Envision the Gospel

Good news is what Jesus came to share. He said that his purpose was to tell the good news that the kingdom of God is near. The good news if a reversal of the curse, an undoing of the damage that sin has done. That damage is so ingrained into creation that the only solution is a re-creation, a re-making of what God once made so that again, he can call it good. But Jesus didn’t put the re-creation as a wholly future prospect, he came with immediate, palpable evidence that God wants to renew and re-create.

The renewal took shape in feeding hungry and caring for the poor people in the world. Jesus rejected the damaged world of social inequality and demonstrated the good news of humanity treating each other humanely. Jesus rejected the damage of disease by bringing healing. He rejected the damage of dogmatic religion by breaking down the power structures in the religious world and replacing them with discipleship and reconciliation.
Jesus’ work provided us a way to see good news, not just to hear about it, but to see it in action. God’s ultimate goal for us is to be re-created, renewed and reborn, but Jesus came to make that future an immediate reality. Not completely, no, but now. Jesus died, in part, because the world was still broken and damaged; it rejected his message of good news like a sick body rejects a transplanted organ that could save it. But Jesus still wants for us to make the good news known, not just the theory, not just the future, but to envision the gospel right here and right now.