This Good News (15)

What is the good news of the kingdom of God?

[Points 9-11]

Ninth, the good news of the kingdom of God is that anyone who will, may become like Jesus –that is, like man was meant to be: in relationship to the Father; in service to the world; and in choosing to obey and saying ‘no’ to the urges of the old nature.

Let me ask you, if it is Jesus’ death and resurrection which are the ground and means of salvation, why did Jesus live on earth for thirty years before his death and forty days after his resurrection? Why didn’t he just come as an adult, die, rise again and then leave? I figure these thirty years and forty days must mean something.

This forces me to ask another question: how human was Jesus? I could recite creeds or quote scripture, but for some time, the truth of his humanity never touched me. By the church’s doctrine, I had always to think of Jesus as my ‘example’ and try to model my life on his goodness and so on. But by that teaching, Jesus came to be an unattainable ideal quite removed from me. And I knew instinctively that was not how it was supposed to be.

I learned a lot from Psalm 8. In verses three and four, David the Psalmist says, “When I consider the heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him; the son of man that you care for him?” What is man? No particular man in mind or perhaps he was thinking about himself. No real issue here.

But when we come to verses five to nine, church and theology have taught us that they refer to Jesus – that is why the psalm is sometimes called a ‘Messianic’ psalm. It goes on to say, “You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [angels] and crowned him with glory and honour. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the bests of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim in the paths of the sea. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

If we think back to Genesis, these words ring true as the original charter given to man as the custodian of God’s earthly creations.

The New Testament writer to the Hebrews (2:7-9) quotes this psalm and makes a direct application to Jesus. Often Psalm 8 is interpreted by Hebrews 2:9 and while it is right and proper to do so, sometimes it obscures an important truth. Incidentally, this is one of the reasons ecclesia needs teachers!

The truth is, Psalm 8 applies to Jesus primarily because he is a man! Man was special from the start: a little less than God – any closer and he would have breached the trinity; crowned with glory and honour; ruler of creation; in authority and dominion over the living creatures. In other words, a lesser king.

That’s what man was and that’s what David was meditating about – and that is what Jesus became. He laid aside all that set him apart as Divine and took on the form and the limitations of mankind. However, before that happened, mankind had been living on a much lower level – living as very much less than he was meant to be. Hebrews 2:8 confirms that reality when it agrees that, at present, we do not see “everything subject to him [man].”

What we do see, the writer goes on, is Jesus. And how do we see Jesus? He was, “…made a little lower than the angels, but now crowned with glory and honour…” because he suffered death. This is the glory and honour I spoke about earlier. As humans, we ‘suffered death’and ceased to be who and what God made us to be because of sin. Jesus entered into our humanity and went down with us to death – even death on a cross. He did this even though he himself “knew no sin, nor was any guile found in him.” But, “By the grace of God he tasted death for everyone” and by so doing, opened the way for man to be restored to humanity as God intended humanity to be.

And what is humanity as God intended? The answer is here in Hebrews 2:9 – “but we see Jesus…” Jesus is humanity as God intended. God in His wisdom knew we would discover the question, and the answer is the thirty years and the forty days of Jesus. That is, Jesus’ earthly life!

I will not subtract anything from the importance of Jesus death and resurrection; I will simply add to that the importance of his life and his ascension. We understand how we are to live as christians in the world by the life of Jesus. We understand how we can live as authentic christians in the world by the life as Jesus. That is why Paul wrote, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cortinthians 5:21)

In short, we live as Jesus lived – AS A MAN FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. That is as God intended and that is how we can live as an authentic christian in the world – as Jesus himself said, “in the world but not of it.” By second birth, we are born ‘from above’, ‘of the spirit’ and the Holy Spirit is given to make it all possible and to make it actually happen. Without the Holy Spirit, living as an authentic christian in the world is just not possible – it is a pipe-dream. With the Holy Spirit, “all things are possible”.

Of Jesus, it can be said, ‘there was a man on earth; there is a man in heaven.’ He followed us into our fallen humanity so that we might follow him into his resurrected and ascended humanity. In Jesus and Philip – and others – we have seen, we have heard and we can conceive what real humanity filled with God looks like now. And the good news is, that is ours in Christ.

But wait, there’s more! Spirit-filled life on earth now is only a foretaste of “real life”. Paul wrote,“…as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived’ what God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)

In a nutshell, to be saved is to be “like Jesus” –that is why I say emphatically that salvation is Christ-likeness. We join the family by faith; we live as he did on earth – a man filled with the Holy Spirit; and, like Jesus, “…who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2)

Jesus is our fore-runner. Where he went, we can and do and will go. Guaranteed! Surely that is good news indeed.

Tenth, the good news of the kingdom of God is the story of Jesus. Talk about stating the obvious! But perhaps for some, stating the obvious is necessary.

Romans 1:1-5

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the good news of God which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy scriptures, concerning His Son; who was born a descendant of David according to the flesh; who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead according to the spirit of holiness: Jesus Christ our Lord – through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, for His name’s sake.

Whatever else our heralding the good news of the kingdom of God does, it must declare the historical facts of the story of Jesus. We can no longer assume that our audiences know that much. The most many of our fellow-countrymen ever hear is the expletive, ‘Jesus Christ!’ – almost spat out like a used piece of gum.

The first thing we see about the good news here is that it is God’s. It starts and ends with Him and it belongs to Him. It is part of the ‘household tradition’ of the family of God. It is also the good news about God and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s about His grace, His forgiveness, His righteousness, His eternal salvation, His plan of redemption and His act of justification.

As sovereign, He could have chosen to do nothing about the human dilemma – the sin problem. As love, He chose to enter into our dilemma as completely as it was possible without sacrificing either His deity, His sovereignty, His justice or His holiness. He chose to rescue, heal and retrieve His special creation and restore it to its original glory through the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.

And He knows the limitations and the frailties of human nature stuck in its time-space-matter zone; and He has factored all that in by “helping our infirmities” to the extent that even they were borne by Jesus when he went to the cross. The truth is, there is now no brake on our returning to life as God intended, and there is, as Paul says, “now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

The church’s gospel puts a brake on this truth; the good news of the kingdom of God in ecclesia declares there is no brake on the truth and there is no condemnation! If you get condemnation, that’s not God and it is not ecclesia; though you can be very sure it is religion and church.

Might I suggest here that you read and digest Romans 5:12-21 and Galatians 4:4-5.

Paul says the result of the first Adam’s one trespass [that’s the Adam of the Genesis creation story] was condemnation and hence death for all men. He then adds, the result of the second Adam’s one sacrifice [that’s Jesus’ death] is forgiveness and life for all men.

Paul explained this to the Galatians in this way:“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth Hi Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

Eleventh, the good news of the kingdom of God is what God has freely allocated to those who live their lives in union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:6-10

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature: a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, that which is hidden, which God predestined before the ages, for our glory; that which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. As it is written, ‘things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and have not entered the heart of man – all that God has prepared for those who live Him.’ God has revealed them to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

These words of Paul rattle some people to the core. Esoteric mumbo-jumbo to some; New-age philosophy to others. But this is in our bibles. And it was written by the one man to whom was given the revelation of the administration of the new covenant in Christ.

Whether we like it or not, Paul proclaimed ‘secret wisdom’. It was ‘secret’ in the sense that it was hidden – until the advent of Jesus – but now is made known, but only to the mature. In this context, mature refers to those who are in Christ. To them, wisdom is revealed by the Holy Spirit. But as it was then, so it is now: none of the masters of New-age, or any other master of our age, understand it because, if they did, they wouldn’t be creating totally human facsimiles of the spiritual realities involved.

One of the ways Paul explains this ‘secret wisdom’is Romans 5:17 – “For if by the transgression of the one [the first Adam], death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” You want to reign in life? The route is welcoming the abundance of God’s grace and especially of His free gift of righteousness. In like manner, Paul talks about being ‘more than conquerors’ and being ‘lead in triumphal procession’. And it is these things that convince me that the idea of heaven-when-you-die is a furphy – and a cynical misrepresentation of the kingdom of God.

Living in the kingdom of God begins in this life when we are born the second time, from above, from the Spirit, into the family and household of God. For a long time, Western christians have been duped – sucked into believing that there’s no way we’re going to be ‘more than conquerors’ or be ‘led in triumphal procession’this side of death. And those same christians have taken this false gospel all around the world.

The fortress mentality has emasculated many so-called christians and, therefore, much christian teaching, and it’s a lie from the pit; a deception foisted upon us for the specific purpose of stripping the good news of one of its most potent claims.

‘Reigning in life’ is like a distant mountain peak, magnificent to the senses but a painful depression to the soul: out of reach unless you can drop onto it from the heavens. Most of our attempts at ‘pulling our socks up’ or ‘getting our act together’are dismal failures which, strangely, only seem to drive us on to more and more effort. Every attempt at ‘reigning’ ends up with us worn out, depressed and cynical.

We cannot now and never will, reign in life by external compulsion, not even by whipping ourselves. The key is to believe the truth of Romans 5:17 and then act on what you believe. What action is appropriate?

First, stop living as if the truth is not the truth; second, take yourself out from under any condemnation; third, live and rejoice in all the good of what Jesus has already delivered. We have not seen, heard or conceived much of reigning in life like that, yet this is our inheritance now. And ultimately reigning in life here, with all its pain and suffering, will issue into the eternal realm when time is no more.

I remember the days of my engagement to Lesleigh. It was a wonderful time but also a painful time, waiting and waiting for the reality of life together o replace the mere promise of it. In a way it’s a bit like that. The Holy Spirit is given to us as our engagement ring and promise – the divine pledge of the fullness of eternal life. While we wait for the fullness, life is a mixture of good times and bad, of joy and pain, of encouragement and suffering. And the fullness is the righteousness of God in all its glory.

Next: points 12 to 16

Cheers,
Kevin.