"The Gospel of..."

The word “gospel” gets used in many ways: gospel music, “gospel truth,” the four gospels, gospel message, gospel invitation, full gospel, old-time gospel. Such expressions may evoke certain feelings and moods, but a clear meaning can be hard to pin down; the term gets fuzzy.

“Gospel” translates a common Greek word in the New Testament meaning “good news.” "Good" may seem like an understatement: think of the headlines of a newspaper “extra” when WWII ended (you know, “Extra, extra, read all about it!”): “PEACE” - “War in Europe Ends” - “Japan Surrenders.”

So what news story does the Bible celebrate with big, chunky head­lines? One approach to this question is to track down the NT occurrences of phrase “gospel of.” Gospel of what? Or of whom?

Seven times it’s “the gospel of God” (based on the ESV). The headlines feature the Lord, not you or me or this fleeting life. God is the source and subject of great news.

Three times it’s “the gospel of the kingdom”—declaring God’s life-transforming reign spreading through the world.

And ten times we have “the gospel of Christ” (or “the Son” or “the Lord Jesus”), focusing on what God achieved through Jesus Christ’s life-death-resurrection. God’s reign commences and moves toward consummation through Jesus’ cross and crown!

Then, providing greater clarity, we have (once each) “the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24, an announcement of amnesty for rebel sinners), “the gospel of your salvation” (Eph 1:13, forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life for all who truly trust in Jesus), and “the gospel of peace” (Eph 6:15, not just the cessation of hostilities but the bestowal of ultimate joy and rest in the magnificent presence of Christ).

I’ll mention one other expression, “the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Cor 4:4). The good news is not about you—about how special you are to God or how much you’re worth. It’s all about the radiance of Jesus Christ—the Blazing Brightness before which we look up, stand in awe and revel in the joy of praise to the One who is all-glorious and infinitely worthy of all passionate devotion!

The gospel, then, isn’t just about coming to faith in Christ in the first place, but also about living in light of the best news of all time!

Speaking of the gospel, make sure to check out the info and resources at t4g.org and thegospelcoaltion.org.

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Hope in Christ "only for this life"?

God’s word of Easter hope from 1 Corinthians 15 is glorious—hundreds of eyewitnesses confirming Christ’s resurrection, and as the “first-fruits” of victory over death the risen Lord prom­ises that all “who belong to him” will rise again to true, eternal life (v 23). This is “good news” (v 1)—the greatest news! But 15:19 still reverberates in my mind: “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.” Is it possible that we could fall back into that pitiful state?

“This life” stands in contrast to life beyond the grave (remember, you were made for forever, Eccl 3:11). Human experience includes our here-and-now “three score and ten” (or so) in which we walk this earth, but it also includes one’s eternal destiny (i.e., heaven or hell). All who are in Christ will put on imperishable, immortal resurrec­tion bodies for the everlasting joys of heaven (15:26, 54-57).

But what would it look like to hope in Christ “only for this life”? On the one hand, it would mean regarding Christ as being able to bring some relief of today’s troubles. But on the other hand, it would mean disre­gard­ing and devaluing (or even rejecting) his promise of resurrection life and all the wonders of heaven! How sad—pitiful, actually—that some at Corinth fell for this incomplete, twisted, unbiblical theology (vv 12-15).

In our day a hot trend in certain cutting edge church circles is to turn to Jesus for comfort and peace and justice and relief of earthly suffering. Sometimes this is called “kingdom” ministry (as if the kingdom of God had to do with improving our living situation here and now but had little or nothing to do with life after death). Frequently those who wave this flag think they’ve found the way to make Jesus “relevant” to a broken world. Typically they present Jesus as a model of radical justice and love to be followed, but not as the Sovereign Lord to be believed and worshipped. Commonly they divert the historic mission of the church from making disciples among all the people groups (Matt 28:18-20—loving whole people, body and soul) to meeting physical needs today.

God calls us to be discerning and courageous as we follow his Word, and thus refuse to limit Jesus’ message and ministry to present-world woes. Hoping in Christ only for this life would be pitiful! But can I point fingers without also being guilty of such offenses? Is the looming reality of heaven impinging every moment on my mind and my way of life? Is my hope in Christ riveted on the promise of resurrection? Or do I, too, shrink Jesus, ignore heaven, and live to maximize earthly comforts?

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The Kingdom of God

The Kingdom of God is an exciting yet very difficult topic. Difficult because the word “king­dom” has all kinds of distracting con­no­tations for us. First, we tend to think in spatial terms when we hear the word—a kingdom is a place, a territory. Second, the vast majority of today’s kings and queens are relatively impotent. By contrast, the New Testament envisions "kingdom" as dynamic, active kingship; it means the reign of God, the Lord in saving action. And further, the Bible’s conception of kingship involves serious authority (unlike that of figurehead royalty in many modern monarchies): if the king commands it, it is done. Period.

Yet it’s exciting, even exhilarating, when we realize God’s kingship is dynamic and powerful. When Jesus announces in Mark 1:15, “The time has come, the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news,” it means he’s taking over and we’re invited to join in his bold, life-changing, victorious cause! Caesar can haul out all the spears and chariots he wants to, but the King of Kings is launching a greater, deeper, bigger revolution to transform people’s lives from the inside out. As they say in Narnia, “Aslan is on the move.”

But remember, Jesus also teaches us to pray, “Thy kingdom come” (Matt 6:10). Even though God’s reign is dawning, the fullness of his royal power is restrained until the Last Day. God’s reign is “now but not yet”; the end of times has been inaugurated in Jesus’ first coming, but it will only be consummated with his second coming.

It’s like we live between D-Day and VE-Day: the decisive blow has been dealt to the Enemy and the outcome of the war is now clear (in WWII it became clear after D-Day that the Allies would win; in spiritual terms, the death and resurrec­tion of Christ confirmed ultimate victory). But battles rage on, and in this age the Enemy fights us fiercely—all the more so as he realizes, with fury, that his doom is sure.

So let’s join together, fighting with weapons of love, resting in our solid hope, and seeking the fullness of God’s reign by going about his business for our times to make disciples among all peoples (see Matt 24:14; 28:18-20; 2 Peter 3:8-9), in the joy and for the glory of the Lord!