We start our journey into our hearts to discover the hidden ideas that govern and power us, what we at Soil and Roots call “deep discipleship.”
Today we explore the Idea of the Gospel – or rather two versions of it. ย What do we assume when we hear the phrase, “the Gospel?” ย And why is it normally paired with “the Kingdom” in the New Testament? ย Is there a difference between “the Gospel” and “the Gospel of the Kingdom?”
How this idea settles into our hearts profoundly impacts our relationship with God, ourselves, others, and culture. ย Make sure to refer to the visual aid, the Creation Picture,ย on the Resources page atย www.soilandroots.org. ย ย
TRANSCRIPT
Episode 2: The Idea of the Gospel (The Gospel of the Kingdom)
Intro: Welcome to the Soil and Roots podcast: digging beneath the surface to uncover the hidden ideas that form us, the church, and the culture. Iโm Brian Fisher.
This is Episode 2: The Idea of the Gospel
Looking back
In episode 1, we took a somewhat unorthodox look at this journey of discipleship, of spiritual formation. Most observers of Western Christianity agree that making disciples is not our strong suit. Dallas Willard called it the โGreat Omission.โ Weโre struggling to form people who think, relate, desire, speak, serve, discern, and love like Jesus.
Iโm not even sure thatโs an expectation of many people, Christian or otherwise.
We may desire to be doctrinally accurate, but we donโt always connect that to the formation of our character. Others seek emotional experiences of God through worship and prayer. Thatโs great, but are those experiences forming our character so that, at some point in the future, people engage us and walk away thinking, โThat lady reminds me so much of Jesus!โ
Many of us feel this sense of disconnection. Surely there must be more to this Christian life than a Sunday morning event, a Bible study, and trying our best to live a good, โmoralโ life.
The New Testament promises an abundant life, a life of peace and calm, even in the midst of turmoil. It suggests a life of power and freedom, even when our circumstances leave us powerless and bound. Thereโs a depth to the Christian life that just seems elusive these days. So, we remain anxious, worried, and, letโs be honest, we try to control a lot of things that we really canโt control.
A disciple is an apprentice of Jesus. Itโs more than simply knowing more about Him or engaging in our traditional Christian rituals. Itโs even deeper than our belief statements. Itโs a lifelong journey to become more like Him. Itโs ongoing character formation, or what we call spiritual formation.
We took an unexpected turn last episode when we said this journey is not about how often we go to church or how many verses we memorize: itโs about the progressive transformation of ideas in the bedrocks of our hearts. Ideas are these fundamental assumptions and conclusions that mix with our desires and form who we are. Ideas arenโt so much intellectual conclusions as they are experienced realities.
And hereโs the kicker โ most of us arenโt aware of the ideas that power and govern us.
This disconnection may be sensed by a young mom who dutifully serves in the nursery every week, does her morning devotions, and smiles at everyone she meets. Her brain knows sheโs a daughter of God and highly valued, yet her heart doesnโt really believe sheโs worth much, and she wonders if sheโs even qualified to be a mom.
Itโs the teenager who goes to youth group, attends a Christian summer camp, and sings all of the newest worship songs. But the truth is, he struggles to have any real, experiential relationship with His heavenly father because his earthly father continually reinforces the idea that his son just isnโt good enough. When someone says to him, โGod not only loves you, He likes you,โ heโs not sure what to do with that.
Itโs the pastor who has given his energy, time, intellect, and heart to his church for decades, only to slowly fade away in exhaustion. Having given himself to people who seem to take only, He leaves the church altogether. His defeated spirit concludes that its ideas donโt actually align with his doctrinal beliefs. Unable to hold those two things together any longer, he โdeconstructs.โ
The path to reconnecting to God and others and ourselves, to experiencing the โmoreโ we often long for, is what we call Deep Discipleship. Itโs journeying beyond our good and healthy Christian rituals and intellectual belief statements into the hidden, sometimes painful world of the ideas and desires that power us. These hidden idea systems feed our hearts, for better or for worse. Soil and Roots.
Because weโre human, we generally donโt dig beneath the surface unless something falls apart. That normally comes in the form of a crisis: a death in the family, a job change, a betrayal, a divorce, or a deep theological question that no one can seem to answer, one that causes our faith to falter. Job at the height of his bone-crushing illness. Jonah in the belly of the whale. Sarah, as she despaired over not having any children, despite Godโs promises.
No one likes a crisis, but it can often give us the opportunity to dig into our hearts and uncover its true ideas.
The Idea of the Gospel
Weโre going to explore our first example of an idea today, an Idea of the Gospel.
Now you may be thinking, โFish, Iโm pretty sure Iโm conscious of the Gospel, and Iโm pretty sure I know what it means.โ Fair enough โ though I invite you to hang on and see where this conversation goes.
Letโs review our Creation Picture from Episode 1 โ our simple nature scene. You can find it on the website at soilandroots.org.
The circle represents the entire cosmos. The mountains in the background are the Seven Mountains of Culture. The tree is you, the trees around you are other people. Your roots represent your heart, and your roots are planted in soil โ this system of most unconscious ideas.
Our four relationships are represented: we relate to the invisible author, God, and we have a relationship with others and ourselves, and with creation and culture.
The ideas in our soils are formed through a wide variety of factors: our family of origin, the time and place of our birth and upbringing, our culture, the media we consume, and various impactful relationships and experiences. Instruction and formal education play a part, but maybe not as much as we tend to think. Each and every day, weโre being formed, either towards the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of light.
Letโs take a look at Colossians 1 in light of the Creation Picture. Iโll read verses 13-20.
โFor He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authoritiesโall things have been created through Him and for Him.
He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Fatherโs good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.โ[1]
Here’s the bad news: Weโre all born into the domain of darkness. Weโre born in sin, and weโre born into a world that is still governed, in many places, by the idea systems of darkness.
Hereโs the good news: Weโre invited into the kingdom of light by the personal invitation of its King. In His kingdom, we experience freedom from captivity and begin to embrace more of the light, which leads to flourishing.
So, if weโre followers of our King, we basically exist in two places at once. We live in the reality of both kingdoms, and our hearts embrace ideas in our soils from both kingdoms.
The Kingdom of God
Letโs back up a bit. What, exactly, is this Kingdom of God? We donโt hear much about the Kingdom in our modern age, if at all. Thatโs really ironic, considering itโs a primary theme of the entire Bible.
- References to this Kingdom appear over 80 times in the New Testament alone.
- According to Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 6, โthe kingdomโ is what weโre to seek first.
- The very first thing Jesus instructed his disciples to ask for when they pray is for this Kingdom to come.
- John the Baptist announced Jesusโ arrival in the context of the Kingdom.
Theologian R.C. Sproul wrote,
โThe theme of the kingdom of God is a central motif that runs as a thread through both Old and New Testaments.
The Old Testament points to the coming of the kingdom. The New Testament opens with the announcement of John the Baptist that โthe kingdom of heaven is at hand.โ
The New Testament indicates that the kingdom of God is both present and future. There is an โalreadyโ and a โnot yetโ to the kingdom. We serve a King who has already been enthroned. Yet we await His triumphal return in glory when every knee will bow before Him.โ[2]
A Little Kingdom History
This Kingdom is a really, really big deal.
In Genesis, God established creation and placed man in four relationships: with Himself, others, self, and creation. These are all reflected in our Creation Picture. All of these relationships were good. God blessed his new humans and appointed them rulers and stewards of His new creation.
Then the serpent came along and introduced an idea.
โThe serpent said to the woman, โYou surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.โ When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.โ[3]
Satan suggested an idea to Eveโs heart that she could become like God, and she took the bait. This is the first introduction of an idea from the domain of darkness. If you donโt think ideas are powerful, this one ended up leading to the corruption of the entire universe.
Though God gave Adam and Eve the honor and privilege of ruling the earth on His behalf, they decided to rule it on their own. And, essentially, the kingdom of darkness was born.
God was separated from man, all four relationships were broken, and evil flourished. The next few chapters of Genesis describe murder, madness, the flood, and then the tower of Babel. Absolute chaos.
However, God would not be denied dwelling with His people on earth, so He raised up Israel through Abraham, dwelt among His people again in the tabernacle and temple, and continued to unveil His plan for rescuing and restoring everything that was broken โ the cosmos.
Israel had a tumultuous history, and they repeatedly proved how bad we are at ruling the earth ourselves, and then there was 400 years of darkness.
Then suddenly heaven and earth were again rejoined. God insists on being with His people. But this time, He came in the form of a new temple, the King โ the Godman. Heaven and earth together in the person of Jesus.
He came and announced His new kingdom and his plans to rescue, restore, and redeem what his enemy had claimed.
During His three-year ministry, Jesus systematically and lovingly dispelled and destroyed the pervasive ideas of darkness and reintroduced us to the ideas of His kingdom.
And this was announced as good news โ what we call the Gospel. In fact, the word โGospelโ in the Bible is very often paired with the phrase โโฆof the Kingdom.โ The word itself generally refers to the good news of a change in leadership or the monarchy.
A Bigger Gospel
Letโs explore this another way. Of the four relationships that were broken in the garden, how many did Jesus come to reconcile and restore in His new Kingdom?
In their book, โWhen Helping Hurts,โ Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert note:
โWe have asked thousands of evangelical Christians in numerous contexts this most basic question โ why did Jesus come to earth? โ and the vast majority of people say something like, โJesus came to die on the cross to save us from our sins so that we can go to heaven.โ While this answer is true, Jesusโ message is an even more grand and sweeping epic than thatโฆ
In this passage (Colossians 1 above), Jesus Christ is described as the Creator, Sustainer, and Reconciler of everything. Yes, Jesus died for our souls, but He also died to reconcile โ that is, to put into right relationship โ all that He createdโฆ
The curse is cosmic in scope, bringing decay, brokenness, and death to every speck in the universe. But as King of kings and Lord of lords, Jesus is making all things new! This is the good news of the gospel.โ[4]
Dr. Jeremy Treat says, โTo be saved into Godโs kingdom is to embrace Godโs comprehensive rule over every aspect of life. This is a far cry from merely โasking Jesus into my heart.โ It means a new life, a new identity, and a new kingdom.โ[5]
So, the Kingdom is the reconciliation (putting back into a right relationship) of everything: our relationship with God, with ourselves, with others, and with creation and culture.
Theologians call a gospel orientation that focuses solely on the redemption of manโs relationship with God the โReductionist Gospel,โ or the โGospel of Salvation.โ
If this is our idea of the Gospel, weโre comfortable thinking of Christ as Savior, but we donโt normally think of Him as king of all.
A Gospel Presentation
Hereโs a brief story that may seem familiar.
We were at a wedding last year, and the pastor presiding over the service announced he was an evangelist. He made sure that the bride and groom knew Jesus, and they reaffirmed their commitment to Him.
And then he gave a Gospel presentation to the rest of us, and it went something like this:
โWe are all sinners. We cannot save ourselves. Jesus Christ came and took our place so that we could be put back into a right relationship with God. This offer of salvation is a free gift.
Because we cannot save ourselves and Christ took our place, we just need to accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior so that we may spend eternity with God in heaven.โ
Have you heard the Gospel presented like that? Thatโs the Gospel of Salvation, or the Reductionist Gospel. Itโs the announcement that one of our four relationships has been reconciled through Christ.
Is that bad? No. Sometimes, when we read the word โGospelโ by itself in the New Testament, the writer may be addressing only manโs relationship with God. And we canโt experience the reconciliation of the other three relationships without first being reconciled to God.
But hereโs the question โ how soon after we were introduced to the Gospel of Salvation were we introduced to the broader Gospel of the Kingdom?
Were we made aware that, through the good news of Jesusโ life, death, resurrection, and ascension, weโre now citizens of a Kingdom whose King is reconciling and restoring everything?
The Gospel of the Kingdom is the good news that we are part of a multi-ethnic, global community that Christ is leading through the reconciliation of all four relationships โ including our relationship with creation and culture.
Much of Western Christianity is comfortable with the Gospel of Salvation but appears unaware of or ambivalent about the Gospel of the Kingdom. This has enormous implications for our discipleship and the entire world. Weโll explore this in great detail in Season 4.
An Impact of the Reduced Gospel
Ideas have consequences. Hereโs one example of how the โreducedโ Idea of the Gospel in our soils has a real-world impact.
For the past several years, there have been frequent news articles about people leaving churches and about Christian institutions’ concern about declining attendance, particularly among younger people.
One of the concerns is that people are claiming that their faith is โpersonalโ and that Christianity is a โprivate faith.โ Itโs between Jesus and me. And so, people are staying home to watch sermons and services online.
Weโre quick to jump to Hebrews 10:23-25 as we attempt to convince these folks that they have a theological problem that just needs to be corrected.
But perhaps this isnโt really about a misunderstanding of a specific Bible verse. Perhaps this is more about soil and roots โ ideas buried in the hearts of some Christians.
If we preach the Gospel of Salvation but donโt encourage hearts to embrace the Gospel of the Kingdom, we are teaching a private faith.
If weโve told people for decades that the Gospel is primarily about their personal relationship with Jesus and that the Gospel has little to no impact on our relationships with other people, with ourselves, and how we steward creation and culture, why are we surprised when people behave according to their idea of the Gospel?
If the Gospel simply means we โaccept Jesus into our heartsโ and try to live a good life until we escape the earth to some disconnected view of heaven, why should we come to a church? We can experience great teaching and as many worship services as we want from the comfort of our own homes.
So how about us? Is our idea of the Gospel simply the salvation of souls until we escape the earth, or the good news that the king of the universe is restoring everything, promising that one day heaven and earth will be permanently rejoined, as it was supposed to be in the Garden of Eden?
If we desire to become like Jesus, weโll continue to get to know Him, including the purpose for which He came, even if His purpose is more cosmic and more comprehensive than the ideas we currently embrace.
Thanks for listening!ย If youโd like more information on Soil and Roots, check out the website at www.soilandroots.org.ย Feel free to drop us an email at fish@soilandroots.org. Weโll see you next time.ย
[1] New American Standard Bible: 1995 update (Col 1:13โ20). (1995). The Lockman Foundation.
[2] https://www.biblegateway.com/devotionals/essential-truths-of-the-christian-faith/2056/12/07
[3] New American Standard Bible: 1995 update (Ge 3:4โ6). (1995). The Lockman Foundation.
[4] Corbett, S. & Fikkert, B. (2002). When Helping Hurts (pp. 32-33). Moody Publishers.
[5] https://faithgateway.com/blogs/christian-books/the-one-thing-jesus-couldnt-stop-talking-about
