Our Coming King

The earliest characterization of the Gospel used of the preaching of John the Baptist and of the Lord Jesus was the Gospel of the Kingdom (Matthew 4:23; 9:25; 24:14; Mark 1:14-15; Luke 8:1; Acts 20:25 and 28:30-31). This phrase conveys the same idea as “Gospel of Christ” since the Messiah/Christ was prophesied to be the rightful King of the anticipated everlasting Kingdom. This phrase, Gospel of the Kingdom, connects best to the centuries before the birth of Christ, to the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah being the greater Son of David who was coming to sit on His throne, to rule over all of the nations forever.  Often Christians turn to the classic expression of the Gospel given by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, but too often they do not follow through the same chapter to see the Apostle Paul’s emphasis on the Kingdom:

“But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.  Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

1 Corinthians 15:20-26

The Apostle Peter points to the ministry of the Word of God in the moment of the new birth, as he writes of “being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (1 Peter 1:23). The new birth occurs in that moment when the Word of God touches the heart as the Holy Spirit breathes life into the soul. As our first fleshly birth is a miracle of God, so the second birth is a greater miracle still.

What God does is perfect. The new birth is a perfect translation of the believer out of the kingdom of darkness and into the Kingdom of Light.  Thus, the Apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians, describes the result of the new birth as producing a new creation of God:

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).