we are.
For example, that includes caring for the earth long-term, rather than use up all the resources because it’ll all burn. It includes helping those around the world, not just near me because the Kingdom IS the whole world. It prioritizes caring for the poor and immigrant, rather than caring for our country, because we don’t belong to THIS kingdom, we belong to Christ’s kingdom, which crosses borders on a map. (Which, by the way, is exactly the difficulty the earliest Jewish believers and disciples had, and is addressed repeatedly in the New Testament.)
I think this helps us view current issues more Biblically, rather than through the lens of our own cultural blinders. Is what I’m doing either directly commanded by Jesus or advancing his kingdom? If the answer is “no,” you might want to re-evaluate priorities.
(Plus, I think this is more inline with the Dominion Mandate, which is God’s commands to Adam and Eve.)
#5 – If fits far better with the writing of the New Testament.
I challenge you, if you are a Christian, to read through the New Testament with this in mind: The point is that a new King is coming, and he is inviting us to join his Kingdom. I think you will see a lot of the “weird” parts of the New Testament make a lot more sense. (i’ll hit some more of this below)
#6 – It’s more accurate to the “process” scriptural view
When I was growing up, I tended to hear this expressed in terms of a “divine courtroom,” that is, we are guilty, Jesus is our attorney before God the Judge, and he takes our punishment and we are declared righteous. This is primarily based heavily (in my historical judgement) on Tertullian, who influenced a Western, legal way of viewing salvation. In the East, it’s far more of an artistic understanding. Think of a painting of you, and a painting of Jesus. Slowly, the painting of you is painted over as you learn more of Jesus, and spend time with him. Eventually, the painting is primarily Jesus, but where exactly that happened, which brush struck made the difference, is hard to define. I think the gradual process is more in line with scripture, rather than the “one moment” view of the courtroom.
Objections
I grew up in Sunday School, Camps, and Youth Conventions like a lot of people in my circles, and I’ve heard a lot of “you need to spread this gospel, and that means telling people they’re sinners until they ask Jesus into their heart.” (Google John MacArthur if you want some examples of this).
So, some objections you might hear to the view I hold:
I Corinthians 15:3-4 (Paul says that he passed on the things of first importance, that Jesus died, was resurrected…)
You will hear this quoted to support the “jesus came to die for my sin..” line of thinking. However, I would say first of all, the point of this passage is Paul is responding to people who say there is NO resurrection, and he’s saying “well, that’s obviously wrong, because Jesus was raised.” Secondly, even in this passage, about 2 paragraphs later, it talks of Jesus’ kingdom. I think what happens is people like to take a single verse and say “boom, that’s it,” and I don’t believe that. I think we need to study the WHOLE scripture, and I do not think the objection fits as well with the rest of scripture.
For example, in Romans, Paul says “the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.”
(Plus, here’s Jesus: “Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” )
Clarification
I want to emphasize that I do NOT think the idea that Jesus came to die for our sins is “wrong,” per se, it’s just that it’s a RESULT of the gospel, not the gospel itself. For example, the point here is that Jesus is a Good King; he gave up his life for his people. He’s not a king that sends his people to battle, or lets them suffer, while he is safe in his throne room. He lowered himself to our level, because a peasant himself, and took the brunt of punishment so that we could be free.
But that’s a result, an outgrown of the fact he’s a loving King, NOT the reason for his coming or existence. I’ve heard it argued this way: If you ask me about my wife, and I say “she’s my cook,” that’s true, but it certainly is not the WHOLE of who she is, and it’s not even the WHY she’s my wife. It’s a RESULT of her love and care for her family. What she (or Jesus) does out of love is what they DO because of WHO they are, not the other way around.
So, it’s not that I think the idea of Jesus paying our ransom is wrong (it’s in scripture), or that penal substitionary atonement is wrong (it’s in there), or that the moral example is wrong (it’s there), it’s just that these are all fragmentary views of Who Jesus is, and I think we end up making a lot of mistakes and twisting scripture when we emphasize them at the expense of his Kingship.
So Then What?
How do we spread the kingdom?
That’s what a lot of the New Testament is about. By serving others. By selling our possessions and giving the funds to other people. By sending aid to starving people elsewhere in the world. By encouraging one another. By loving our neighbors more than ourselves. By focusing our thoughts on serving others rather than ourselves. And so forth and so on.
For myself, I have found keeping this idea in mind – visualizing myself in a throne room, standing to the side, waiting for commands from the King – lines up far better with the prophecies of the Messiah in the Old Testament, and the way Paul and the other New Testament writers talk about Jesus and his coming, teaching, death, and resurrection. It’s about Jesus the King, and how that Kingship relates to us, His people.
We don’t have to solve all the world’s problems. We are not the King. we just serve in whatever corner of the realm we’re in. Why do some people become believers? Because they CHOOSE to take an oath of allegiance to the king. (that is the idea of ‘faith’ in the Bible). I would just encourage you to read through the Bible, especially the New Testament, with the idea that it’s all about establishing a new Kingdom, and I think you’ll find a lot of passages become far more clear.
So what is the Gospel?
So, how do I answer that question? If I’m on that elevator and I’m asked, what is my answer?
The Gospel is: The King Has Come.
He is ruling right now. His kingdom is spreading. The whole earth will someday be His (well, moreso than it already is). And we are given the opportunity to serve in his Court. We get to be part of his banquet table. We get to serve Him.
That is the gospel – a choice to swear our allegiance to Jesus above anyone else. And He’s a great and good King, who loves his people more than himself, who gave himself for us, and rose in power. And we get to spend our lives and eternity enjoying His Kingdom with Him.
Not too shabby for lowly peasant.