The Case for Kingdom Theology (Part 2)

The title, The Case for Kingdom Theology, fits this series of posts but the actual article  ought to be: Refining the definition of the gospel in kingdom perspective. Last week’s post focused on the need for a kingdom centered theology and view of the Bible. In that post one of the implications for a kingdom centric view was the need to redefine what we mean by the term ‘gospel.’ When you state something like that it immediately becomes worrisome to many that you might use this as an excuse to water down the gospel or as a platform from which to preach “another gospel.” So for that reason let me be clear that I have no issue with the gospel as it is presently defined in every evangelical church. The gospel is the power of God to save. Jesus Christ’s atoning death and resurrection is what paid for my sins. Any gospel that teaches me to depend on less than that is not THE gospel. So then what do I mean?

As I look across the scope of the Bible’s narrative, the Scarlet Thread of Redemption as some have put it, or the Scheme of Redemption, as others have put it, I see a bigger picture than “just” my personal salvation. I also see the triumphant restoration of the rule and reign of God, the glorious redemption of humanity, the miraculous redemption of creation, and the complete and final restoration of all that God has made. This is reflected in the teachings and life of Jesus Christ and subsequently the early church as it sought to make disciples of Jesus (teach and form in them the cruciform life.)

As mentioned in the the previous post, most of our creeds and our statements of faith were written in times of duress and sought to address the problems related to that duress. They are grand and well written. I can subscribe to everyone of them on some level, and to most of them in their entirety. The focus of these creeds spoke to Jesus’ divine and human natures, his equality with God, the equality and personhood of the Holy Spirit, and the virgin birth, and the bodily death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Nonetheless we tend to boil the gospel down to the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. Meaning that there is a large amount of Jesus life in the gospels that are not included in our over simplification of the gospel. These reductionist statements do not intentionally cut-out over three-fourths of Jesus’ earthly life and ministry as being non-essential to the gospel but in fact, it is what we do in practice, and in our theology when we say things like, ‘nothing else matters.’ How can any of the gospel matter less than any other part of the gospel? How can we conclude that Jesus’ life and ministry is anything less than the gospel? Do we believe that the apostolic biographies (the Gospels) have extemporaneous information? Or are our well written, but utterly human creeds and confessions, and our succinct definitions of the gospel lacking and in need of being broadened? The salvation of the individual is essential to the gospel, but the gospel is not only the saving of a human souls from hell. 

If we concede that the gospel includes the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus,  and we include the birth and life of Jesus we should begin a move toward saved with a purpose, birthed into the mission and adventure of Christlike living, and transferred not just from the clutches of hell but into the kingdom of God. We begin down a path that is bigger than our tendency toward a man-centered gospel. Still we need to go further! After all, If all we do is include the life of Jesus and add a kingdom component to our definition we still have fallen short of the bigger picutre. We must put Jesus at the center of the gospel. The gospel is the reinstatement of God’s rule and reign over all creation through the completed work of Jesus Christ, which includes the restoration of all things, including those who receive Jesus Christ as King (Lord) and Savior.  

However, even as I read my kingdom centric definition of the gospel, I bristle with nearly five-hundred years of Reformation/Evangelical history that screams the gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Can anyone relate? But this discussion still matters, because just like the Reformers, it is not enough for us to settle on the hindquarters of our tradition. On-one-hand, I am comfortable with what the Reformers said, on-the-other-hand, I am well aware of the results of this kind of reductionism, and the tendency of pop-Christianity to make it all about us, even as we claim it is all about Jesus. 

The definition that I put forth doesn’t solve all of those problems. I don’t presume to be the one to solve all the problems. Yet as a pastor I feel the need to address the problems with those entrusted to me. I feel compelled to engage not only in instruction but to be a student. I feel that I need to engage with the larger church and not simply work out my answers in a vacuum.