What is the Gospel According to Jesus?
By Darren Eyles
We tend to think that the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are biographies about Jesus, the story of his coming, ministering and dying, but if we want to know what ‘the Gospel’ is, we need to go to Paul. Many articles and books say exactly that; if you want an explanation of the Gospel, start in Romans.
My question is, “Did Jesus know what the good news was?” Did Jesus know why he came? When Jesus went into the Judean countryside, what was it that he preached? What was the Gospel according to Jesus?
To answer this, we need to begin with John the Baptist announcing Jesus’ coming, in Matthew 3, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” John believed that Jesus’ coming was synonymous with the coming of a kingdom! Jesus said the same thing. Let me give some examples:
Matthew 4:23: “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom…”
Matthew 24:14: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
Luke 4:43: “But he [Jesus] said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.””
Acts 1:3: “After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.”
Jesus preached about the kingdom of God, and so did Paul! Here are a couple of examples:
Acts 19:8: “Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God.”
Acts 28:31: “He [Paul] proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ...”
John the Baptist, Jesus, and Paul all taught about “the kingdom”. The word ‘kingdom’ means the king’s lands or the area over which the king rules. A kingdom is a domain over which a king has authority, jurisdiction, or dominion.
After Jesus’ death and resurrection, the New Testament writers started proclaiming Jesus as the King of God’s kingdom (Acts 8:12, 19:8, 20:25). Even the word ‘Euangelion’ from which we get the word 'Gospel' was in use in the Roman world prior to Jesus and was used to mean good news about the reign of a new King!
Now consider Jesus’ final words in Matthew 28. He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Jesus is saying that because of the resurrection, God has given him authority to be the King of the cosmos! So, that means that the whole world is Jesus’ domain, has come under his rule, and every human on earth will be invited to be his subjects, to come into his kingdom through repentance and faith. This is why, everywhere Jesus went, he called everyone to repent, because the kingdom of God had arrived on earth!
This was the Gospel message according to Jesus! This was the good news! Not only that the Son of God had come to visit and redeem his creation, but that he had brought his kingdom with him!
We don't only see this in his proclamations; we also see it in his teachings. In Matthew 12, Jesus heals a man who was blind and mute, and the religious leaders accuse him of doing it by the power of the evil one. Jesus responded by saying,“But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Jesus is saying that if these things (driving out demons) are being done by the power of God, then the rule and reign of God had arrived on earth!
This explains Jesus’ teachings in the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount. They describe what the kingdom is like, and they describe the sort of person who will be a part of the kingdom. As Matthew 5:3,10 say, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven! Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven!”
Jesus told parable after parable about the kingdom:
The kingdom is like a farmer who sowed seed in his field
The kingdom is like yeast that a women took and mixed through her dough
The kingdom is like a net thrown into the sea that caught all kinds of fish
The kingdom is like a pearl that a merchant found and sold all he had to buy it.
In Matthew 13:31-32 Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
Jesus believed that this kingdom would have very small beginnings but would then grow into something very large that would create a place of belonging and shelter! In other words, the kingdom of God has come to earth, and its message is going out in a variety of ways, calling all people everywhere to come under God’s rule and reign!
So, what does all of this mean for us? Well, It means that the “Gospel” is the Gospel of the kingdom, that we must see ourselves as kingdom people. We are not just individual Christians biding our time whilst we wait for heaven. We are a people being delivered from one kingdom and brought into another!
Colossians 1:13 says, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves…” When we are saved, we are being saved into a kingdom! We become a part of a realm where Jesus is the king, where the whole earth is his domain, and where we are all his subjects! This is the part of the Gospel we have been missing, the part that some of our theology has prevented us from seeing.
Once we understand this, it will affect how we read the text, how we see the Gospel, how we do evangelism, and how we live out our faith in the world! And that is where it begins to get exciting, because the reconciliation of “all things” (Colossians 1:20) that Jesus came to achieve is being brought about through the work of the kingdom. We are his agents, his hands and his feet in the restoration and reconciliation process. As we live out our faith in the world, as we love, forgive, show mercy, do justice, even – dare I say – as we care for our world, if we do these from a position of faith, we are anticipating the world that is to come, which means that everything we do matters!
The kingdom is expanding just as Jesus said it would, and as it does, God’s rule and reign is being manifested on earth as Christian communities create places for people to find belonging and shelter!
The good news according to Jesus, then, is about the kingdom. And what is the kingdom about? It is about God’s rule and reign and abode coming from heaven to earth. It’s about God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven. It’s about us being redeemed, so we can be a part of that process of creating belonging and shelter, where others can come and find rest.
As Luther said, “that your future kingdom may be the end and consummation of the kingdom you have begun in us.”