How is the proclamation that the kingdom of Heaven is at hand good news?
Is that how you heard the Gospel when you first believed? If you asked your average evangelical today, "What is the gospel?" What would they say? "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." Is that what the apostles proclaimed? Did they tell people to "Pray this prayer after me?" Is that how people received salvation? How about when you came to faith in Christ? In presenting the Gospel, did someone say to you, "I have good news. The kingdom of Heaven is at hand." And did you respond, "Praise the Lord! Finally! I'd been waiting for the arrival of the kingdom of God." We're not Jewish, yet here we are. Our coming to faith in the Jewish Messiah fulfills what God spoke through Isaiah, "I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me" (That's a reference to Gentiles), But of Israel he says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people." (Romans 10:20–21, ESV)
The question remains: How would the apostles' Jewish audience have understood the proclamation that the kingdom of God is at hand? How is that "good news"? Remember, their "gospel" proclamation would not have included Jesus's righteousness, atoning death, resurrection, and ascension |
