In a prior article, I walked through the modern use of the word Gospel as it is found throughout our culture. We talked about music, idioms, and even Paul’s assertion of its truth through firsthand witnesses. But I had stopped short of what the gospel of the Bible actually is. Yes, we talked about the first letter to the Corinthians and how Jesus died for our sins and was raised from the dead in accordance with the Old Testament, but that was only the evidence of the gospel occurring and how it was being attested to by the first century eyewitnesses. That letter to the Corinthians was conveying the seal of validation from God that the Gospel Jesus brought, and was teaching, was True and approved by Him. So, what exactly is the Gospel, “Good News”, that Jesus was teaching?

We are going to take some time talking about some of the things that modern Christianity claims the gospel is and how that falls short. Then we will simplify the gospel back to its original meaning in context to Jesus. Finally, we will look at what that means to you if you claim to believe (Pistis) in the Christ and how you should interpret the world around you. So, let’s first take a look at some of the common beliefs that Christians hold in regard to the gospel.

If you ask your modern-day pew sitter what the gospel is, they will proudly state “That Jesus Died for My Sins” as if it was a rote memory that was absolutely correct. If you push them a little harder, then they will tell you that “He Also Raised from the Dead!”. This is nearly verbatim of what Paul was telling the Corinthians in his first letter (15:1-11). But as we said in the introduction to this article, these arguments that Paul is putting forward are actually just proof texts that what was being talked about aligns with the scriptures and that eyewitnesses can validate the events. Here’s the thing, what your modern Christion is responding with is a Gospel, but it is not Jesus’s Gospel. In fact, this is Paul’s Gospel (reread that first verse again).

We talked a little bit in the former article about Euaggelizo and Euaggelion, with the former being the verb and the latter being the noun but both meaning the speaking of good news. If you were to look at that first verse in the original Greek, it literally says “to make know, moreover to you brother, that the Euaggelion (Gospel-noun) which was Euaggelizo (Gospel-verb) to you… And then he goes on to give evidence and witnesses. In other words, Paul is saying to his first century audience that the good news about “The Good News” is that it is trustworthy, and this is why.

So, if those two elements are not “The Good News”, then what is? We will get to that in a moment but first I want to look at another wide-spread belief that has hijacked the term gospel and misleads people in what it truly is. The belief that I am talking about is that the gospel is the “Story” of all of the Bible. You see this preached and taught almost everywhere. It goes something like this: “the gospel has four parts, there was a creation, then there was a fall, then a redemption took place, and finally a restoration will take place.” There is nothing inherently wrong with that summary as all four of those events are, or will be, true. But these are themes found throughout the Bible and collectively do not represent The Gospel. The reason this falls short is that it is often used to take the Jesus of the New Testament and shoehorn him into the Old Testament. But ultimately, this moves The Gospel of Jesus from a proclamation (Gospel-verb) to a thematic philosophy for why Christianity exists. The True Gospel falls inside of that framework and if much more than what is delivered through that framework. The resultant of this framework can be considered “Good News”, but it is not what “The Gospel” is. And, because it tries to pack all of humanity throughout time into it, it lacks the application of what The Gospel truly does for you and me in the here and now.

So here it is, how simple is the Gospel? It is an announcement, a proclamation, a statement of what has come. Mathew Quotes Jesus in 4:17 saying “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” And just a few sentences later, in verse 23, we get our first use of the word Gospel. It says that Jesus had gone throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues (like a town hall/school) and proclaiming, “The Gospel of the Kingdom”. That’s it. The Kingdom is the Good News. Ok, so it seems simple to say the gospel is the announcement of the Kingdom of Heaven (or Kingdom of God if you read Mark’s or Luke’s account). But what in the world is this kingdom and why do the first century authors feel confident that their readers know exactly what it is.

Throughout time there have been “Ages”. These organized time periods were how people maintained their history for the passing on of oral tradition (then written once the Hebrew people started capturing it in their scriptures). We touched on this a little bit when we looked at the Accounts/Generations found throughout Genesis in the article, “In the End, We Begin”. During the “Age” of God presenting himself through the people group of Israel, He reveled through some of his Prophets (people who bound themselves to God and would profess what was reveled to them by God) that there would eventually be a new kingdom establish. This was important to the people of Israel because they were the established Kingdom of God and throughout time, they as a kingdom choose to walk away from God (the natural course of Sin, still prevalent since its introduction). It started with them desiring the role of kingship like their neighbors and ended with their neighbors lording their kingship over them. During a period of captivity/banishment within this Age, the prophets of Israel began to profess that God was going to bring a “New Kingdom” that would last forever. The best example of this can be found in Daniel 4:34. The way the prophets spoke indicated that with the coming of this everlasting kingdom would also mark the start of the last “Age” of this creation. The people of Israel began to look forward to the Anointed one (Messiah in Hebrew, Christ in Greek) as talked about by Daniel in 9:27. This created an “Expecting” in their culture for a messiah that would bring a new kingdom.

A lot of Jews took these prophecies to mean that they would have a new kingdom established through them and it would be a Waring King that would overthrow those who were subjugating them. Turns out that mainstream Judaism got it wrong. But there was a small group of Jews that were heading down a path that had the right idea of who this Messiah would be. They were called the Essenes, and they were a bit of a reclusive group. They are not actually talked about throughout the New Testament, but we see the elements of their teaching and lifestyle in John the Baptist and Jesus. We have a fairly large collection of literature that describes their everyday life and is what we call the Dead Sea Scrolls (due to the location where they were found). As you read through this literature, you see them talk about a Messiah that would become a “Teacher of Righteousness” that would lead them in preparation of the last age. They also held a belief that a cosmic figure called the “Son of Light” would defeat the “Sons of Darkness” in a final battle. This group at least saw a bigger picture of what was going on, but they still did not have all the answers and actually did not see the Messiah as a Kingly Figure.

Talking of a coming Kingdom was not a new thing within Judaism and would not have been entirely out of context when Jesus proclaimed it. But, as he furthered his teaching on what this kingdom would look like (see Matthew 5) and starter to perform miracles, people started connecting the dots and realized that this is in fact the Messiah, or the anointed one (this is what Jesus’s Baptism in Matthew 3:16 established). When the mainstream Judaism picked up that the people saw this man as a Messiah, they began to send people to test him. But, because they still held the belief that the messiah would be a man that led them out of captivity (again), they were taken aback when they started to perceive his message as one tied to a spiritual nature. Jesus actually refrained from declaring who he was out right (see Matthew 21:23-27) but did not hide it from those closest to him (See Matthew 16:13-20). John tells us that Jesus told Pilate that his kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36-37) which is really the first time that Jesus openly claimed Kingship. It was not until His Resurrection that He claimed, “All authority has been given to me in both heaven and earth” (Matthew 28:18).

So, The Gospel of Jesus was the that the Kingdom (His Kingdom) was near and that it was being established in Him. A kingdom that is not bound to this world but has authority over everything in it. A kingdom with an established King that is not separated from God (is not part of the separation of Sin) and is not bound to the attributes of this fallen world. A King that rules over this created world that even has authority over death within this creation. So, what does that mean for you and me? Where do we play in this?

Every person that resides within this creation is in fact part of this creation. When we place our Faith (Pistis) in the one who has authority over creation, we are pledging our allegiance with the Anointed King, the Messiah, The Christ. We become citizens to His Kingdom, a Kingdom not of this earth and is not bound by anything on it. This means that we are heirs to the future eternal rule as well. One that is past our death and past the final destruction of this creation. A new creation free of separation (Sin) and never-ending (free of death). But, for those that choose to live under the false authority of this world and its system and never change allegiances (repent) will fall into destruction with the rest of this creation.

So, let us who have heard The Gospel of a new Kingdom established, and have aligned ourselves with its King, be free from the agony of this world. We are no longer separated from God through the establishment of Sin, and as we are actively seeking to be part of the kingdom of the Christ, we are constantly looking toward God and therefore never in the state of Sin. We are in the creation and our bodies are the creation that fall under the authority of this new King. Though this creation is slated for destruction, we are still keepers of the creation under his authority. We are not to burden ourselves through laws and regulations, but we are also called to let our lives testify to the new Kingdom.

If you are reading this and feel like you are stuck in the systems of this world, let me tell you of the Gospel of a Kingdom that was establish over the powers of this world. Seek its King and find comfort. As the toils of this creation are short lived and our King longs to spend eternity with us in a new creation free of the fate that this one succumbs to.