There are a thousand different ways of describing the good news—the Gospel—but the shortest way is the one Jesus Himself announced: “The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is arriving” (Mark 1:15).In other words, it’s all about how God became King. It’s about the actual inauguration of God’s Kingdom on earth as in heaven. And since many Christians think the Kingdom of God is simply a fancy way of saying “Heaven,” they miss the point: that something actually happened that changed the way in which God is now in charge of the world.
The four Gospel writers—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—and Paul all proclaim something that has already happened. God’s people expected Him to raise people from the dead at the very end of time. But He has done that already in the person of Jesus.
This brings into sharp focus Jesus’ own claim, which is that the Kingdom of God was arriving then and there in His own ministry.
Jesus says, “If I, by the finger of God, cast out demons, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.” In other words, this is not just an anticipation—this is the reality that is in tension with the sense of anticipation of His death and resurrection.
But when you take the whole package together, it’s about something that has happened as a result of which everything is different. Rather than something that has happened that merely enables us to operate a system of how we go to heaven.
God intends to put the whole world right. So He puts us right in the present through the good news so we can be part of His putting-right project for the world.
What God did for Jesus at Easter, He has promised to do for the whole creation. This is something many Christians fail to realize, even when they devoutly believe in the resurrection. They fail to realize that the resurrection was God beginning a new creation, and He’s going to complete it.
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