The Gospel of the Kingdom

The Tyndale Bible¹

"When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel" (Act 1:6).

The eleven were asking in regard to the "redemption" of Israel -- the fulfillment of kingdom prophecy when the Lord will rule the earth with the "Law of Moses" and a "rod of iron" and the mandate of the Sermon on the Mount, and "out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem" (cf. Isaiah 2:1-3).

As our Lord concluded His earthly ministry, His answer morphed into a directive to, once again, preach the "gospel of the kingdom," as in Matthew 10, but this time in the power of the Spirit, witnessing unto Him "both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (cf. Act 1:8).


However, are we to preach the "gospel of the kingdom" today?

"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed" (Gal 1:6-8).

Our Lord's "gospel of the kingdom" was a wonderful gospel, and would have been a "glorious" one had Israel accepted it. Yet, it was the "quintessential" gospel, for by it came "the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world"! 

However, during this age of grace our "glorified" and "ascended" Lord "revealed" to Paul what he refers to as "my gospel." Paul's gospel is a gospel by which "God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ" (cf. Rom_2:16), a gospel "kept secret since the world began," (cf. Rom_16:25), a gospel by which "Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead" (cf. 2Ti_2:8), a gospel that supersedes Israel's "gospel of the kingdom," ONLY during this "dispensation of grace"! But when the Body of Christ and the Spirit within her is removed the earth, the "gospel of the kingdom" will resume unabated, until it becomes the "glorious" gospel God originally intended.

"For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal 1:9-12).



¹By Peter Schöffer (printer); William Tyndale (British Library Board) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ATyndale_Bible_-_Gospel_of_John.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Tyndale_Bible_-_Gospel_of_John.jpg

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