The Gospel of the Kingdom

The Scriptures repeatedly teach us that Jesus proclaimed “the gospel (good news) of the kingdom,” (Matt. 9:35). What does this mean? A full explanation would lead us through a study of the entire Bible. However, as edifying as that would be, for now I want to offer a rather succinct explanation in which the biblical picture of a King and a kingdom are drawn out to help us grasp the critical truths which stand behind them.

To start with, we need to recognize that we were created both by God and for God, and that we live in God’s world, (I Cor. 8:6). All human beings are God’s subjects, inhabiting his kingdom, (Ps. 22:28). Because the whole world and all that fills it is God’s creation, there is no where you can go and nothing you can enjoy that is not God’s possession. From our very conception we depend upon the King’s kindness and provision. We breath the King’s air, eat the King’s bread, enjoy the King’s manifold blessings, and are infinitely indebted to the King’s grace for our very existence. We have no good thing apart from what he has provided to us, (Ps. 16:2). As creatures whom God has made and upheld—(for we did not make ourselves, nor do we sustain ourselves)—we live in his kingdom which is governed by his rules. Every one of us are recipients of his immeasurable benevolence.

Yet, despite all the blessed gifts which abound around us, we have lived as utter rebels toward God our King. In our sin, we have dishonored his name in our heart and with our lives, we have rejected his authority over us, we have broken, mocked, and disregarded his holy laws, and we have incessantly conspired to usurp his throne for ourselves—to be our own lord and ruler, and to order his kingdom for our own glory. As rebels of the King’s realm, we deserve the King’s justice and wrath against us. As obstinate traitors, we justly deserve the righteous punishment of death for our treason against the King and his kingdom.

Yet this King is not like us. For if we were king and had such rebels in our realm, the shallow limits of our ‘mercy’ would be laid bare through the immediacy and fury of our bitter wrath. Yet this King has done something utterly remarkable—even unthinkable, (I Cor. 2:9). He has sent a word of “gospel” blessing to the many sinful rebels of his realm—an authoritative edict of “good news” for condemned traitors like ourselves. Despite our hateful rebellion against God our King, he is merciful and compassionate toward us, he is “slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,” (Ex. 34:6-7). Though his wrath is justified beyond all dispute, he “takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked,” (Ezek. 18:23). For he cries out to his rebellious people:

11 Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? (Ezek. 33:11).

Instead of the wrath our sins deserve, the King has offered the unfathomable blessing of full pardon to every rebel who will genuinely repent of their sin and receive him as their sovereign Lord. So long-suffering, merciful and kind is our King that he has offered to ransom us from our guilt at his own costly expense, (Mk. 10:45). He has promised that for those who repent, the infinite debt of our guilt will be fully satisfied by his own provision, (I Pet. 2:24). This glorious offer is for all men of every stripe—none are excluded but they who exclude themselves—but they must repent of their wicked rebellion to receive it, (Jn. 3:14-18).

Repenting means acknowledging and confessing our sin and guilt as the death-worthy treason that it truly is, and unreservedly placing ourselves under the full authority of the King as Lord over our life. It means turning away from our former rebellion and sinful self-governance, and gladly submitting our will to our King’s sovereign rule. For all who will turn away from their sins—however great those sins may be—God our King will pay the full ransom for our deliverance. Through the shedding of his own blood our King will bring us out from under the curse of death, and grant us a place as beloved citizens of his eternal kingdom wherein we will enjoy the full measure of his blessing forevermore, (Gal. 3:13; 4:4-7). Indeed, for all who receive this “good news,” it may be said of them unto all eternity that: “They shall be his people, and he shall be their God,” (Jer. 32:38). But those who refuse to surrender to the King as Lord, reject the “good news” that has been offered to them. Instead, they remain the King’s enemies and therefore await the coming day of the King’s righteous justice against them.

This is one way of articulating in simple form “the gospel of the kingdom” which Jesus Christ proclaimed. It is a message of astounding forgiveness for those who will forsake their sin and gladly surrender all to God. It is the message which Jesus Christ continually proclaimed and commissions his Church to go on proclaiming today, (Lk. 24:46-47).

However, we need to be very clear on this “gospel.” The question is not: Do you want to be forgiven and not suffer for your sins? No one wants to be guilty or suffer. You do not need to love the King to desire such things. The King’s offer of redemption is not an offer for sinful rebels to go on rejecting his Lordship by living according to their own will and desires under a false pretense of so-called gospel grace, (Eph. 5:6; I Cor. 6:9-11; Tit. 2:11-15).

The real question is: Are you willing to truly repent and surrender your life to Jesus Christ as Lord? Jesus is not the Savior of those for whom he is not also their Lord. To seek God’s blessings without genuinely, visibly, and earnestly surrendering to God’s rule is to invent a false gospel of your own imagination—a gospel which, in the end, will prove to be a vain hope, (II Pet. 1:5-8). For a day is soon coming when:

41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear, (Matt. 13:41-43).

Thus, together with her Savior and King the true Church still cries out to the world: