I grew up in a culture where the Gospel was primarily about getting to heaven when you die. The goal of most preaching was to escape hell and gain glory. The most important question was, “If you were to die tonight, do you know where you would spend eternity?” The most emotional music was about “this world not being my home” or “crossing over Jordan” or “entering the Promised Land” or “a city of gold” or “flying away.”

Now let me say that I still believe in life after death, the resurrection of the body, a final judgment, heaven, hell and an eternal order. But I have come to believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ not only has to do with eternal life after death, but also with eternal life before death and with the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. The goal of the Gospel is not only that one day when Christ appears we shall be like Him, but also that we be conformed to the image of Christ today.

I also grew up in a culture where the Gospel was primarily about the individual. It was about saving individual souls. It was about personal salvation and the priesthood of every believer. Again, let me say I still believe that God’s love is for every person and that Christ died for each one of us as individuals and that we must be converted and sanctified one at a time as individual human beings.

But I have come to believe that the Gospel is much more grand and glorious than what it does in the life of the individual human being. The Gospel is not only about the transformation of character; it is also about the transformation of culture, community and the cosmos. Scripture says it this way: “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in Christ, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

The Gospel is about the glory of God, the love of God, the purposes of God, the reign of God. The good news is about God’s order of reality where God is recognized as sovereign. This was the central theme in the ministry of Jesus. He was always teaching and preaching about the good news of the Kingdom. His parables were stories explaining it. His miracles were demonstrations of its power and character. His death was the sacrificial act by which He defeated the kingdom of sin and Satan. His resurrection was  vindication and the event by which God’s order of reality would be made available to the whole world.  

Nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus define the Kingdom. Rather he describes it by telling stories; each giving a characteristic, a quality or a result of what happens when God is acknowledged as sovereign. The central message of the New Testament is that God’s Kingdom has come in Jesus, the Christ. God’s order of reality has been incarnated and inaugurated in the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus. In Jesus, God’s sovereignty, compassion, justice and character has been revealed. The Kingdom has come.

But the good news is that this Kingdom that has come in Jesus is now available to all,  and is becoming a reality in the present order. The Kingdom that has come in Jesus continues to come in and through the followers of Jesus -- like salt, light, leaven and seed. It comes as surprise, upsetting and unsettling the world’s order of priorities. As people are born of the Spirit, as people become like a child, as people care for the suffering, as people become humble, as people live as servants to one another, the Kingdom comes. As people confess “Jesus is Lord” and live in radical obedience to His ethic, the Kingdom comes.

And finally the good news is that the Kingdom of God will one day come on earth as it is in heaven. God’s order that has come in the historical revelation of Jesus and continues to come in the historical ministry of the church will some day come in the historical events of Christ’s return. One day what we now experience in part we will experience in full. There will come a day when “the lion will lay down with the lamb,” when perfect justice will be done in this world. There will come a day when “the glory of God covers the earth like waters cover the sea.” There will come a day when “the kingdom of this world becomes the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.”

This is the Good News:

      The Kingdom has come.
      The Kingdom is coming.
      The Kingdom will come.

This is the Good News:

      Christ has come.
      Christ is coming.
      Christ will come.

It is in light of this Good News that I ask the following questions. Do we believe this Good News and are we willing to change our lives accordingly? Do we love God’s Kingdom? Do we ourselves live within it? Do we seek first God’s Kingdom? Do we long for its completion?   Do we serve and proclaim it? Do we value and cherish it above all else? Do we pray for it and practice its ethic?

During this Advent what I pray for in my own life and within the Baptist family and the Christian community is a Kingdom perspective, priority and passion. I pray for a narrative of God’s present and coming reign that transcends the story of our individual lives, our local churches, our denominations and our countries. What I pray for is a new birth of the Spirit, much like what Jesus described to Nicodemus, so that we can see into and enter the Kingdom of God. What I pray for is a new assurance that encourages us to work for the Kingdom even if we don’t see results.   

 N.T. Wright in his book, “Surprised by Hope” writes: “Every act of love, gratitude and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of  his creation, every minute spent teaching a severely handicapped child to read or to walk, every act of care and nurture, of comfort and support for one’s fellow human beings and for that matter one’s fellow non-human creation; and of course every prayer, all Spirit-led teaching, every deed that spreads the Gospel, builds up the church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honored in the world – all of this finds its way through the resurrecting power of God; into the new creation that God will one day make.”