“Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.’” Mark 1:14-15
My evangelical training taught me the gospel basically consists in believing that Jesus’ death and resurrection saves us. However, the passage above demonstrates again that what I learned was incomplete. Jesus preached the gospel and called people to repent years before they knew anything about his death on the cross. Similarly, he later sent out his disciples to “preach the gospel” before they had a clue about Good Friday or Easter as I wrote about previously.
What gospel, then, did Jesus and disciples preach? The gospel (or “good news”) that the kingdom of God was at hand. A brand new life of love and peace awaited anyone who wanted it.
Sometimes we’re told that the first thing we must do to enter into a relationship with God is “accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour.” Any other attempt on our part is just “filthy rags,” a phrase from the book of Isaiah often misapplied to all people at all times.
I was taught that non-Christians who did such things as give to the poor were just trying to earn their way into heaven. As such, their good works were useless. The story of Cornelius tells a completely different story. His good works, far from being useless, were so significant that God sent an angel in response! The angel tells Cornelius, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.”
Cornelius had apparently made many steps toward God over the years and God took notice. Surprisingly, he pours out his Spirit upon him and his companions while the apostle Peter is still preaching. There was no “altar call” or even time to say “the sinner’s prayer”!1
Jesus makes the first and most important step abundantly clear: “seek first the kingdom of God.”2 He gave this instruction immediately after speaking to his disciples about the nature of the kingdom and those who inhabit it. They are poor in spirit, meek, peacemakers. They forgive others, love their enemies, give a friendly greeting to those they meet etc. We start by learning the Jesus “Way”3 i.e. the way of the kingdom.
As we learn more about it, we realize how far we are from God’s realm, how different its nature is from ours. Ultimately, as the lofty standards of the kingdom hit home, we must fall broken and helpless upon our faces.
The good news is that faith in Jesus’ Way, his death and resurrection delivers us from death and darkness and brings us into the freedom of a new life.
No matter how far from God we might be, no matter how dark we may feel, we can start where we are. We can do something good for someone in need. We can volunteer for a charity. We can open faltering lips to an unknown God.
My journey back to God began while reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X, his story of turning from the life of a gangster to become a Black Muslim. In the book, he said if you make one step toward God, God will make two steps toward you. Although I was definitely in deep darkness, I thought, “OK, I will make one step toward God. I will quit smoking.” I never smoked another cigarette.
And eventually I found oh so much more than a smoke-free life!
- Acts 10 ↩︎
- Matthew 6:33 ↩︎
- N.B. Christianity was called “The Way” in the early church Acts 9:2;19:23; 24:14,22 ↩︎
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