The Gospel You Never Knew
Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, Romans 1:1 NASB
Gospel– “Good News!” That’s the meaning of the Greek euangélion, translated as “gospel.” And it is good news, except that what we usually think this good news is about isn’t really what Paul says, or any of the other biblical writers for that matter. We have a hint here when Paul uses the amplified phrase “gospel of God.” That tells us that whatever the good news is, it centers in God. What we discover is that this good news is about the Kingdom, not our salvation. The good news is that God has acted decisively in the Messiah to insure the establishment of the Kingdom on earth. Now it is only a matter of time.
But this isn’t what we are typically taught about euangélion. R. C. Sproul, a significant voice of the Reformed tradition after Luther and Calvin, writes, “ . . . in Romans, Paul clearly sets out a theological framework for us to understand the Christian faith. It is a comprehensive description of the way that God offers salvation to humankind – and it is ‘Good News’.”[1] Notice that Sproul’s emphasis is on God’s offer of salvation. That’s what we think the “good news” is all about, namely, “getting saved.” That has been the truncated, and perhaps misdirected, message of the Church for 500 years. “Jesus came to die for your sins so that you can go to heaven” summarizes the evangelical “good news.” But in the last half-century many scholars have questioned this abbreviated message. Matthew Bates’ book, Salvation by Allegiance Alone, is an example of rethinking the entire “good news” message. According to Bates, euangélion isn’t primarily about you and me at all. It’s about Yeshua’s role in God’s Kingdom. According to Bates, the good news is about “the enthronement of Jesus the atoning king.”[2]
So the first step in re-evaluating our view of the “gospel” is this correction. Is salvation involved? Certainly! Do we experience forgiveness? Yes! But that isn’t the end of the story. In fact, it isn’t even the focus of the story. The real story is this: Yeshua is king! And insofar as we become his subjects, we participate in his kingdom, with all the benefits and privileges accruing to kingdom citizens.
Now you might ask, “So, what difference does this make?” “I’m still saved. I still follow Jesus. Yes, he will reign eventually. So, why should I care about this technical difference regarding euangélion?” The answer is simple—and significant. If the good news is about Yeshua’s enthronement as king, then “salvation” becomes a matter of fidelity to the king, not a ticket to escape. In other words, the gospel is not about God’s offer of salvation. It is about living in accordance with the expectations of the King. Bates notes that:
The true thrust of Paul’s line of thought is that the resurrection served to trigger the exaltation of Jesus from his lowly status among the dead, so that he came to be installed in a position of sovereign authority.[3]
Fidelity to the King is the crucial idea. Jesus didn’t come to whisk you away to heaven. He came to restore the earth to its heavenly intention. You and I are called to participate in that restoration by aligning ourselves with his kingdom—and living accordingly. THAT is salvation!
And now we need to investigate what “living accordingly” really means.
Topical Index: salvation, good news, euangélion, kingdom, Romans 1:1
[1]R. C. Sproul, The Gospel of God: Romans, introduction.
[2]Matthew Bates, Salvation by Allegiance Alone, p. 30 (italics in the original)
[3]Bates, p. 34. But note that Bates continues the thought by declaring that Paul is a Trinitarian, something we will examine later.
Skip, the last two TWs have been for me. It’s as if you have read my mind and decided to answer my questions, especially concerning Yeshua’s role in the new paradigm I’m learning about through you and the many authors you mention in your writings. I hope you’ll write many more on the subject. Learning new things often means you have to unlearn what you thought was true and change some of your behavior/habits/traditions. Many times I’ve felt like I’m in limbo land. These TWs help me get a handle on things. THANKS!
We most certainly are not saved in a vacuum, or saved so we can go back to the pigpen, either. We are saved INTO something. The Lord’s Prayer teaches us to pray “Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, ON EARTH”. Now, how else is His will going to be done except through us? It’s not as if He magically got released in the general space we don’t have any influence over, right (although I believe we have more influence than we think)?
Skip wrote a while back about the two kingdoms: that we are aligned at any minute in obedience to either one or the other. This is a spiritual reality. We were created to be spiritual sieves; open to spiritual symbiosis in ALL directions, with any (or all) other spirits. It explains how we can be sympathetically linked with others and with God, but also how we can be “under the influence” of the dark side, too.
It is now a scientific admission that there is something called “mass memes” that infect, say, crowds of people. It explains why people in crowds can all be on the same wavelength, so to speak, and also, more significantly, why they can resort to attitudes and behavior most of those participating individuals wouldn’t be caught dead doing on their own.
At any minute, as per our design (to be aligned with the Spirit of God, of course) we are linking up with spiritual ‘direction’ of some sort. That spiritual influence provides the motive, or, power, for what we do, think and say, whether it be so-called ‘good’ or not. Either we are motivated by negative influences of self-focused stuff (which does not originate with ourselves, by the way, but with the powers of darkness), or with other spiritual stuff like bitterness, greed, jealousy, etc., or with the Holy Spirit, who motivates us with the love from God. (Isn’t it odd that we can ‘tell’ instantly what the real motivations of others are? Ever wonder why?)
“Thy kingdom come” should be a minute by minute prayer to keep us from unholy motivations, which I believe Paul warned us of when he wrote in Rom. 1:18 about “holding the truth in unrighteousness”. Yep, apparently it is even possible to say (or do) all the right things for all the wrong reasons (kingdom), y’all.
Interesting Laurita, I hadn’t read any comments until after I sent mine. Then I read yours and realized how much it was similar to mine although you said it so much better and more thoroughly than I did. A real confirmation to me that I am hearing the right Voice! “My sheep know my voice”….. why? Because we spend the time to get to know him, we listen and get familiar with his voice!
I always look forward to your input.
Not at all, Larry. Each of us are unique, and what you offer will always be different (albeit harmonious). Everybody singing the same note gets boring! You put the focus exactly where it should stay: on Him “with whom we have to do”.
Agree Larry. Laurita steps out and presents a fresh look at the prism we all see through. We can never stand exactly in her place however at any given moment we maybe just slightly one glance away from what she sees. Ah ha! A brighter more revealing aspect of our own understanding. Now, for me… that’s beautiful! Worth all the extra effort to see what she sees. As for me, careful and reserved most of the time, she’s a breath of fresh air and encourages me to live outside my safe harbor.
Laurita, thank you for your courage to battle the dark forces in your life. I don’t believe this kind of wisdom and insight comes without fierce battles. Your words and your spirit are sublime to me. I pray that YHVH would richly bless you and enlarge your territory.
Thank you for the blessing, Theresa, I really needed it right now! And, we stand together, you know: that territory is enlarged with each other. Halleluah!
Me too, I am really facing some incredible battles. It seems the more you engage in warfare in behalf of others the more crazy and desperate the opposition gets ! Really need a discerning spirit. But I know that even those things that the enemy assaults us with God is greater and is redemptive. All those weaker and vulnerable places are in need of strengthening and reinforcements. I’m not Jewish but I still would say, oy vey !
There is much to consider and this T.W. and recent ones cause me to reconsider the person, purpose and atributes of the Messiah. The “the linking up” with and our susceptibility to the influences of other spirits as mentioned above I belive is directly attributed to whom we serve as king of our heart. The nature, purpose and attributes of The Christ (as king of our hearts) seem to differ from those of The Messiah of Isreal (as king of the Olam Haba) . Would that imply that we might be lead to different places or kingdoms if they are not of the same nature. Or would it be that if one of these two personas has attributes that are not in reality true to YaHoVaH ‘s Biblically provided descriptions we are simply receptive to or accepting of presures or energies that bring confusions, missalignments or deceptions. In other words “other spirits”. I recently went through what I would have to define as a “deliverance” from another spirit that pressed me to help others see where they could walk in more rightiousness, at least from my perspective. I felt reponsible to “be my brothers keeper”. This from years of Christian training in my responsibility to share “the truth” and be a watchman for my brothers souls . My suggestions where never particularly welcome , where often proven out of balance. I am glad that motivating energy has departed. The decotomy between kings might give light on the command of Messiah to “not judge another man’s servant” Perhaps in his grace he is accepting of our ignorance and need to grow in understanding of his true nature and work in our hearts and in his world!
Good testimony, Mark. The worst motivations (spiritual influences) are those who come garbed in religion. Religious spirits are not all from above. When you are feeling the most ‘righteous’ you might need to take a peek under the hood.
I have had some really nasty generational ‘guides’, too, that I had to recognize were not from God, and that I needed to be delivered from, too. One of the more notorious ones I have written about before was an overrider in my mama’s generations that caused division between mother and daughter. I traced it back 6 generations, at least, and it wreaked havoc in my life. It powered events and fostered miscommunication and split me and my beloved mama up against both her will and mine, and split me up with one of my daughters, too, with her furious at me for failing to be able to be the mom to her she needed so much, but that unholy power had crafted a scenario from hell that prevented me from being able to, as well as keeping her from being able to accept me. I recognized and repented for succumbing to such a curse a few years ago and am praying for restoration of the years those nasty locusts stole.
I love that the Lord’s promises are without repentance, he will do as he says…
Mark, like you, I am a bottom line thinker… ask, seek and knock until a door opens. The door? He is faithful and true, Yeshua. Amein!
Skip, thank you for diving into what has been described by others as the difference between a “two chapter” gospel of sin management and a “four chapter” gospel of the Kingdom. This paradigm has been a focus of my thinking and learning for the last few years.
For years, the mainstream Christian church has truncated the Gospel to one of atonement and sin management—you are a sinner and Jesus brings redemption. This truncated two chapter Gospel lacks power (and attractiveness) because it ignores chapters one and four of God’s grand metanarrative–where we came from and where we are going. A four chapter Kingdom Gospel includes where we came from (we were created beautifully in the image of God) and where we are going (redemption brings us back into relationship with God to participate in the beautiful restoration project for His Kingdom).
NT Wright writes powerfully and beautifully on this topic. He says that the Cross is not about “getting saved”—it is about getting us back in relationship and “back in the game”–permitting us to be “fully human” and participate with God in the restoration of the Kingdom by adding truth, beauty and goodness to the world we live in.
This has marvelous implications for everything we do. In Wright’s words: “What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God’s future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether. They are part of what we may call building for God’s kingdom.”
Thank you Skip for TW and Paul for your excellent comment – I concur.
I couldn’t agree more with you, Paul. And I love what Tom Wright wrote! (In Surprised by Hope, as I recall, or one of his many others!)
Amen, Amen…I am indebted to the many artists & artisans that showed me that creating art is an act of worship. NT Wright takes it to another level of the ordinary becoming the extra-ordinary when we seek ye first the kingdom.
I feel like the Holy Spirit has been impressing me lately with the words “your kingdom come your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven“. This speaks of far more than getting saved and going to heaven. This speaks of heaven to earth, living in the kingdom, here on earth, while we are here. Representatives of the heavenly kingdom. The church has gotten so lazy, they want to be told what to believe, they want easily consumable bite-size pieces and someone to feed them. God said, “and you will seek me and you’ll find me, when you seek me, WITH YOUR WHOLE HEART”. Jesus said that he only did and said those things that he saw the father do. The only way he knew this was by being” getting away” and being
on his face before the father. We too, must seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and then all of these things will be added unto us. The kingdom manifested through us. There are ‘ natural ‘ outcomes to our being in alignment with God.
God help us all!
I totally agree with all you say here, and you have said it excellently! However, though it would be far better to have the best of both “worlds”…..
I STILL think I would rather be the kind of person and…..
…..live a lifetime with someone, who believes that the focus of the story in the “gospel of God” is the great salvation He offers – who now knows the love of God, the forgiveness of their sins, and the assurance of the gift of eternal life…..
RATHER THAN be the kind of person and…..
…..live a lifetime with someone, who believes the “gospel of God” is primarily about “living according to Torah” and yet doesn’t know the great salvation He offers – who does not know the love of God, the forgiveness of their sins, and the assurance of the gift of eternal life.
Those who are FORGIVEN much, love much. Those who aren’t…..DON’T!
“For this reason I tell you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven—for she loved much. But the one who is forgiven little, loves little.” [Luk 7:47]
“For when Gentiles, who do not have the Torah, do by nature the things of the Torah, they are a law to themselves even though they do not have the Torah. They show that the work of the Torah is written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts switching between accusing or defending them. But if you call yourself Jewish and rely upon the Torah and boast in God and know His will and determine what matters because you are instructed from the Torah—a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Torah the embodiment of knowledge and the truth—You who take pride in the Torah, through your violation of the Torah, do you dishonor God?” [Rom_2:14-23]