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Gospel or gospel?

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I've decided to throw a grenade today. I think I've been taught for too long that the Cross is the whole point of God's plan. I’m taking a stand today and saying salvation by grace through faith is not THE BIG TRUTH of Christianity.


That rumbling you hear is Luther and thousands of protestant church fathers rolling over in their graves.


Now, before you go siccing Hank Hanegraaff on me for preaching a different gospel, I'm not disavowing the cross, or the gospel, or anything. Jesus died on the cross to save me. His blood paid for my sins. His work on the cross is finished, sufficient, and total. I am saved by grace through faith in the Son of God.


Now, what am I trying to do by baiting you this way?

The gospel isn't about reconciliation to God. It's natural to think that salvation is the center of God's world, since we're the ones getting saved...but salvation isn't the main thing on God's mind.


The gospel is about the Kingdom of God. Jesus ( and John the Baptist, and the Law and the Prophets ) preached that the Kingdom of God was near, in or upon you.


If the Kingdom is what's on God's mind all through the old and new testament, then we have to confront the fact that the cross is not the endpoint of history - it's a means to an end, a necessary evil. Jesus despised the shame of it for the joy set before him - that joy is described as both a bride and a kingdom, given to him as a reward for his sacrifice.


So the cross is a waypoint - THE single most important event leading up to the advent of the kingdom. But it's not the endpoint of the plan. The REAL gospel is the 'gospel of the kingdom' (Matt 24:14), not the gospel of the cross.


By far, the majority of the 'Gospel' presentations I've heard are about what's in it for the sinner - get reconciled to God, go to heaven forever, OK!


When's the last time you heard an altar call that focused on the kingdom? What's wrong with this picture?


Peter's sermon in Acts 2 doesn't stop in verse 21 ( Acts 2:21 ).  Verse 36 is the culmination of what Peter preaches, and it is in response to the statement "God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ" that the crowd was cut to the heart and cries 'Brothers, what shall we do?'  ( Acts 2:36 ).  The point of the pentecost sermon is the resurrection and kingship of Jesus, not the 4 spiritual laws.


Acts 5:30-31 shows them again preaching His resurrection and kingship, and consequently His power to save them.  The good news in Acts 5:42 is that Jesus is the Christ - the anointed one who was to be the king of the Jews and usher in God's Kingdom on the earth.


Peter's sermon to Cornelius' household in Acts 10 shows him identifying Jesus as the judge of the living and the dead, and saying that forgiveness is offered to anyone who believes in His name.  ( Acts 10:42-43 )


The gospel presentations in those early chapters of Acts point to the authority of Jesus as King ( Christ, Messiah, Judge, etc ), and appealing to the hearer to believe and be saved. 

How different is that from the 'God loves you, and wants the best for you, has a plan for your life, wants to bless you...' version of the gospel that we hear on a regular basis?  In fact, that skips all the most important parts of the real Gospel.


To gentiles like me, without a context for who the messiah is, it requires more explanation...here goes.

  1. God is setting up a kingdom on the earth.
  2. The king he's setting up is a jewish king.
  3. The king's name is Jesus
  4. He's going to depose every government on the earth
  5. He's going to restore all things to the way God intended them to be
  6. He will bring justice and peace to the earth.
  7. If you want, you can be saved from your sins and be a part of this kingdom.

We tend to skip everything but point 7 in our rush to make God palatable to the world. 

'The gospel' ( lower case here is intentional ) without 'of the kingdom' part is really not the Gospel at all.  No kingdom, no gospel.

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