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The Christian message is called the gospel, which means “good news.” Preachers talk about believing the gospel, or sharing the gospel, or living out the gospel. Unfortunately, preachers don’t always agree on what the gospel is. Although different churches use same the label for the message (“the gospel”), they don’t always have the same message. Some people emphasize one biblical description; others focus on another description.

The Bible gives several descriptions of the gospel, but it doesn’t give a formal definition. Entire books have been written trying to define the gospel. Some seem to begin with a key verse in Scripture, but often they do not survey what Jesus and his apostles actually preached. In some ways the entire New Testament is an example of what they preached, but we want to pay particular attention to how the writers summarize the message.

Here’s one major question: Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom of God; Peter and Paul preached about salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Are these different messages? Did the apostles go off in a different direction? It will take some work to find the answer, but the gospel is important, so we’ll take a detailed look.

Believe the good news

When Jesus began his ministry, he preached, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:15). When he sent his disciples out to preach, he told them “to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick” (Luke 9:2).

The time had come for God’s kingdom. But what is this kingdom? We might at first think of a king who rules over people in a certain area. Many Jews wanted that sort of kingdom – they wanted God to liberate their land from the Roman empire, so they could be a kingdom of their own.

But that didn’t happen. Jesus wasn’t talking about that sort of kingdom. Jesus had to teach people what the kingdom was like. In some of his parables, he said, “The kingdom of God is like…” and he gave comparisons that are nothing like the kingdoms of this world. We need to set aside our ideas about what a kingdom is and let Jesus give us the picture of what he is talking about.

Kingdom comparisons in Matthew

The Gospel of Matthew has many parables of the kingdom. Jesus began each one by saying, “The kingdom of heaven[1]…  Here’s how he described it:

“is like a person who sowed good seed in his field” (13:24; Mark 4:26).

“is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field” (13:31; Mark 4:31; Luke 13:19).

“is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of flour until all the dough had risen” (13:33; Luke 13:21).

“is like a treasure, hidden in a field, that a person found and hid” (13:44).

“is like a merchant searching for fine pearls” (13:45).

“is like a net that was cast into the sea that caught all kinds of fish” (13:47).

“is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves” (18:23).

“is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard” (20:1).

“will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom” (25:1).

“is like a man going on a journey, who summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them” (25:14; Mark 13:34).

It is difficult to form a picture of the kingdom from these parables, because we don’t always know the point of the comparison. The kingdom is like yeast, but in what respect? It starts small, but what does it look like when it’s small? The kingdom is like a story of farmworkers getting paid, but in what respect?

Jesus said that most people didn’t understand his parables (Matthew 13:11-13). Perhaps that is why some modern readers go with the definition they know (a kingdom is a place ruled by a king) rather than one that seems difficult to figure out. However, these parables show that the kingdom is not an ordinary kingdom; it is not what the Jewish people thought it would be.  

The timing of the kingdom

When people are looking for the kingdom of God to be a territory ruled by a king, they get confused, because Jesus didn’t bring that sort of kingdom. Some people decide that Jesus was talking about something in the distant future – even though he said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near” (Mark 1:15). He was telling the people, “You don’t need to wait for the kingdom to appear – God is ruling right now. You can participate in that right now.”

Some biblical passages talk about the kingdom in the future, and some talk about the kingdom at the time of Jesus. Since it is God’s kingdom, it lasts into the future, too, but we should not let verses about the future mislead us into thinking that it is only future.

Jesus told some of his critics, “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons [and that’s what he did], then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” The kingdom had already come upon the people.

On another day, Jesus said, “The tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you” (Matthew 21:31). How were they “going in”? By accepting the message of John the Baptist (verse 32). Jesus was talking about a spiritual “move,” not going into a different territory. People were entering God’s kingdom by believing the message and changing their lives.

The kingdom has a king – Jesus, who has power and authority over all things (Matthew 28:18). But Jesus does not rule in the same way that earthly kings do, and his kingdom doesn’t look like one of the kingdoms of this world (John 18:36). He does not force everyone to do his will – he rules over people who willingly accept him as their King.

Here today, and tomorrow, too

Jesus also spoke about the kingdom in the future:

·       “Many will come from east and west and will take their places at the banquet…in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11).

·       “The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43).

·       He warned the religious leaders: “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out” (Luke 13:28).

In the future, the kingdom will be visible, and will fill the earth. It will be a wonderful world, a beautiful future. But right now, the kingdom is hidden like yeast in dough, spreading invisibly. It is like a net that contains bad people as well as good (Matthew 13:33, 47). The kingdom is already here, but it is hidden.[2]

The “already but not yet” nature of God’s kingdom is similar to other spiritual realities:

• We are already saved, but the fullness of our salvation is yet future (Ephesians 2:5; 1 Peter 1:5).
• We have already been given eternal life, but its fullness will be given after we die (1 John 5:13; Mark 10:30).
• We will be like Christ, yet Christ is already being formed in us (>Philippians 3:21; 2 Corinthians 3:18).
• We will live with God forever, but he already lives within us (1 Thessalonians 4:17; 1 John 4:13).

What does the kingdom look like? That is a misleading question, because in this age, the kingdom is hidden. It doesn’t “look” like anything. It is more helpful to ask, “How is the kingdom working behind the scenes, working inside us?”

Are we believing and responding to the message of Jesus? If so, we are entering the kingdom. Does our belief in a beautiful future give us joy right now? Does it give us a picture of what life should be? It should.

More teachings of Jesus

If we enter the kingdom by believing what Jesus said about the kingdom, what are we being asked to believe? Instead of focusing on the word kingdom, we also need to look at the other things Jesus taught. For example, we could study the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7),[3] but Jesus had many more teachings in addition to that sermon.

Jesus taught by what he did as well as what he said. For example, he miraculously fed more than 5,000 people (John 6:1-14). It was a good thing to do, but Jesus did not start a ministry focused on feeding the poor. The people liked free food and wanted to make him a king (verse 15), but Jesus turned down that opportunity. He was not that sort of king.

Jesus had a bigger purpose in mind. The physical food was a parable-in-action, done in the physical world to point to something much more important in the spiritual world. Jesus used the situation to explain that he was the bread they needed (verse 35). He is the nourishment we need for eternal life.

Jesus helped many people, but he also walked away from people who wanted him to stay (Luke 4:42). His message was bigger than doing miracles for people in first-century Galilee. When he healed blindness, it showed that he could heal spiritual blindness. When he cleansed lepers, it showed that he could cleanse us spiritually. When he healed someone who could not walk, it showed that he could forgive our sins (Mark 2:1-12). He helps us all walk, see, and live spiritually.[4]

When Jesus taught people how to live and what to do, this was part of his message of the kingdom. When we learn to do what he commanded, we are preparing to live with him and with others in love and harmony. Who we are and the way we choose to live carries over into our enjoyment of an eternity with God.

When Jesus announced that the kingdom was near, he meant the spiritual, invisible phase of the kingdom. For those who thought the kingdom would soon appear with power and glory, he told a parable to explain that they’d have to wait for that (Luke 19:11-27)—but the parable also indicates that some work must be done in the meantime. Now is the time we believe, repent, be saved, enter the kingdom, and be part of the mission Jesus has given us.

Jesus predicted, “This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations” (Matthew 24:14). In Luke, the prediction is worded differently: “Repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations” (Luke 24:47).

In one place, he describes the worldwide message as “the kingdom”; in another place he describes the worldwide message as “repentance and forgiveness.” In order to participate in God’s kingdom, people must repent and be forgiven; that’s an important part of the good news. We need to be on good terms with the King, and he makes it happen.

What did the apostles preach?

To understand what the first apostles did, we will survey the book of Acts. The gospel is an important part of this book. Let’s see what the apostles taught. Our first clue comes in verse 3: After Jesus came back to life, he taught the apostles “about the kingdom of God.” But in their sermons in Acts, they never use the word “kingdom.” Apparently they could teach about God’s kingdom without using that exact word.[5]

Paul, one of Jesus’ followers, spent three months talking about God’s kingdom in a Jewish synagogue (Acts 19:8). The Jewish people already believed in God’s kingdom, but it took Paul three months to explain it, because his message was different from what they were expecting. In Ephesus, he described his message about the kingdom as a message of repentance, faith, and grace (20:21, 24-25).

Jesus taught this, too. After his resurrection, he taught his followers more about God’s kingdom (Acts 1:3). Luke 24:27 tells us what he taught: He explained all the parts of the Bible that were about himself. He summarized his message: “everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled” (verse 44).

What was written? Jesus explains: The Messiah would die and come back to life after three days. Then people everywhere would learn that they could turn away from wrong things and be forgiven through Jesus (verses 46-47).

The good news about God’s kingdom is really about Jesus dying and coming back to life, and about people changing their lives and being forgiven. God’s kingdom is good news because we can be part of it when we believe in Jesus and accept his forgiveness.

Witnesses

Jesus told his followers “You are witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:48). A witness is someone who tells others what they saw, like in a courtroom. The word “witness” shows up a lot in Acts.[6] In Acts 1:8, Jesus told his disciples, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Jesus wanted the disciples to tell people what they had seen in Jesus. That was their message.

The apostles were “witnesses” of Jesus in three ways:

·       telling people that Jesus came back to life – 1:22; 2:32; 3:15; 4:33; 10:41; 13:31

·       telling them about Jesus’ death, return to life, and how he can forgive people – 5:32; 10:43; 26:22

·       telling them about Jesus – 1:8; 10:39; 22:15, 18; 23:11; 26:16

The apostles mostly talked about Jesus, especially about him coming back to life, and how people could receive God’s forgiveness through him.

Peter’s Pentecost sermon

The first sermon in Acts is Peter’s speech on the day of Pentecost. He says:

Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you…this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. But God raised him up. (Acts 2:22-24)

Peter ended by saying: “God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified” (verse 36). Peter wanted people to know that Jesus was the leader they had been waiting for.

What were people supposed to do? Peter told them to repent, to change the way they were thinking – to believe and be baptized. Then they would experience God’s forgiveness and his Holy Spirit (verse 38).

Healing in Jesus’ name

Peter’s second sermon is in chapter 3; he is speaking to Jewish people at the temple. After they saw him do a miracle, they were ready to listen. He told them that Jesus died and had come back to life.

How should people respond? They needed to repent, be forgiven, and wait for Jesus to come back (3:19-21). If they wanted to be part of God’s people, they needed to follow the leader God had given them.

Luke summarizes Peter’s preaching in Acts 4:2 — They were “proclaiming that in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead.” Jesus’ resurrection shows that we can also be resurrected.

Preaching

There are many more sermons in Acts that you can read on your own.[7] It’s easy to see: the apostles mostly talked about Jesus, especially his death and return to life, and they encouraged people to believe in him.

We can also learn what they taught by looking at words like “preach” and “proclaim” in Acts. Here are examples of what they preached about:

Acts 4:2 — proclaiming that in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead
5:42; 8:5; 17:3 — proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah
8:4; 13:5; 15:35 — proclaiming the word, the word of God, the word of the Lord
8:12 — proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ
8:25, 40; 14:7, 21; 15:7; 16:10 — proclaiming the good news
8:35; 17:18 — proclaimed the good news about Jesus, and the resurrection
10:36 — preaching peace by Jesus Christ
11:20 — proclaiming the Lord Jesus
13:32-33 — the good news that God fulfilled the promise by raising Jesus
13:38 — proclaiming forgiveness of sins through Jesus
14:15 — bringing good news, that you should turn to God
17:23 — proclaim what you worship as unknown
20:24 — testify to the good news of God’s grace
20:27 — declaring the whole purpose of God
26:23 — proclaiming light to Jews and gentiles

Peter’s message to Cornelius contains the main points:

·       Jesus did miracles (Acts 10:38)

·       He was killed on a cross (v. 39)

·       God raised him from the dead (v. 40)

·       He will come back to judge all people (v. 42)

·       People should believe in him and they will be forgiven (v. 43)

The apostles kept telling people about Jesus even when others threatened to kill them. Their message changed people’s lives. It was so important that they were willing to live for it – and die for it.

The gospel of…

Scripture describes the gospel in numerous ways. Here’s how the word is most often used:

·       good news of Jesus Christ — 15 times

·       good news of God – 9 times

·       good news of the kingdom – 7 times

·       my gospel, our gospel – 6 times

·       the gospel of peace – twice

·       good news of God’s grace – once

·       good news of the glory of Christ – once

·       gospel of your salvation – once

The message can be about God’s kingdom, Jesus Christ, forgiveness, making peace with God, or being saved. Most often, it’s called the good news of Jesus Christ. The message belongs to him, it’s all about him, and he’s the reason it’s good news. When we preach about Jesus, we are preaching about the kingdom.  Because of Jesus, God forgives us and welcomes us to live forever with him and other believers in love and joy. Because of Jesus, our lives have meaning and purpose right now.

Entering the kingdom

Jesus said that when we tell others about him, we should help them become his followers (Matthew 28:19-20). We do this by telling them to change and believe in him, baptizing them, and teaching them to do what Jesus taught. This is wonderful news: God accepts us now, he lives in us now, we are part of his family now, we are in his kingdom now!

The good news about God’s kingdom includes forgiveness, but people can experience this only through faith and repentance. So when we tell others about Jesus, we also encourage them to believe, and to look at Jesus in a new way. When people trust in Jesus and accept him as their leader, they enter his kingdom – even if they’ve never heard the word “kingdom.” What matters most is their relationship with Jesus, not the exact words we use.

How does Paul describe the gospel?

Paul’s letters are written to people who are already Christians. He is not preaching to them, but he sometimes describes what he preached, and he says that the gospel says something about what we do after we believe in Jesus. We will survey his letters to see what he says is the Christian message.

Romans is not Paul’s first letter, but it comes first in most Bibles because it is his longest letter, and the best presentation of his thinking on most issues. It was written to a church that Paul did not start, so he wants to make sure that the members in Rome know what the gospel is. He begins by saying that he was “set apart for the gospel of God” (Romans 1:1).

What is this gospel about? He calls it “the gospel concerning his Son” – it’s about Jesus.

How does Paul want people to respond to this message? He describes the purpose of his ministry: “to bring about the obedience of faith among all the gentiles” (1:5). The gospel should lead to obedience – the kind of obedience that comes from faith, from trusting in Christ.

He gives another description of the gospel in the next two verses: “the gospel…is God’s saving power for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God[8] is revealed through faith for faith.” He says more about how God’s righteousness is revealed in chapter 3:

Now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed…the righteousness of God through the faith of Jesus Christ for all who believe…. They are now justified [declared right with God] by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness. (Romans 3:21-25).

The gospel reveals the righteousness of God by telling people about Jesus’ death for them. That shows how good and faithful God is.

The gospel announces a day of judgment: “Their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God through Christ Jesus judges the secret thoughts of all” (2:15-16). This is also part of the message: There will be a judgment, and the good news is that the Judge loves us. In this judgment, we are declared right not because we have earned it, but as a gift to all who believe in Christ.

In chapter 10, Paul calls his message “the word of faith” (10:8). What is this faith? “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (verse 9). But he asks, “how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?” (verse 14).

Someone needs to proclaim Christ – to preach him as the source of salvation. Jesus Christ is the message. Paul makes it clear that he is talking about the gospel when he writes, “But not all have obeyed the good news” (verse 16). The gospel is to be believed and obeyed – it requires a response.

The Corinthian letters

Paul told the believers in Corinth that Christ had sent him “to proclaim the gospel—and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power” (1 Corinthians 1:17). Here, he seems to equate the gospel with the cross of Christ; it is a message about Jesus’ crucifixion.

This is the message he preaches: “we proclaim Christ crucified…Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (verses 23-24). In his wisdom, God chose to save us through the death of his Son. Jesus is the power by which God does this. Paul’s gospel centers on Jesus. Paul is focusing here on his death; in other places Paul looks more at his resurrection, or the response that Christ wants from his people.

Paul describes his preaching when he first came to Corinth: “I did not come proclaiming the testimony of God [that’s another name for the gospel] to you with superior speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:1-2).

He describes the gospel in much more detail in chapter 15:

I want you to understand…the good news that I proclaimed to you…through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you….

I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve…. (1 Corinthians 15:1-5)

This is “of first importance,” he says. This is the most important part of the message: Jesus died for our sins and he was raised back to life. This is good news because it announces salvation: those who “hold firmly to the message” are saved.

In 2 Corinthians 1:19, he summarizes the message in this way: “the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you.” In 2:14 he summarizes his mission: “to proclaim the good news of Christ.” In 4:4, he calls it “the gospel of the glory of Christ.” “We do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’s sake” (verse 5).

He praises their obedience to the gospel: “You glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ” (2 Cor. 9:13). If they “obey” the gospel, there must be some command implied within it.

Galatians to 2 Thessalonians

The believers in Galatia were turning to “a different gospel.” But Paul says that there is no other gospel – there is only “the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:6-7). He received this gospel directly from Jesus (verse 12). His mission was to proclaim Christ among the gentiles (verse 16).

This gospel has something to say about our behavior: “they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel” (Galatians 2:13). In Galatia, some false teachers were saying that gentiles needed to keep the laws of Moses, but Paul is saying that this requirement contradicts the gospel. We are saved by believing in Christ, not by keeping laws.

In Ephesians 1:13, Paul calls his message “the gospel of your salvation.” In Ephesians 6:15, Paul calls it “the gospel of peace.” He says that one result of the gospel is that “the gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus” (3:6). It brings them salvation.

In Philippians, Paul refers to the “progress of the gospel.” (1:12). He writes,

Some proclaim Christ from envy and rivalry but others from goodwill. These proclaim Christ out of love, knowing that I have been put here for the defense of the gospel; the others proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but intending to increase my suffering in my imprisonment.

What does it matter? Just this, that Christ is proclaimed in every way, whether out of false motives or true, and in that I rejoice. (Philippians 1:15-18)

Paul’s label for the message is simple: It’s Christ. He wants people to preach Christ. But there’s more to it than simply saying one word. The word “Christ” is a summary of all that Jesus is, what he did for us, what he offers to us, and how we are to respond.

Just as he wrote in Galatians, Paul teaches that the gospel says something about the way we live: “Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, so…I will know that you are standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). If Christ has been so generous to us, what manner of life should we have toward one another?

Paul tells the Colossians that the gospel brought them a message of hope:

…the hope laid up for you in heaven. You have heard of this hope before in the word of the truth, the gospel that has come to you…. It has been bearing fruit among yourselves from the day you heard it and truly comprehended the grace of God. (Colossians 1:5-6)

The gospel is a message about grace. He says it again in verse 23: “the hope promised by the gospel that you heard.” It is the “hope of glory” (verse 27) – the belief that Jesus will reward all who accept him as Lord and Savior. “It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone” (verse 28).

Paul says that his message is a warning as well as a word of hope – hope for those who believe, warning for those who do not. Jesus will judge us based on how we respond to the gospel. This warning is strongly worded in 2 Thessalonians 1:8: God will take “vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”

The purpose of the good news is salvation, not punishment. “This purpose he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 3:13-14).

The Pastoral Epistles

When Paul writes to Timothy, he notes that sin “is contrary to the sound teaching that conforms to the glorious gospel” (1 Timothy 1:8-11). Some ways of life, some kinds of behavior are disobedience to the message of Christ. The gospel is a message of grace, but grace comes with the expectation that we want to live in the way that God wants.

In his second letter to Timothy, Paul urges Timothy to be true to the gospel:

Join with me in suffering for the gospel, in the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace, and this grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. (2 Timothy 1:8-11)

In these verses, Paul describes the gospel as a message of salvation through grace. It had been God’s purpose all along, but it is now made visible through Jesus Christ, who conquered death and reveals eternal life. This is what Jesus told Paul to preach.

Paul gives a short summary of the gospel in 2 Timothy 2:8: “Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David—that is my gospel.” It’s about Jesus raised from the dead.

Other verses fill in the picture of why this is good news: Jesus brings us forgiveness; God accepts us into eternal life. It’s a message of hope, of salvation, of God’s generosity to us, and it says something about the way we live.[9]

Good news for life today

The gospel is good news for the future: we will live forever with Jesus. The Bible concludes with good news in the book of Revelation:

I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,

See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and be their God; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away. (Rev. 21:2-4)

The good news is that God wants to live with us. That is why he created us, that is why he sent Jesus to save us from our wrong-headed ways. There will be no more death, no more sin, no more regrets. Joy will fill the earth as we live in the way that the Father, Son and Spirit do: with nothing but love for one another.

Jesus makes it possible. The Father and the Spirit are also essential, but Jesus is the one who reveals God’s love and God’s ways most clearly.

The most surprising revelation that Jesus brought is that God loves us so much, cares for us so much, wants to live with us so much, that he was willing to become one of us, willing even to die for our salvation. He is not the god of thunderbolts, not a god who likes to punish. Rather, he is a God who wants to save.

Paul describes Jesus’ work as a message of peace: “He came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father” (Ephesians 2:17-18). Reconciliation means peace – God is not angry at us.

When Jesus returns, he will bring worldwide peace, and “whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise.”[10] It is a picture of beauty and glory – supremely good – good news of a highly desirable future.

It will be so good that the sorrows of this life will seem like small things (Romans 8:18); it will be so good that even the best things of this life will seem like merely teasers of far better things to come.

It is a wonderful future, and any message that points people toward this is good news. The reward is so large, that there is no sacrifice too great. Do the math – we give up some temporary pleasures, and we gain an infinite amount of joy. There is no comparison. “In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

We should not let anything – not even humiliation and death – cause us to abandon our love and loyalty for Christ. He who died for us, shall we not live for him? (2 Corinthians 5:15). He who is so faithful to us, should we not be faithful to him? We give up a tarnished world of struggle and pain, and we gain a glorious life of never-ending joy and love.

Good news right now

That’s wonderful news about the future, you might think. But what about life right now? When Jesus preached that the kingdom was near, it was good news, right then and there, even for poor people in a land ruled by Roman armies.

Jesus did not promise them health and wealth; he did not promise that they would never be hungry or sick. Instead, he promised difficulties: “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you” (John 15:20). “It is through many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).

So how is this good news?

1)    We will have problems in this world whether or not we believe in Jesus. Life is hard, and then we die. If we are lucky enough to be rich, life is not quite so hard, but we still die. The gospel gives us the good news that death is not the end of it all – it is an enemy that has been conquered by Christ, and he gives us the victory over it. It is good to live. We will live again in a far better world, and it’s good for us to know that now.

2)    We know that we are loved – not for what we do (even our best actions are tiny in comparison to what God does) but simply because God chooses to love us. Jesus created us even when he knew in advance that we would rebel against him, even when he knew in advance that he would have to die for us. He did it because he loves us, and nothing can change that.

3)    We have peace with God. Because of what Christ has done for us, we have no fear regarding our eternal future. We are on God’s good side, so to speak. (We were all along, but it’s good to find it out now.)

4)    We have peace with ourselves. We know we have done wrong things; we have failed to live up to what we know is right. We know that love is good and love is faithful, and yet we know that we haven’t always chosen the right thing. Jesus says our belief about love is right – love is not just an obligation built into our DNA to help the survival of the species. Love is good, objectively and eternally.

When we fail to love, we are not just failing our own standards – we are violating eternal and universal standards. But the good news is that the Creator of it all has the authority to forgive us of everything we have ever done wrong. Our conscience is cleared, and we can go forward with Christ. We will still fail, but we have good news that failure does not have the last word. It’s already been taken care of, by Jesus, as a gift to us.

5)    We have meaning and purpose in life. We didn’t just get thrown into the world by chance, as the result of random mutations of a life that began by accident on a planet that will eventually grow cold and lifeless.

If this life is all there is, there’s little reason for us to love, to be loyal to anyone except ourselves. Good behavior will not be rewarded, and bad behavior will not be punished – we can do whatever we want, because none of it matters in the end. Nothing is good, and nothing is evil. But with Jesus, we have reason to do right, even when we are tempted to do something selfishly.  

6)    We do not walk alone. This is true in more than one way. First, we are not left to ourselves to figure out what life is for and how we should live. Many of us have tried that and found that it doesn’t work. We need the help of someone who knows more about life than we do – we need guidance from the creator of life, who has been around a lot longer than we have. He knows that love is the best path. Jesus chose the way of love even when it cost him his life, because he knew that God, in love, will give us life again.

7)    Another way that we do not live alone is that God puts us in community, in relationship with other believers, in the church. We admit that there are many problems in the church, because we each bring our problems with us. People in the church will test our patience, will sin against us, will disappoint us. Some churches are even toxic, distorting our view of Christ. None of them is perfect, but we are better off in a community than on our own. We encourage one another, learn from one another, work with one another, and learn to love with one another. Through the joys, frustrations and the work, God works in us to prepare us for better things to come.

8)    A third way that we are not alone is that God is with us. God the Father is for us, God the Son became human to be with us, and now God the Spirit is living and active within us. He does not give us pat answers to our questions; he is not a crystal ball that tells us when to buy and when to sell. He works “under the radar” to help us understand, to convict us of the right way, to encourage us in the faith. He will help us see the beauty of eternal life with Christ, the beauty of a life lived in love even when it’s difficult, the beauty of life itself – a life that we want to last forever. The Holy Spirit is part of the good news for life right now.

Endnotes