“ Christians in the west have a very truncated view of the gospel.”
- Jeff Durbin, Apologia Church
What do you think of when you hear the word 'gospel?'
For many, gospel may bring to mind gospel music, a joyous expression of religious faith that originated in the South as an antidote to miserably oppressive life circumstances.
For most of my life, the churches I've attended have represented this gospel, or good news, as the message of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, by which he accomplished saving us from our failings and shortcomings, our sins. While that may be true and biblical, I've become aware that it is arguably incomplete.
I've recently been reading through the New Testament in Greek for the first time. In the course of that reading, I've begun to realize that the church has lost or minimized a significant part of the good news. The missing component is the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
"The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."
Shortly thereafter, John introduced King Jesus himself.
Jesus then took up the same message. Everywhere he went, Jesus preached the same Good News of the Kingdom that John had been preaching.
If you're a Christian, you've no doubt heard of Jesus' "Great Commission:"
"And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation." (Matthew 28:19)
If the gospel Jesus spoke of includes the Good News of the Kingdom of God, we should surely be aware of and sharing that essential part of the good news as well.
When I discovered the two videos below, I was powerfully encouraged. I think they provide a fine introduction to the idea that the church has somehow fallen short of preaching the whole gospel, all the good news Jesus had in mind.
I hope you'll soon come to appreciate these two short videos as much as I have.
Though only three minutes long, this video helps "fill in" a missing part of the gospel, i.e. the good news.
Transcript:
So the Gospel of the Kingdom—the Good News of the Kingdom.
If you read First Corinthians 15, Paul gives the message of the gospel; what Christ has done, the good news of Christ dying and being buried and raising from the dead according to the scriptures, but that he continues to describe in that text the story of the rule of Christ.
He says (from Psalm 110:1) that he must reign until he's put all his enemies under his feet, until they've all been made a footstool for his feet. And so, that is the Good News of the Kingdom, this rule of the Messiah that's coming into the world, where God is going to put the world right again.
In Isaiah chapter 2 there's the story of the nations streaming up to the mountain of God. Isaiah 9, the promises that "אֲבִיעַ֖ד (ab-i-ad)" was coming, the Father of Eternity. There would be an increase of his government and of peace and there would be no end. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts would accomplish this.
There was this good news that the Messiah was coming—yes, for salvation and forgiveness—Psalm 22, that all the families of the earth would return to worship God—but the good news was that he was going to come to rule on the throne of David. That he was going to come to fulfill that promise to Abraham, that Abraham would have descendants as numerous as the stars. That the whole world belongs to this Messiah, that he would come to do what Adam failed to do, what Israel failed to do. to bring the salvation—Redemption, reconciliation, and peace with God to the ends of the earth.
I mean, just think for a moment about Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 through 14. Daniel gets this vision and he sees in the night visions, one like a son of man. And he says that he comes up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him, and to him was given Dominion and glory and a Kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him.
His Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which will not pass away, and his Kingdom is one which will never be destroyed. And so, when Jesus comes in Matthew chapter 4 it says that he comes proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom. And it's really amazing if you think about the Great Commission passage—Matthew 28:18 through 20.
Jesus says that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him, and he says "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." He says "Lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age."
Really, the Good News of the Kingdom isn't just that people go to heaven one day, but it ultimately is good news that God has come to rule in this world, to bring about Redemption and salvation, to put the world right again.
And that is good news, the Good News of the Kingdom.
- Jeff Durbin
~End transcript.~
The first 5:45 minutes of this video explain the missing Kingdom component of the gospel, i.e. the good news that the church has minimized and misunderstood. Please note that this is the portion of the video I've transcribed, and the portion that I strongly endorse.
Transcript (through @5:45):
So, we have a major problem. There is a major issue in this fight for justice for the preborn, and that is that Christians in the west have a very truncated view of the gospel; a very truncated view. And if we want to understand how to move forward as a church, as pastors, as leaders, brothers and sisters together, we have to get rid of this truncated view of the gospel. It has to die, and it has to die fast, because this truncated view of the gospel has taken Christians out of the world and culture from being light and soul to the world.
Now you've heard that I'm sure if you've been a part of this and you've heard these men speak before you know we talk about being salt and light all the time and that's of course what Jesus commanded us in the most famous sermon in the history of the world, the Sermon on the Mount. Salt and light.
But our truncated view of the gospel is killing us. It's killing our light as a church. It's killing our influence, it's killing our prophetic ministry in terms of forth-telling the Word of God to the world. The gospel is the power of God for salvation, but when we have a truncated view of the gospel, in terms of where it ought to go, we have no power to save anybody with.
What is that truncated view of the gospel? The truncated view of the gospel is that Jesus came to save me so he can pull me off this earth and bring me to heaven, that higher spiritual plane, one day. It's really about my own personal romantic relationship with Jesus.
I'm thankful to God in the history of the Christian church, Christians didn't think that way about the gospel, that it's merely about my own private individual relationship with God and going to heaven one day, escaping and fleeing my humanity so I can go to this higher spiritual plane. By the way, welcome to gnosticism. You see, the gospel is the Gospel of the Kingdom.
Now please don't allow that to be a pithy slogan. I say that often because we are good at that. We often have these pithy slogans and bumper stickers and cute little oil paintings and T-shirts that Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. We say it, but we don't believe it. King of kings—today, the Ruler of the kings of the earth, Lord of lords—today.
That means that Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the One sitting on the throne who is ascended and says he has all authority in heaven and on earth today has something to say to them, and they have to bow and yield and obey.
I want to point you to this one gospel—I'm not going to preach through it now—but read Matthew chapters 1 through 4. Just that section. And please notice that the theme of the gospel according to Matthew—it's the first book in our New Testament, for goodness sakes—we have no excuse for not reading it—starts with the genealogy of Jesus, that he has the royal right to the throne, that he's the King. It starts of course with Jesus going into the wilderness, having victory over Satan, and do you know what Jesus was offered by Satan?
"I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world if you'll just bow and worship me." And why would Satan offer Jesus that? Because that's what he came for, and Jesus has victory over Satan in the wilderness, and immediately there's a quotation from Isaiah chapter nine—most of us never check the reference—because it just sounds very poetic and beautiful; they're like, "Oh that's nice. Matthew says that was to fulfill what was written by Isaiah, that's nice."
Did you ever go read what he was quoting from? As soon as Jesus departs the wilderness, he's quoting from Isaiah 9. Do you know what Isaiah 9 says?
You do, because it's the famous Christmas verse: "Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father." (That's the Father of Eternity) "Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. On the throne of David, to establish it with justice and righteousness, forevermore."
And if you feel discouraged, that verse says immediately after this increase of government and peace, it says "The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this." God is not going to grow faint or weary in this fight for justice, because Isaiah chapter 42—one of those promises of the Kingdom of the Messiah which makes it good news is that this righteous servant Jesus will not grow faint or weary until he has established justice on the earth, and the coastlands are waiting for his law.
We have a truncated view of the gospel that says, "What we have to say is to people within the walls of the church, and we hold between our ears."
(The gospel is) the Good News of the Kingdom. The evangelical church in the west doesn't have good news of a kingdom. They don't even know what it means; that it's good news that Jesus is ruling and reigning now, bringing his salvation to the nations, drawing them up to God's mountain and establishing justice in the earth.
- Jeff Durbin
~End transcript.~
For further background, elucidation, and explanation of the Kingdom of God, please peruse the growing library of articles here:
And, by all means, raise your issues, ask your questions, and engage in debate (in person if you know me) and/or in the comment section below.
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