Part 3: What is the Gospel of the Kingdom? Chapter 17: The Jesus Road to Salvation. This Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come, Jesus had prophesied. We have talked about some of the important values and commandments of the Kingdom, but what exactly is the Gospel of the Kingdom? The Gospel of the Kingdom is basically the historic Christian faith. It's what the Christians of the first few centuries believed and practiced.
The Kingdom Gospel takes the totality of what Jesus and his apostles say on every subject. It's not built on proof texts, and it doesn't depend on anything outside Scripture. You've probably heard of the Romans' road to salvation. Well, in a sense, the Gospel of the Kingdom is the Jesus road to salvation. Its foundational beliefs are the direct teachings of Jesus himself, not the writings of Paul. To be sure, Paul's writings are inspired by the Holy Spirit and are therefore inerrant and true.
But Paul was building on the foundational teachings of Jesus. He wasn't starting a whole new gospel. In contrast, popular theology today, the Gospel of Easy Believism, begins with Paul. And ignoring the context of Paul's letters, it interprets Paul in such a way as to make Jesus' teachings heretical. Come on, now you're going too far, you may be thinking. How does modern theology make Jesus' teachings heretical? Well, what would happen if I went into most Bible-believing churches today and preached?
The sins you commit each day will not be forgiven unless you forgive other people their sins. To be saved, a person must live by the teachings of Jesus. If we do not feed the hungry and clothe the poor, we will not see heaven. I know I would be called a heretic if I preached those things in most evangelical churches. But the Kingdom Gospel says, "I can believe Jesus. I can take him at his word." That might sound like a truism for a Christian.
Yet, most popular theological systems today require a Christian not to believe Jesus. Unlike most theological systems, the Gospel of the Kingdom centers on the Kingdom of God, not on man's personal salvation. We cannot separate salvation from the Kingdom, and we cannot be devoted to Jesus if we're not devoted to his Kingdom. Actually, all of Scripture looks toward this Kingdom. From the beginning, God had purpose to establish a special Kingdom. In fact, he prophesied about it during the Old Testament period.
One of the most significant of these Old Testament prophecies is found in the second chapter of Isaiah. "Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, 'Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways, and we shall walk in his paths.' For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore." Most Christians read this passage as though it's talking about events after Christ returns to earth.
And while it certainly applies to that time as well, its fulfillment is going on right now. In fact, it's been going on since Christ began his ministry. Jesus inaugurated his Kingdom when he came to earth and invited his hearers to enter it. At first, it was only the Jews who were invited to enter the Kingdom, but then the way was open to everyone, and people from all nations began to flow to it. Those who entered this Kingdom beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
They no longer lifted up sword against each other, and they forgot war forever. Jesus has made a covenant to bestow a Kingdom upon those who walk in his ways. "You are those who have continued with me in my trials, and I bestow upon you a Kingdom just as my Father bestowed one upon me." And again, "To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne, as I also overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne." God has opened to all humans the opportunity to be citizens of his Kingdom.
He didn't arbitrarily select a certain portion of mankind and destine them for the Kingdom while consigning the rest to eternal punishment. What would have been the purpose of that? If being in the Kingdom was a matter of arbitrary choice, God would have chosen everyone to be in the Kingdom, for he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. God's selection of his eternal subjects is anything but arbitrary.
No, God wants to fill his Kingdom with that small minority of humankind who really love him. The Kingdom is for those who truly want to walk in his ways. And he wants in his Kingdom only those who believe that he will do what he has promised. He wants only those who have faith that his laws and his ways are always right, good, and the best for his subjects. And how does God determine who meets these requirements? He tests us. Did you notice Jesus' words above?
"You are those who have continued with me in my trials," and "To him who overcomes." There will be testing and trials for those who enter his Kingdom. As Paul expressed it, we must through many tribulations enter the Kingdom of God. In fact, God has always tested mankind, even before his eternal Kingdom had been announced. One of the first things he did after creating the first humans was to give them a test. He tested Noah by commanding him to build an ark.
He tested Abraham by telling him to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice. As the Scriptures tell us, the Lord tests the righteous. And again, the refining pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the hearts. And the righteous God tests the hearts and minds. There are three principal tests that God uses to weed out those who are unfit for his Kingdom. Test number one: Faith. The Kingdom is invisible to anyone who has not been born again. Unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
So it requires considerable faith for persons to even want to join a Kingdom they can't see. Secondly, most of the promised blessings pertaining to the Kingdom take place in the future. So a person has to have faith that God will actually do what he has promised. This test of faith weeds out most of mankind. Most people don't have sufficient faith to believe in a Kingdom they can't see and to count on promises that will be fulfilled only after they die. Test number two: Commitment.
As we have previously discussed, Jesus requires us to lay down everything for his Kingdom. Our primary and ultimate allegiance has to be to our King, Jesus Christ, and his Kingdom. Jesus requires our loyalty to him and his Kingdom to surpass even our loyalty and affection for our parents, children, spouse, country, and even our own lives.
The only kind of people Jesus wants in his Kingdom are those who realize that "the Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid, and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. The majority of people who pass the test of faith stumble over the test of commitment.
Sure, they'll believe in an invisible Kingdom and eternal rewards, but only if it doesn't cost them much. To give up everything based only on promises? No way. Because few persons pass the test of commitment, we would reasonably assume that we're left with hardly anybody in the Kingdom. However, Jesus indicated that many would enter his Kingdom without ever making the needed commitment.
He told his disciples, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs up some other way the same is a thief and a robber." So a lot of people symbolically climb over the walls and try to steal Kingdom citizenship that way. Jesus again pointed this out in his parable of the wedding feast. Those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, "Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?" And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, "Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness.
There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, for many are called but few are chosen." So the people who pass the test of faith but fail the test of commitment are of a different breed than those who don't believe, the ones who refuse the wedding invitation altogether. Those who have no faith usually reject Jesus' claims and promises outright. They don't believe there even is a Kingdom, and they make no effort to enter it.
However, those who fail the test of commitment often do believe Jesus' claims and promises, but they don't want to make the commitment that Jesus requires. In effect, they try to accept Jesus' invitation to the Kingdom feast while rejecting all of his conditions. How do they do this? They find someone who's given out Kingdom invitations without any conditions. So they figuratively climb over the wall in throngs. According to Jesus, in the end, the gatecrashers will comprise the majority of those in his Kingdom.
They are the many who are called, but they are not among the few who are chosen. They've never made any commitment to Christ or to his Kingdom. They may believe that Jesus is their Savior, but they do not truly accept him as their Lord. Test number three: Obedience. In the previous chapters, I have talked about some of the laws of the Kingdom. These laws help to take us from the values and mindset of this world to the values and mindset of God. They also serve as a test.
Some of the believers who pass the tests of faith and commitment later become disobedient. Fortunately, many of these Christians later repent and return to the Kingdom life. However, others lose their love for Christ altogether. They no longer obey him because they no longer love him. In the end, they too will be weeded out of the Kingdom.
The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and those who practice lawlessness and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. So in the end, Jesus will have left in his Kingdom only those who truly believe his promises and accept his conditions. These are those who love him more than anything on earth and will gladly lay down their lives for him. These are the ones that Jesus wants to spend eternity with.
That, in a nutshell, is the gospel of the Kingdom. In the next chapter, we're going to be discussing how a person enters the Kingdom of God. But before we do that, it's important that we understand that the essence of the Kingdom gospel is relationship. To be sure, there are necessary theological doctrines, but theology isn't the essence of the gospel, nor the essence of Christianity. When we become citizens of the Kingdom, we enter into an ongoing relationship with our King.
But this relationship is quite different from the type of relationship talked about in the modern gospel of easy believism. Jesus himself explained the type of relationship he wants. "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me." What does Jesus mean when he talks about our bearing fruits? Here are some examples of how this term is used in the New Testament. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Now, may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality.
And this I pray, that your love may abound still more, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. These are the fruits of righteousness that will grow on us when we are attached to the vine of Jesus. They dovetail nicely with the Kingdom values we have been talking about. But this fruit does not grow automatically. We have to abide in Christ and let his Father prune us.
We must continue to walk in the Spirit. If we don't produce fruits, the Father will cut us off of the vine. That's why citizenship in the Kingdom is relational. It depends on our abiding with Christ and yielding to him and his Father. But how do we abide with Christ? Jesus told us quite plainly, "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love." So we abide in Jesus Christ, not by singing his praises, but by obeying him.
And what happens if we choose not to obey him? He tells us quite frankly, "If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered. And they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned." So our relationship with Jesus is not just any relationship, real or imagined. It's an obedient love relationship. Actually, the phrase "obedient love relationship" is redundant. Because it's impossible to love Jesus without obeying him.
We can publicly proclaim how much we love him, but without obedience, it's all empty words. For he himself said, "He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." So if we don't obey Jesus, we don't love him. It's that simple. He said it, not me. Now, when Jesus talks about obedience, he means real obedience, not the phony obedience that is so popular today.
His real commandments are the ones written in the New Testament. But today's gospel of easy believism says that we can ignore his written commandments. Most Christians treat his commandments as though they were merely suggestions. What really counts, according to this popular gospel, are the subjective impulses that come into our minds. These are supposedly the real commandments of Jesus, the ones to which we need to be obedient.
And since these are supposedly revealed to each Christian personally, each person is the sole judge of what God has told him to do or not to do. It's like a giant game of the emperor's new clothes. Millions of Christians pretend they're walking obediently to Christ, when the truth is that they ignore and trample on his teachings. In fact, they find many of his commandments quite odious. But they obey subjective impulses that come into their mind, so they delude themselves into thinking that they're obeying Jesus.
To be sure, Jesus does give personal direction to prophets and to those who are close to him. But who did he say he would manifest himself to? "He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." As we read earlier, those who love him are those who keep his commandments.
Jesus had already told his disciples, "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much, and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much." If we can't be faithful in the basic, written directions that apply to all Christians, we're only kidding ourselves if we think Jesus is going to give us additional special directions. If we aren't abiding on the vine, bearing fruit, then Jesus isn't manifesting himself to us.
In such a case, the special relationship we imagine we have with Christ is as deceptive as the relationship that many Catholics imagine they have with Mary. However, when we talk about Jesus' commandments, please don't think that we accumulate brownie points by obeying Jesus' teachings or that we earn our salvation by doing so. As I said earlier, the only relationship acceptable to him is a love relationship, nor is this the Mosaic Law all over again.
Jesus didn't fulfill that law just to give us another long list of similar regulations in its place. Jesus described what the Christian life is like when we love him, saying, "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." But how can that be? Elsewhere, Jesus said that we had to forsake everything for him.
And he even said, "He who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it." That doesn't sound like an easy yoke. Ah, now we come to the Kingdom paradox. When viewed from the flesh, Jesus' statements seem contradictory. But in the Spirit, they are completely harmonious. The Kingdom life was never intended to be lived in the flesh. It is not a new Talmud. It was intended to be relational, lived in the Spirit.
And it's only when we bury our life into Jesus Christ that his yoke can be easy and his burden light. His burden is light only when we detach ourselves from every entanglement of this life and lose ourselves in devoted service to our Lord.
It's only when our hearts are free from the cares and concerns of life in this world that we can say with John, "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome." His commandments are easy when our only kingdom is the Kingdom of God, and our souls have let go of everything else.
On the other hand, Jesus' commandments are quite heavy and burdensome when we want to stay attached to this world and our earthly possessions, powers, and freedoms, but still try to serve Jesus.