Nonconformist Chronicles

Gospel: Toward a Definition (Part 2)

The "gospel of the kingdom" is the "good news of a new world order." The new order doesn't come about through political restructuring or violent revolution, but it consists of the redeemed community. The redeemed are those who've been delivered from enslavement to sin and death. As they go about doing good in the name of Christ, the kingdom advances in the world.

The miracles and ministry of Jesus were manifestations of the advancing kingdom of God through which the lost are found, the sick receive care, and the oppressed are granted justice. While this new order is not fully consummated until Christ's return, in the meantime his followers make whatever difference they can, bringing the rule of heaven to bear on earth.

The Romans defined the gospel of a new world order as the Empire under Augustus, whereas Christ-followers define it as the Kingdom of God under Jesus. While Augustus established a new order by force, Jesus, ironically, achieved victory in what appeared like defeat. He conquered by the cross. There he paid the penalty for sin, releasing those who follow him from its enslavement. Having been laid in the tomb and raised from the dead, Jesus conquered death, thereby delivering his followers from the fear and finality of this enemy of humanity.

So the message of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection is certainly core to the gospel, for it is through these events that Christ delivers us from our enemies by defeating them. While there is no gospel without the cross, the empty tomb, and the resurrection, this is not the extent of the gospel. If it were, then Jesus would not have been preaching the gospel prior to these events. But Scripture says that Jesus did preach the gospel---the gospel of the kingdom---a new world order.

So when Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, for example, was he preaching the gospel? Absolutely, for he was heralding a new world order, a new community under the reign of God. It's an order in which people keep their promises and love their enemies, resisting temptations to deceive or objectify others. The Sermon on the Mount holds up the model of life in the Kingdom of God and is therefore "gospel."

Since the message of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is crucial to the conquering of sin and death, this message is foundational to the gospel (1 Cor. 15:1-8). Because of the cross and the resurrection people are redeemed from the old order of sin and death, delivered into the new order of liberty and life. The gospel is neglected if the cross and the resurrection are conspicuously absent from one's preaching.

Mere moralizing is not gospel preaching. Stating the negative consequences of sin is not enough. It's not enough to say, for example, that fornication should be avoided since it could ultimately lead to disease or the second death. The primary motive for purity is because we've been bought with the price of Christ's blood so we are now his possessions (1 Cor. 6:18-20).

Having been redeemed by Christ's blood, delivered by his work on the cross, we are incorporated into the new order of humanity. We are now charged with the task of being agents of redemption in this world, helping to deliver others from what binds them.      

Gospel: Toward a Definition

Growing up unchurched, I often heard religious people talk about the "gospel" but I was clueless as to what they meant. We hear about "gospel singing," "gospel preaching," and the "gospel truth." But if you ask the average person on the street for a definition of gospel, one has no idea how to answer. I'm not convinced that even most religous people know what they're talking about when they say "gospel."

While the term "gospel" is an almost exclusively religous word in our day, the Greek word translated "gospel" in our Bibles did not originally belong to religious vocabulary. The same is true of other terms like "Savior," "Redemption," "Justification" and many others which are now considered high-dollar church words. The biblical authors didn't have any high-dollar church words. They used the existing vocabulary of their culture as metaphors to describe God's plan for reconciling people to himself. Today's theological terms did not start out as exclusively religious currency.

The word translated "gospel" means "good news" or "glad tidings." It was used by the ancients in reference to a new world order. During the reign of Caesar Augustus it was said that the day of his birth was the beginning of the "gospel." Augustus put a stop to the civil wars which followed the assasination of Julius Caesar. The entire known world was united under Augustus as an empire. The coming of this new world order of restored peace was said to be the "gospel" (good news, glad tidings). So Augustus was hailed "Savior of the world." He was called the son of a god, having been adopted by Julius Caesar who was thought to have been deified in death.

So the biblical authors used everyday language to say what was special about Jesus.  He preached the gospel of the kingdom, a new world order (Luke 8:1). Hailed as Prince of Peace, Savior of the World, and Son of God, it may have sounded like Jesus was in competition with Augustus and subsequent emperors. Some suspected Jesus' kingdom would be established through a militant revolution. His Jewish followers, unhappy with the Roman occupation of Palestine, were hoping to be led in battle against Rome.

Did Jesus intend to establish a political kingdom brought about by force? On trial before Pilate, accused of insurrection, Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36). Elsewhere Jesus said, "The kingdom does not come with your careful observation...because the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20-21).

The "gospel of the kingdom" is indeed the "glad tidings of a new world order." The kingdom, however, does not advance by force or political manueverings, but by influence. It is like leaven working through the dough (Matt. 13:33). The subjects of the kingdom are those submitting themselves to the reign of God in their lives. They have believed the good news and thereby make up an alternative community characterized by justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Matt. 23:23).

The kingdom of heaven currently co-exists with other world powers that have sought to bypass God's authority and do things their own way. The wheat and the weeds co-exist, growing together until the return of Christ when they are spearated and his kingdom will be the only one left stadning (Matt. 13:24-43).

In the meantime, believers are to pray for the advancing kingdom. To pray that God's kingdom will come is to pray for it's continued advanement and infleucne in this world (Mat. 6:10). We pray for, and do, God's will on earth, so that more beachheads of the kingdom are established in this world to reflect how things are in heaven where God's rule is unchallenged.

Historical Jesus and Christ of Faith

Characteristic of the Enlightenment Era was the exaltation of human reason and natural explanations to the point of dismissing the miraculous or mysterious. The boundaries of truth were limited to what could be empirically known or rationally proved. "The Quest for the Historical Jesus" was undoubtedly influenced by such philosophical suppositions as scholars sought to deliniate between the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith.

Supernatural explanations for the imprint of Jesus left upon history and society were jettisoned in favor of more provable explanations. Since he could not have been a divine man who did miraculous works and was resurrected from the dead, there must be natural explanations for his ascendancy and for the lasting impact of the church.

Albert Schweitzer dated 1778 as the beginning of the "quest" with the controversial writings of Hermann Reimarus who dismissed the historicity of the resurrection accounts. Reimarus argued that Jesus died upon the cross disillusioned, having failed to usher in the kingdom of God. It was the creativity of his disciples that kept his legacy alive by reinterpreting his teachings eschatologically. The church contended that Jesus did not fail, but that he was resurrected and will return to set up his kingdom.   

Many historical Jesus scholars followed, mainly within German academia, but also among the French and British. They were mostly consistent in their assesment that the historical Jesus was a peasant from Nazareth who failed to start a revolution and was instead crucified. He allegedly expected God's intervention to save him and to establish his kingdom on earth. When this did not happen, the church picked up the ball and reworked the doctrine of Christ with myths of a divine man, a resurrection, a spiritual kingdom, and a second coming.

The goal of the "quest" was to peel away the layers of church tradition and subsequent theological developments to get at the identity of the real man, Jesus of Nazareth. To really know what Jesus said and did meant getting back to the historical Jesus. The "Christ of faith" was allegedly an invention of the church since divine beings obviously don't walk the earth and there are no virgin births or resurrections. Everything must have a natural explanation. Historical Jesus scholars view the resurrection as the disciples' coping strategy to keep faith alive in one who was too great to die.

More recently, scholars like E. P. Sanders have stated it as fact that Jesus' followers had resurrection experiences. While he stops short of saying that the resurrection is a historical fact, he does not see faith as resulting from mass hysteria or "calculated deception." While more radical scholars say mass hysteria could account for 500 people who had a "resurrection experience" simulataneously, Sanders argues that this could not account for the numerous personal testimonies in the Gospel and Acts.

While radicals point to alleged contradictions in the Gospel accounts as proof of conspiracy, others argue that such an elaborate hoax would be more uniform. Conspirators would have made an effort to tidy up their accounts.

Even scholars who don't accept everything in the Gospels as historical are hard pressed to explain away the resurrection. Some are led to conclude that something extraordinary must have happened to launch such a movement as the church and to cause believers to embrace persecution or martyrdom rather than to deny the Christ of faith.      

Recommended Sources:

Bornkamm, Gunther, Jesus of Nazareth (New York: Harper & Row, 1956, 1960).

Brown, Colin, "Historical Jesus, Quest of" In Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels, edited by Joel B. Green and Scot McKnight (Downers Grove, IL.: Intervarsity Press, 1992), 326-340.

Sanders, E. P., The Historical Figure of Jesus (London: Penguin Books, 1993, 1995). 

Yancey, Philip, The Jesus I Never Knew (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995). While not a Historical Jesus source per se, Yancey's book raises some good questions and gives plausible answers in regard to some of the issues relating to Jesus.