Jesus & The Kingdom

Brian McClaren on Jesus and the Kingdom of God.

Tom Wright on Heaven

Here's some more to think about. Bishop NT Wright is an author, teacher, anglican bishop, and a biblical scholar. Here what he has to say about life after life after death. Post your comments afterward.

What the hell is salvation from and what's the kingdom?

For some time now I have been trying to figure out this whole “good news” and salvation thing. It never made sense to me that the good news was that “if you accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior” then you could get out of Hell free and go to heaven. How is that good news for those who don’t believe? I was talking with someone the other day about this very topic. He said that he was having a hard time because he just didn’t see the whole thing as a good thing. God was going to get all these people together and then he was going to protect them, destroy the earth, and let them start all over again on a new earth. Now I don’t know that this is how many people view the whole thing exactly but it did get me thinking about what we call “Salvation” and how the “good news” doesn’t sound like good news to everybody.

What if we didn’t have this right? What if we were to have a different perspective? Don’t get me wrong, there is a necessity for personal commitment, but is there a necessity for a personal savior and salvation from what? Many of us have grown up with this whole salvation thing meaning did you pray “the prayer”, did you respond to an alter call, did you ask Jesus into your life. Is this what salvation is? Is there any reference in the bible to personal savior in the Bible? What is the focus of the salvation in the Bible? Is the “sinner’s prayer” in the Bible anywhere and is anyone mentioned as ever saying it? I have seen so many lives unchanged on a deep level by saying and believing the prayer. This doesn’t seem like the point to me.

In Togo (where we lived for 9 months) we had initially went around “Sharing the Gospel” with people. What I noticed was that many of the people had heard the gospel and actually believed it to be true but they still went home at the end of the day with the world unchanged (sound familiar in our own lives?). So, I began to think that this whole thing was missing the point. So if it is missing the point, what is the point?

What if we were to say that what we read in Genesis about the Garden of Eden is painting a picture. Let’s say that this picture shows us a place of peace, a place where everyone is safe, a place where everyone has a place, everyone has food, people are in communication with God and interacting with him like they live in the same house. Let’s say that this picture is the picture that God gave us of the Kingdom of God. Let’s say that this is the picture of the way the Kingdom is supposed to work. Or, if you don’t like Genesis in that way then what about  the prophet Isaiah when he says “They will beat their swords into plows, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” What about Isaiah 11:16 that has all of these enemy animals interacting peaceably with each other. Or, what about Isaiah 65:17-25 that describes no more crying, people getting food when they need it, and things being all around good. What if these are paintings the Kingdom of God.  Didn’t Jesus say the Kingdom of God was now and that it was here?

You may look around you and think that these pictures can’t possibly be the Kingdom of God if it’s now because this is not what this world looks like. So, the natural conclusion must be that it is not for now but is talking about a future. What if it didn’t have to be? What if this was the blueprint for what we were trying to build? What if what God is asking you to do is to join him in bringing the Kingdom of God to the world? What would it look like if you were finding your spot in this Kingdom and following this painting for the world?

So, what does this have to do with salvation? What if salvation is a journey and not a destination? What if the call to salvation is the same one God gave to Moses? A call to blessing so that he will be a blessing. This means that when I make a personal commitment I commit to join God in his work to restore the world in the image that God has given to us. I am saying that Jesus was the ultimate picture of the way we are supposed to be in this world. He is the picture of behavior, he is the picture of priorities, he is the picture of friendship, he is the picture of humans like the Garden of Eden is to the Earth. We had to know that he was God and that even in his goodness the world would still not accept him because why would we do the things we would have to do at such a high cost if he was just a man. We had to see what it looked like for a man to do what we have to do to bring about the world in the pictures that we have been given.  The salvation would then be brought to the world to free people from all of the crap that doesn’t fit this picture. We would go and feed people, build houses, free slaves, protect people, provide healthcare, work to solutions that would bring peace, show people they matter to us, put others first, stand up against people being treated poorly, and many other things that I can only begin to work out.

This would make the “good news” that the Kingdom of God is here and a Kingdom where everyone is trying to build the picture that God has given us is always good news. I just can’t see it as a sinking ship that we have to save people off of before it goes under. I see this as a ship that is damaged but not beyond repair, and the Good news is that the captain and crew are asking us to join them to make it the best ship that ever sailed the seas and by doing this everyone on the ship will be blessed.

Please feel free to post your thoughts. I'm just thinking out loud here and hope that we can discuss this here. If you find scriptures about salvation, save, kingdom of God, or anything else you feel is relevant then please leave a comment with your thoughts. Thanks.