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The Gospel Versus the Gospel of the Kingdom?
Are there two Gospels in the Gospels? Really, I'm being serious. I keep hearing that there are two separate Gospels recorded by the Gospel writers. They say there is this "Gospel of Salvation", by which they mean the preaching of forgiveness of sins, repentance, the blood of Jesus, you know, all those "ordinary" things.
But then there is this "Kingdom" Gospel! Signs and wonders. Power. Dominion. And judging by how this "Gospel" is preached, it seems a far superior Gospel to the one we have known all our humdrum lives.
For those for whom a simple text can solve problems like this, and there still are people like this in these days, I offer Mark 1:14-15...
"...Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and saying, '...the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.' "
So what is the "Gospel of the Kingdom"? According to Jesus here, it is the message of repentance from sin and receiving the good news of who Jesus is. Both ideas in one passage. Gospel. Gospel of the Kingdom. No difference.
Not there yet? Then try Mark 13:10, as compared to Matthew 24:14. These are companion passages. It is the same setting, recorded a bit differently by Matthew and Mark:
Matthew has it this way: "And 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."
But Mark, "And the Gospel must first be preached to all the nations."
Both statements are from the Olivet discourse outlining the end of all things. The terms "Gospel" and "Gospel of the Kingdom" are interchangeable.
But isn't the Gospel of the Kingdom associated with powerful signs, as opposed to the more ordinary Gospel of "getting people saved"? Well, In Matthew 4:23 and 9:35 Jesus preaches the Gospel of the Kingdom with healings and everything else that goes with a demonstration of power. But when He sent His disciples out on their mission to do the very same thing, they went "preaching the Gospel and healing everywhere (Luke 9:6). Like I said, interchangeable.
What then is the connection between the Church, the Gospel and the Kingdom? Check out Matthew 16. Remember the day the coming of the church was prophesied? "I will build my church," said Jesus. But Peter was not given the keys of the church, though many want to have it that way. He was given the keys of the Kingdom of God. Keys open doors. Keys shut doors.
What doors did Peter open with those keys? When Peter preached that first sermon at Pentecost, a Gospel sermon by the way, he opened the doors of the Kingdom of God to all Jews. A few chapters later he used another key to open the door to the Gentiles. Those who were called out from the world on those two days to look for the Kingdom's full revealing on another day, were called, not strangely, the "called out" (in Greek). In English that translates into church. The church is the present visible Kingdom in waiting, to be added to the invisible group of saints that went before us, those who looked ahead to Christ's sacrifice and were saved by it.
No, there is not some other plan of God, some "Plan B" or some "end-time" plan known as the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom has been here all along. It's all over the pages of the Old Testament. It's militant physical side was suspended at the death of Jesus, but it was never thrown out, to be replaced by the church. Rather it will be peopled by the church. Hence the great Commission. Preaching the Gospel, finding citizens for Heaven through repentance and forgiveness, is Kingdom business!
Today, wherever people are meeting Jesus and experiencing the forgiveness of sins, there is the Kingdom to come, and the church of now. Wherever the power of God comes and makes righteous and heals and empowers and inspires and gives peace and creates loving children of God out of hate-filled slaves of the Devil, there is the church of today and citizens of the Kingdom that shall one day descend on the planet and rule it with the Son of God.
That's why we don't teach "Kingdom now" except in the Spirit sense. We teach "church now, Kingdom later." Oh what a glorious Kingdom it will be!
So church member, saved by the Gospel of Jesus, fear not. If you are sincerely walking with Christ, the Kingdom will not pass you by. That Gospel you believed is the Gospel of the Kingdom. The Kingdom is in you and one day will, with Jesus and the rest of us, be you.
As for those preaching "another Gospel", we must caution them to be careful not to go so far as to come under the harsh words of the Apostle Paul... There is, he says, no other gospel than the one he preached, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, and all that goes with those basic facts of life.