Introduction
Mark 1:14-15 (ESV) Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
“Gospel” (Greek: euangelion) — “good news”
“News” is an announcement about an event the has happened, and because of that event, things are different and will be different.
Example of “Good News” — 2011 NBA Finals[1]: Dallas Mavericks vs. Miami Heat
- Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Jason “the Jet” Terry, J.J. Berea, Tyson Chandler
- First Championship in Mavericks franchise history
- First season where the “great” LeBron (“King”) James took his talents to South Beach
- The Miami Heat were heavy favorites[2] to win, (supposedly every year the superteam played together) including having home court advantage
- The series began with Miami leading 2 games to 1 (best of 7)
- A rematch of the 2006 NBA Finals: Dallas lost to Miami (Dwyane Wade, Shaq), whereas Dallas was up 2 games to 0, Miami came back to win 4 in a row. This series was the first NBA Finals appearance for either team, the first championship for the Miami Heat.
- The Dallas Mavericks “take their talents to South Beach” and beat the Miami Super-team[3]
- This is scandalous to Miami Heat and LeBron James fans, and foolishness to non-basketball fans, but to the Mavs fans (and LeBron-haters) it is GOOD NEWS.
“News” is an announcement about an event the has happened, and because of that event, things will be different. This is in distinction from “good advice,” or “good theology,” or even “true doctrine.” It is not that those are not important or a part of how we know Jesus, it’s just not what the New Testament means with the word “gospel.”
“I am perfectly comfortable with what people normally mean when they say ‘gospel.’ I just don’t think it is what Paul means. In other words, I am not denying that the usual meanings are things that people ought to say, to preach about, to believe. I simply wouldn’t use the word ‘gospel’ to denote those things.”[4] ~ N.T. Wright
What qualifies as “news”[5]?
- An Announcement of an event that has happened
- A larger context (Backstory) within which this makes sense
- A sudden unveiling of the New Future that lies ahead
- A Transformation of the Present moment, sitting between the event that has happened and the further event that therefore will happen
2011 NBA Finals Example:
- Announcement of an event: the Dallas Mavericks defeat the heavily favored Miami Heat in 6 games (best of 7) to win the NBA Championship
- Backstory: this was a rematch of the 2006 NBA Finals where the Heat defeated the Mavs in discouraging fashion in 6 games, and 2010-2011 is the first season of Miami’s super-team, and were the favorites to win the championship every year
- New Future: The Mavs have won their first championship, and are no longer winless in championships, the Miami Heat super-team is beatable, and LeBron James isn’t the GOAT as much as people thought
- Transformation of the Present moment: for the time being (a year), they are the reigning champions, the best team in the league, and will be celebrated as the definitive best team, whether you like them or not, whether you wanted them to win or not.
Context
“Gospel” (Greek: euangelion) — “good news”
“Gospel” is the English translation of the Greek word “euangelion” which means “news that brings great joy.” Originally, this word had no spiritual or religious connotations, it was political in nature. In the Greco-Roman world, from the time of Alexander the Great and on into the Roman Empire, this word was used to refer to history-making, world-shaping reports of political, military, or societal victories.
To “evangelize” (or preach the euangelion) was to bring “good news” to the Roman empire of a great event, such as the enthronement of a new emperor, or his victory in war, or a new era of peace.
Historical Roman Context:
In 44 BC, Julius Caesar was assassinated. His death through the empire into chaos and civil war — between Brutus and Cassius, his assassins, and Caesar’s best friend, Marc Antony, allied with his great nephew and heir, Octavian. They defeated Brutus and Cassius, but soon turned on each other for ultimate power of the whole empire. The final and decisive victory between them was at sea, off the coast of Greece in 31 BC (The Battle of Actium[6], September 2, 31 BC), where Octavian’s fleet defeated Marc Antony, who had allied with the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra, and in defeat, they together retreated to Egypt, and ended their lives in their famous suicide.
After 13 long years of chaos, civil war, and bloodshed, Octavian, renamed Augustus, had finally brought peace to the empire. Through a long series of events, it was said of Augustus that he was (in Latin) Divi Filius[7], in English, “the son of a god” (son of the deified Julius Caesar). He was also called “Lord,” “Savior,” and “Prince of Peace.”
The Gospel of Caesar Augustus:
An inscription found in Priene[8] (9 BC), in modern-day Western Turkey, referring to Caesar Augustus says:
“…the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the good tidings [εὐαγγέλιον] for the world that came by reason of him.”
Full Inscription: “Since Providence, which has ordered all things and is deeply interested in our life, has set in most perfect order by giving us Augustus, whom she filled with virtue that he might benefit humankind, sending him as a savior, both for us and for our descendants, that he might end war and arrange all things, and since he, Caesar, by his appearance (excelled even our anticipations), surpassing all previous benefactors, and not even leaving to posterity any hope of surpassing what he has done, and since the birthday of the god Augustus was the beginning of the good tidings [εὐαγγέλιον] for the world that came by reason of him,”
Mark 1:1 (ESV) The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
A similar inscription[9] is found on a government building dating from 6 B.C. The inscription gives us insight into how they understood the “gospel” concerning Caesar Augustus:
“The most divine Caesar…we should consider equal to the Beginning of all things…; for when everything was falling [into disorder] and tending toward dissolution, he restored it once more and gave to the whole world a new aura; Caesar…the common good Fortune of all…the beginning of life and vitality….All the cities unanimously adopt the birthday of the divine Caesar as the new beginning of the year….Whereas Providence, which has regulated our whole existence…has brought our life to the climax of perfection in giving to us [the emperor] Augustus, whom it [Providence] filled with strength for the welfare of men, and who being sent to us and our descendants as Savior, has put an end to war and has set all things in order; and [whereas,] having become [god] manifest (phaneis), Caesar has fulfilled all the hopes of earlier times …in surpassing all the benefactors who preceded him…, and whereas, finally, the birthday of the god [Augustus] has been for the whole world the beginning of good news (euangelion) concerning him [therefore let a new era begin from his birth].” (OGIS 2.#458)
Augustus sent out “evangelists” or preachers all over the empire to spread his “gospel” (good news, euangelion); in essence, it was this: “Augustus has defeated the rebels, he has unified the empire, he is the son of god, not just a man; he is our Lord and Savior, he has come to rescue and deliver us, and to usher in a worldwide era of peace and justice.”
The “gospel” (euangelion) was a royal announcement about a king and about a kingdom.
Key Idea
“News” is an announcement about an event the has happened, and because of that event, things will be different. Again, this is in distinction from “good advice,” or “good theology,” or even “true doctrine.” It is not that those are not important or a part of how we know Jesus, it’s just not what the New Testament means with the word “gospel.”
What “Gospel” did Jesus preach?
Mark 1:14-15 (ESV) Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
The Gospel of Jesus: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand…”
- “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand…” (“has come”)
This announcement has a backstory. The long story of God’s promise and prophecy throughout history is reaching its climax and fulfillment in Jesus Himself; the story of Israel and all of creation, what we have been waiting for centuries and millennia, the healing renewal of all creation, the new covenant, the new family of Jew+Gentile, the Kingdom and Rule of God, has come.
- “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand…” (Announcement)
“Kingdom” (Greek: basileia) refers to the domain over which a king rules. But beyond the idea of this being simply a noun, it also means “reign”, which is the exercise of royal power, more akin to an active verb.
“The Reign of God,” as can be defined as “the range of God’s effective will.”[10] The sphere where God’s will is done “on earth as it is in heaven.”
In history, when you hear of “the reign of the Pharaohs, or Alexander the Great, or Henry VIII”, you would understand it to refer to a people and a place, but also to the order imposed upon a people and place by that monarch. This statement would refer to the people and place of Egypt, or Greece, or England who live under the order imposed upon by those kings.
The Kingdom of God is the range of His effective will, the reign of God, it is God in action. It’s referring to His ordering and directing of the world, it is the realm and reality in which the way things are directly under His will, and yielded and partnering with His action.
- “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand…”
(Greek: engizo) to come near, draw near, or bring near. “Has arrived,” or “is available.” This realm and reality of God’s action and ordering from His effective will is readily available and within reach. To whom? And how? To anyone and everyone who changes the way they think and puts their trust in Jesus.
- “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe the gospel.”
We all have a kingdom (dominion, reign, range of our effective will). We learn it as children (“me, mine, you’re not the boss of me”), learning to establish their kingdom, testing boundaries. In adulthood, we express them in our homes (clean or not clean, arrange furniture), this is an external sign of our internal will, our capacity to do what we want. Our fashion, budget, schedule are expressions of how we assert our will over our lives, representations of our kingdom. Above all, our character is the highest expression of our kingdom.
All of our human kingdoms put together is what the New Testament calls “the kingdoms of this world.[11]” How is it going for us? Not well. It is certainly not in a state of Shalom (Peace). Something has gone wrong in the human heart.
Each of us, once having heard this announcement, get the choice on how to respond. If God’s domain is breaking forth into our domain, then we have to rethink how we exercise dominion within our domain, how we execute our will. I must now rethink how I have approached EVERYTHING! Rethink everything you think you know about who God is, who we are, what the good life is.) If this announcement is true, you get the choice: stay where you are, or “repent,” change the way you think about God being at work, the way you think about God’s domain and His will (His Kingdom). We get the choice now to bring our dominion into His dominion, to bring our will into submission under His will. This requires us to change, to rethink how we approach everything we do.
“Repent” — to change your mind, your worldview, the way you think
But change to what? What is the new standard we are rethinking according to? This is what it means to believe: to align your life to the Kingdom of God, to God’s rule and reign, submitted to His will, and the King who is announcing it and enacting it. It means to put your trust and confidence in Jesus save you, heal you, lead you into the kind of life we all desire, what the Scriptures refer to as “eternal life,” the life of the heavens.
“Believe” — align your life to the Kingdom of God; put your trust and confidence in Jesus
This announcements creates a conflict, the thing that arises in us that resists submitting to God’s Kingdom reign, and make ourselves the center of our own kingdom. This insistence on making ourselves the center is what sin means, the desire to be our own God, define good and evil for ourselves. This is what gets confronted with the gospel. Sin is not just the breaking of moral laws, or just social systems of oppression. We are all guilty of making ourselves the center of our own kingdom. We need healed at the deepest level of the human heart. There is no political solution that can solve what is wrong at the core of human beings. Sin is not just doing the wrong thing, it is the inclination for becoming the wrong person.
The gospel Jesus preached is the availability of living right now in the Kingdom of God to everyone through trusting and following Him.
This is why discipleship is central to the gospel. Dallas Willard would say something like this: “if your preaching of the gospel does not lead to people becoming apprentices of Jesus, then you aren’t preaching the gospel Jesus preached. You are preaching something else.”
Discipleship is the life-long practice of deepening your surrender to Jesus as Lord; learning how to bring our kingdom continually under His reign. With each surrender, we become more ourselves, more human as God intended humans to be. Discipleship to Jesus is the transformation of our kingdom, especially our character, into His image.
Am I preaching a gospel that has a natural tendency to produce disciples, or only consumers of religious goods and services?
Conclusion
This summary statement (Mark 1:15) is that Israel’s story has reached both its climax and fulfillment in Christ Jesus. That all of God’s promises and covenants from the time of Abraham, and even to the beginning of creation, is now coming to pass. God’s reign, His order of peace and justice and love, His long-awaited covenant family of Jew+Gentile has now arrived in Jesus and is available to all who repent and believe. That’s the gospel. And that is our continual invitation to this good news.
“The good news is that the one true God has now taken charge of the world, in and through Jesus and His death and resurrection. The ancient hopes have indeed been fulfilled, but in a way nobody imagined. God’s plan to put the world right has finally been launched… The ancient sickness that had crippled the whole world, and humans with it, has been cured at last, so that new life can rise up in its place. Life has come to life and is pouring out like a mighty river into the world, in the form of a new power, the power of love. The good news was, and is, that all this has happened in and through Jesus; that one day it will happen, completely and utterly, to all creation; and that we humans, every single one of us, whoever we are, can be caught up in that transformation here and now. This is the Christian gospel. Do not allow yourself to be fobbed off with anything less.”[12] ~ N.T. Wright
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_NBA_Finals
[2] https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2011/5/31/2198658/nba-finals-2011-odds-miami-heat-dallas-mavericks
[3] https://www.cleveland.com/cavs/2011/06/heat-mavericks_game_6.html
[4] N.T. Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), pg. 41.
[5] N.T. Wright, Simply Good News, pg. 23
[6] https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Actium-ancient-Roman-history; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Actium; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Actium
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divi_filius
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar_Inscription_of_Priene; https://web.archive.org/web/20170722070724/http://www.masseiana.org/priene.htm
[9] https://theologycurator.com/roman-empire-during-time-jesus/#_ftn30
[10] Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, pg. 21, 25
[11] Luke 4:5, Matthew 4:8, Revelation 11:15
[12] N.T. Wright, Simply Good News, pg. 55