Why is the Kingdom of God Such Good News?




When Jesus came preaching to Israel that they should repent for the Kingdom of God was at hand what was he really saying?   What did he mean when He talked about the "Good News of the Kingdom?" (see Matthew 4:17 and 4:23)

First of all, repent just means, “change your thinking.”  We have attached a religious meaning to that word and we usually associate it with tears and prayers for forgiveness of sin along with promises to behave better.   This is not what it means at all.  It simply means to “change one’s thinking” about something.


The phrase “the Kingdom of God” or the “Kingdom of Heaven” simply means the rule of God or the “area under the rule of God.”


Jesus was saying to his fellow Israelites, “Change your thinking – the rule of God is available right here and now.”   Most of the Jewish people of his time anticipated the coming of a political leader called the Messiah, who would throw off the oppression of the Roman conquerors and re-establish Israel as an independent political kingdom.  They were looking for a return to the glory days of King David when the kingdom of Israel covered a huge amount of territory and dominated the region with military power.


Jesus was saying –change your thinking about this.  I have not come to bring a political kingdom, but rather a spiritual one.  In addition, He was saying that the Rule of God was available to his hearers right here and now.   This was an offer to people to come under the leadership of God.   We see in the gospels that when people came under the influence of Jesus' leadership the following things happened:

  • their sins were forgiven, 
  • their sicknesses were healed
  • they were set free from demonic oppression.
  • some folks were raised from the dead  
  • In addition, some folks received financial miracles (e.g. the huge catch of fish for Peter in his fishing business) 
  • some received miracles of character transformation (e.g. Zaccheus the tax collector paying back four times the money that he had stolen from others).


These are what we can call the blessings of the Kingdom.  Jesus demonstrated these blessings of the Kingdom over and over throughout the gospels.  This is why the present and available Kingdom is such good news! 


This same Kingdom and its blessings are available to us in the 21st century.  We have a King – Jesus of Nazareth - who we can give our allegiance to.  If we surrender our wills to His leadership He will bring our lives into a place of provision, protection, peace, forgiveness, healing and freedom from spiritual oppression.    The rule of God takes place in our hearts as we surrender to Him.  The greater the degree of our surrender to Him, then the greater the degree of His Life and blessings in us.  This surrender is not a one time "decision."  It is a daily surrender to the Leadership of our King.  It means that every day we are trusting Him to lead us in His purpose for our lives while seeking to do the things that please Him.

Our King Jesus secured all of these blessings for us through His death, burial and resurrection.   Today, let's surrender our wills to Him and trust that His leadership will bring His justice, peace and joy into our lives and through our lives to others.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Does Salvation Really Mean? (Part Two)

Image
In part one of this study on salvation, I wrote about the confusion that we 21 st century folks run into when we read the Bible.   We often read meanings into words that are really not there in the original languages.     Even when we do understand the original meanings of the words, we often add meanings from our 21 st century Christian traditions that the author of those words never intended to convey. We do this so easily that we are not even aware of it. The word “salvation” is a prime example.   When many Christians hear the word salvation, they tend to think of God’s actions in forgiving our sins, giving us His Divine life and placing us in his family.   While it is true that God does all these things for us, the Biblical word salvation in both the Old and New Testaments simply means “rescue.”   I think it is important to reclaim the true Biblical definitions of words like “salvation”, “repentance” and “kingdom” to help us remove the layers of...
Read more

Are We Preaching the Apostolic Gospel?

Image
What is the apostolic gospel?  I suggest it is the good news that was proclaimed by the apostles of Jesus in the first century.  The word "apostle" comes from the Greek meaning "sent one."   The apostles were the messengers chosen and sent by Jesus to proclaim the message of good news.  I received much of my inspiration for this study from Scott McKnight's excellent book, "The King Jesus Gospel." I highly recommend his book for further s tudy. We can get a glimpse into what the apostles proclaimed by reading their sermons as recorded by Luke the physician in the book of Acts in the New Testament.  According to many scholars this book was written around AD 63.  It is a companion volume to Luke’s gospel, and it describes the development of Christianity in the first 30 years of its existence.   Dr. Luke focuses on the missionary journeys of Paul and Barnabas into present day Turkey and Greece, as they carried the good news of God’s King...
Read more

What Does Salvation Really Mean?

Image
We all know that words change meaning over time.  Many of the words we commonly throw around in Christian circles such as salvation, eternal life, hell, etc. have taken on different meanings over the years and have diverged from their original meanings as used in the New Testament.  I think it is important to define our terms and to have clarity on what Jesus or the apostles really meant when they used a certain Greek word.  We tend to read our current cultural Christianity *into* the Scriptures, rather than reading out the meaning that would have been apparent to the first century audience to whom the New Testament was originally written. One of these words is the word “ salvation .”  When we 21 st century evangelical Christians hear the word “saved” or “salvation”, we tend to think, “a state where an individual’s sins are forgiven and they are assured a place in heaven when they die.”  This however is not what the Greek word means that is translated...
Read more