The gospel which we preach nowadays, which I refer to as
“the gospel of salvation,” is largely about leading people to a salvation
experience, typically in the form of “the sinner’s prayer.”
But such an experience is entirely lacking from the ministry
of Jesus. Certainly, there’s nothing even remotely like a “repeat after me”
prayer in scripture, but more, Jesus never called on people to perform any sort
of act of conversion: no sinner’s prayer, no pledge card, no “with every eye
closed, raise your hand.” Nothing. Nada.
But his first and strongest message was “Repent [which means
“change the way you think” or “change the way you see things”], for the Kingdom
of Heaven is at hand [which I interpret as “within reach”].” And then for three
and a half years, he both taught on and demonstrated what the Kingdom was like.
So apparently, instead of a sinner’s prayer, the transition
from sinner to saint was changing how you thought about God’s kingship,
re-working your worldview and your view of Heaven. And that was between you
& God; no public declaration, embarrassing or otherwise.
And since He demonstrated it, regardless of what we think of
His teachings, we have to admit that “the Kingdom” the way Jesus sees it
includes healing the sick and raising the dead. We watch Him in the Gospels,
and it *looks* like it involves hanging out with tax collectors and “sinners”
more intentionally than going to “church” (in his case, Temple).
And apparently, judging from the way he announced it, it
involves thinking differently. And since he was talking to arguably the most
religious people in history, apparently it meant “think differently than your
religion has taught you.”
Adding His teachings into the description, the “good news”
[“gospel”] of the Kingdom appears to also include loving people outside our
comfort zone, and replicating ourselves (“bearing fruit”), and being treasured
by God (as in the Pearl of Great Price).
It may be of some benefit to just look at every place that
the Kingdom is mentioned in the gospels (start here: http://bit.ly/KingdomGospels), and see
what the Holy Spirit shows you. But take your time; there are 119 verses in
that link, each with some revelation on the Kingdom.
I very much encourage you to discuss what you learn with
Holy Spirit, and let Him separate the meat from the bones!
Does that offer any help understanding the difference
between Jesus’ term “the gospel of the Kingdom” (Matthew 4:23) and our
unscriptural term “the gospel of salvation”?
2 comments:
It sure the heck does.
Love you bro!
Very clearly stated. For many years I felt guilty that I wasn't leading people through the "sinners prayer" but then realized thanks to the HS that it was just living and letting my light speak for itself.
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