Category: Uncategorized

Gospel: Not What You Think It Means (Part 1)

We’ve been on a journey since the fall of 2024 – a journey to discover/rediscover the kingdom of God that stood at the very center of Jesus’ message. (See Almost Getting It… and On Earth as in Heaven….)

For me, that journey began nearly 35 years ago, when I first realized that the kingdom of God wasn’t peripheral to Jesus’ teaching – it was the thing. And yet, that realization came with a tension: though Jesus spoke primarily about the kingdom, I struggled to remember hearing much teaching that reflected His focus.

We’ve been lingering – intentionally – on Jesus’ opening proclamation in Mark’s account, slowing down to consider the meaning of the words He chose.

“Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time has come, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the gospel.’” (Mark 1:14–15)

We’ve spent time with the kingdom of God, repent and believe. Now it’s time to turn to another word in that sentence – one we use often, perhaps too casually:

Gospel.

And here’s my working hypothesis: “Gospel” may be one of those terms we use regularly without fully understanding what it means – especially as Jesus used it, and as first-century Israelites would have heard it.

If that’s true, then it matters more than we might think. Because if we misunderstand “gospel,” we may also misunderstand:

  • what Jesus was announcing,
  • what He was inviting people into,
  • and how the kingdom of God actually breaks into the present.

A Simple Question

Several years ago, I posted a simple prompt on Facebook:

“In a sentence or two, what is the gospel?“

The responses were thoughtful, sincere, and – perhaps most interestingly – quite diverse.

Here’s a sampling:

  • “God showing eternal, grace-filled, unconditional love in human form through Jesus on earth.”
  • “Jesus is God with us… to show us God’s love, save us from sin, set up God’s kingdom…”
  • “It’s the New Testament telling of Jesus’ life… so that our sins are forgiven.”
  • “The truth.”
  • “The BEST news… that God loves us and has made it possible for us to live a forever life with Him, starting now.”
  • “Jesus died to pay for our sins so that we can be forgiven and go to Heaven…”
  • “A love story.”
  • “My only hope… Jesus living a perfect life, dying in my place…”
  • “Four gospels telling their version of the same story.”
  • “Hope for all!”
  • “Christ’s death and His resurrection.”
  • “The invitation to eternal life.”

Take a moment and sit with these.

What resonates with you?
What feels incomplete?
What makes you pause?

What We Tend to Mean by “Gospel”

As I’ve reflected on these responses, a few general themes begin to emerge.

1. The Gospel as a Message About Personal Salvation
Many responses focused on sin, forgiveness, and eternal life – especially life after death. This framing emphasizes what Jesus has done for me so that I can be saved and go to heaven.

2. The Gospel as an Expression of God’s Love
Others highlighted God’s love story – grace, compassion, and relational restoration. This centers on who God is and how He has acted toward humanity.

3. The Gospel as the Story of Jesus’ Life and Work
Some described the gospel as the narrative itself – the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

4. The Gospel as Good News (in a General Sense)
A few answers stayed closer to the literal meaning – “good news,” “hope,” “truth” – but without always defining what the news is.

All True… But Is That All?

Here’s what’s striking: There is truth in every one of these responses. And yet, if we placed ourselves in Galilee in the first century, standing in the crowd as Jesus spoke these words…

“The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the gospel.”

…would the people listening have understood “gospel” primarily in these ways?

Would they have heard:

  • “a plan of personal salvation,”
  • or “a summary of theological truths,”
  • or “a set of writings not yet written”?

Or would something else have come to mind? Something more immediate… more public… more world-shifting?

Before We Define It…

Before we rush to define “gospel,” it may be worth lingering in the tension. Because sometimes the problem isn’t that what we believe is wrong – It’s that it might be too small.

So before moving forward, consider:

  • Which of the responses do you instinctively agree with?
  • Which ones feel incomplete or lacking?
  • Which ones stretch your current understanding?
  • And perhaps most importantly…

What might be missing altogether?

We’ll begin to explore how “gospel” was used in everyday first-century life – and what Jesus’ audience likely heard. Next time.

For now, just sit with the question.

Because what we think the gospel is…
will shape how we hear everything Jesus said.

Believe: Not What You Think It Means

When many people hear the word believe, they think of agreeing that something is true.

Do you believe in gravity?
Do you believe George Washington was the first president?
Do you believe the Earth orbits the sun?

In everyday English, belief usually means accepting a fact or holding an opinion.

But when Jesus announced, “The time has come… The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the gospel.”(Mark 1:15), he was not inviting people merely to accept information about God.

The Greek word translated believe is pisteuō (πιστεύω). And it carries a much richer meaning than simple mental agreement.  It means to trust, rely upon, entrust oneself to, and align one’s life with someone.

In other words, pisteuō is closer to commitment than opinion.

More Than Agreement

The Greek language had ways to describe simple acknowledgment of facts. But pisteuō describes something deeper: placing confidence in someone in a way that shapes one’s actions.

At its heart, the word involves three intertwined ideas:

Trust – placing confidence in someone’s reliability
Reliance – depending on that person
Adherence – orienting one’s life around them

When Jesus called people to “believe the gospel (good news),” he was not asking them merely to agree that the kingdom existed. He was inviting them to trust the king and begin living under his reign.

Belief That Moves Your Feet

One way to understand pisteuō is to notice how belief naturally leads to action.

Imagine standing on the edge of a frozen lake in winter. You might say, “I believe the ice is thick enough.” But if you never step onto the ice, your belief is really just a theory.  Real belief happens when you step out and put your weight on it.  That step – that act of trust – is much closer to the meaning of pisteuō.

Biblical belief is trust that moves your feet.

What Belief Looked Like for Israel

The people who first heard Jesus say “believe the good news” already had a long history of learning what trust in God looked like.  For Israel, belief was never merely intellectual. It was lived out through covenant trust and obedience.

When Abraham left his homeland because God called him to go somewhere he had never seen, that was belief. When Israel stepped into the waters of the Jordan, trusting God to lead them into the land, that was belief. When the prophets called the nation to return to the Lord and trust him rather than political alliances or military strength, they were calling the people back to belief.

In other words, belief meant placing their confidence in God and ordering their lives around his covenant rule.

This helps explain why the Hebrew Scriptures often speak of trusting the Lord rather than simply believing certain truths about him. Faith showed itself in dependence and obedience.

So, when Jesus announced that the kingdom of God had drawn near, he was not introducing a completely new idea. He was calling Israel to renew the very kind of trust God had always sought from his people.

Belief in the First-Century World

There is another dimension to this word that we modern readers sometimes miss.

In the first-century world, belief often carried the sense of loyalty or allegiance. People lived under kings and emperors, and public life involved recognizing and aligning oneself with a ruler’s authority.

To trust a king meant more than believing he existed. It meant acknowledging his rule, relying on his protection, and ordering your life under his authority.

Against that backdrop, the early Christian confession “Jesus is Lord” was profound. It signaled a shift in ultimate loyalty.

Seen in that light, believing in Jesus meant transferring allegiance – entrusting oneself to the king whose kingdom had drawn near.

The Pattern in the New Testament

Throughout the New Testament, belief consistently looks like trustful reliance rather than mere agreement.

In John 5:24, Jesus said that whoever hears his word and believes the one who sent him “has crossed over from death to life.” Belief here describes entrusting oneself to God in a way that results in a change of realm.

In Mark 5:36, when Jairus learned his daughter had died, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” In that moment, belief clearly means trusting Jesus enough to rely on him in the middle of fear.

And in Romans 10:9, belief is paired with the confession “Jesus is Lord,” language that points toward recognizing and entrusting oneself to the authority of the risen king.

Again and again, belief is not merely agreement – it is entrusting oneself to a person.

Hearing Jesus’ Words Again

Now listen again to Jesus’ announcement in Mark 1:15:

“The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the gospel (good news).”

Notice the movement…

First, repent – turn around, reorient your life.
Then believe – place your trust in the good news of God’s reign.

Repentance turns us away from the old order.
Belief entrusts us to the new king.

Jesus was not asking people simply to agree with a message.

He was inviting them to step into a kingdom.

The Question Jesus Still Asks

Over time, the English word believe has become thinner than the biblical idea behind it. Today, someone might say, “I believe in Jesus,” and mean little more than agreeing with certain ideas about him.  Or that he existed.

But in the language of the New Testament, belief carried relational weight.

It meant trusting Jesus.
Relying on him.
Aligning one’s life with his reign.

Not just thinking differently but living differently.  Which means the question Jesus asked in Galilee still echoes today.

Not simply:

“Do you agree with this information about me?”

But rather:

“Will you trust me enough to live as if God’s kingdom is truly here?”

Because in the New Testament, belief is not just something that happens in your head…

It is something that eventually shows up in your life.

A Sweet Aroma

A few years ago, my friend, Crystal Kirgiss, wrote this article for Young Life‘s weekly communique to staff and stakeholders worldwide. It is a perfect reflection as we prepare to celebrate Resurrection Sunday. With her permission, I want to share it with you…

Sometime during what we now call Holy Week, Jesus was eating with His disciples and other friends when a woman approached with an expensive jar filled with expensive perfume. Rather than giving the jar and perfume to Jesus as a gift, like the Magi had 30-some years earlier, the woman shockingly broke the jar open and poured the perfume on Jesus’ head and feet, releasing a sweet aroma.

Essential oils are big business right now. But dousing someone with it during a dinner party is not the norm. We might lightly dab to clear our sinuses or calm our mood. But we do not pour plentifully, no matter what the occasion. This woman, though, poured until there was nothing left to pour.

Jesus’ disciples were neither amused nor impressed.

“What a waste! What nonsense! You could have sold that for good money! You could have made a measurable impact!” Leave it to Jesus’ disciples to deliver a thorough scolding for someone’s act of absolute allegiance and utter worship.

Jesus, though, set the record straight. He called her act beautiful. He praised her — not for something impressive like converting an entire village, or investing and making a profit, or planning and pulling off a large event, or increasing her ministry output. Instead, He praised her for humbly and faithfully anointing Him for burial.

For months, Jesus had been telling His friends He would soon die. Just days earlier, as He’d entered Jerusalem, He’d told them that now was that time. Maybe He’d even talked about it during this very meal.

But this woman seems to be the only one who truly believed what He said, in which case her strange, extravagant act makes great sense — for how else could she possibly respond but to pour onto Jesus the most valuable thing she had, knowing He would soon pour out for all of humanity the most valuable thing He had.

Both Matthew and Mark note that Jesus said to everyone in the room: “I tell you the truth; wherever the good news is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and discussed.”

But that’s not usually the case. It’s a weird story, after all. And it lacks a neat and tidy takeaway. If we’re always in search of neat and tidy takeaways, Scripture will often disappoint us. But if we’re willing to read it for what it is, and consider the larger story of the Bible, Scripture will always feed us.

At face value, this story is mostly about something a real woman did, in a real place, during a real moment in time, when it was exactly the right thing for her to do in response to Jesus. Are we as aware of things we’re called to do, in this place and at this moment, in response to Jesus? And if that thing is costly, would we be as willing as this woman was to actually do it, knowing others might misunderstand and call us foolish?

As we read the bigger message of God’s Word beyond this story, it becomes clear why this narrative should be remembered and discussed. This woman’s actions are a reminder that in response to Jesus’ death, resurrection, and Lordship, we’re called to break open and pour out the costliest thing we have — our very lives — as we die to ourselves daily, surrender to our Lord, and honor our King. Hopefully, our acts of sacrificial obedience and worship will release a sweet aroma into the world just like the woman’s perfume did thousands of years ago — but now it will be the sweet aroma of Christ Himself.

By Crystal Kirgiss, Director of Discipleship Content and Partnerships, Young Life

Repent: Not What You Think It Means

In the previous post in this series, Not What You Think It Means: The Words That Framed Jesus’ Message, we began looking at several words that sit at the very center of Jesus’ proclamation:

“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the gospel!” (Mark 1:15)

For many modern readers, words like kingdom, repent, and gospel have become overly familiar. We hear them so often that we assume we know exactly what they mean.

But familiarity can sometimes mask misunderstanding.

In particular, the word repent often carries baggage that may not reflect what Jesus’ original listeners heard. For many people today, the word repent sounds like a stern religious command: feel guilty, confess your sins, and promise to do better.

While repentance certainly involves moral change, that understanding may miss the larger picture of what Jesus was announcing. To see this more clearly, we need to step back and ask a simple question:

What did the word “repent” mean in the world of Jesus?

Seeing Differently

The New Testament word translated repent is the Greek verb metanoeō, with the related noun metanoia. The word comes from two Greek roots:

meta – after, beyond, or change
nous – mind, perception, understanding

At its most basic level, metanoia meant a change of mind. But in Greek thought, the “mind” was not merely intellectual. It referred to the center of perception – how a person understood reality, made judgments, and oriented their life.

Repentance, therefore, described a shift in how someone saw things: a reconsideration of one’s assumptions and a recognition that one’s previous understanding may have been mistaken.

Classical Greek writers used the word this way long before the New Testament. A general might rethink a military strategy, a statesman might reverse a policy after realizing it was misguided, or a person might reconsider a decision after gaining new insight. In those settings, repentance was not primarily religious. It simply meant reconsidering and changing course.

Another Greek word, metamelomai, described emotional regret or remorse. But metanoia focused more on a change in perspective that led to a change in direction.

That distinction matters. Repentance was not primarily about feeling bad. It was about seeing differently.

The Prophets’ Call: Return to the Lord

When Jewish scholars translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek (in what we call the Septuagint), they sometimes used metanoeō to translate the Hebrew word shuv, which meant to turn or to return.

In the Old Testament, repentance meant turning back to God – abandoning idols, injustice, and self-reliance and returning to covenant faithfulness. The prophets called Israel to repent not merely by feeling remorse but by reorienting their lives toward Yahweh (cf. Joel 2:12–13; Hosea 14:1–2; Isaiah 55:6–7; Jeremiah 3:12–14; Ezekiel 18:30–32).

“Return to me,” God said through the prophets.

This Hebrew background added an important dimension to the Greek word. Repentance became not only a change of thinking but a relational turning toward God.

What Repentance Meant in Jesus’ World

Now place yourself among the people who first heard Jesus’ words.

John the Baptist had already appeared in the wilderness calling Israel to repentance and warning that God was about to act decisively in history. Then Jesus arrived in Galilee announcing:

“The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the gospel.”

Notice the order.

Jesus did not simply say, “Repent.” He said repent because something had happened. “The time has come.”  In other words, the long-awaited moment in God’s story with Israel had arrived.

“The kingdom of God has come near.”  God’s reign – the reality Israel had prayed for, longed for, and sung about in the Psalms – was now breaking into history in a new way.

In light of that announcement, Jesus called people to repent. Seen in this context, repentance sounded less like a rebuke and more like an invitation.

It meant something like this: Rethink everything.

The way you understood God’s work in the world.
The way you imagined the kingdom would come.
The way you expected power, victory, and salvation to look.

God was acting – but not in the ways many expected. The kingdom was arriving not through political revolt or military power but through the surprising ministry of Jesus himself. Tax collectors, fishermen, and ordinary villagers began to follow him. The sick were healed. Sinners were welcomed. Outsiders were brought near.

If people wanted to recognize what God was doing, they had to see differently.

They had to repent.

Rethinking Life Under God’s Reign

When Jesus called people to repent, he was not simply telling them to feel sorry for their sins. He was inviting them to adopt a new vision of reality.

Repentance meant allowing one’s assumptions about God, power, righteousness, and identity to be reshaped by the arrival of the kingdom. It meant recognizing that the story many people thought they were living in was not the whole story.

God was doing something new – yet something deeply rooted in the promises of Israel’s Scriptures. To repent was to step into that story. And once someone began to see the world through the lens of God’s kingdom, life inevitably began to change.

Because when we see differently, we live differently.

Part of the challenge for modern readers is that we often hear repentance through the lens of what sociologists call Moralistic Therapeutic Deism1 – the idea that God mainly wants people to be nice, happy, and feel good about themselves. In that framework, repentance shrinks into little more than moral self-improvement. But Jesus’ call to repent was far more disruptive than that – it was an invitation to rethink everything in light of the arriving kingdom.

Repentance as Good News

For many of us, the word repent still carries echoes of accusation or pressure.

But in the mouth of Jesus, repentance was part of the gospel itself. It was an invitation to wake up – to recognize that God’s kingdom had drawn near and that a new way of seeing and living had become possible.

Repentance was not merely about looking backward at past mistakes. It was about turning toward the reality of what God was doing right now.

In other words:

The kingdom was near.  So rethink everything.

1Smith, C., & Denton, M. L. (2005). Soul searching: The religious and spiritual lives of american teenagers. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.

Full of Grace and Truth

When God moved in, He did not arrive empty-handed. He arrived with all of His fullness. 1

John wrote that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and then added a phrase that can slip past us if we’re not careful: full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

Not inclined toward one.
Not balancing the two.
Full — brimming, complete — of both.

Those words weren’t accidental. John wasn’t improvising. He was reaching back deep into Israel’s memory, pulling forward language that had always described the very heart of God.

Grace and Truth Have a History

The Greek words John used — charis (grace) and alētheia (truth) — carried weight in their own right. But they carried even more when read through the Scriptures Jesus had grown up hearing.

Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, God’s character was described with a paired phrase: ḥesed and ʾemet — steadfast love and faithfulness. Covenant loyalty and reliability. Mercy that holds fast and truth that does not shift. 2

After Israel’s rebellion with the golden calf, when Moses asked to see God’s glory, the Lord proclaimed His own name:

“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love (ḥesed) and faithfulness (ʾemet).” (Exodus 34:6) 3

This was not a passing description. It was God explaining God.

The Psalms returned to it again and again:

  • “Steadfast love and faithfulness go before You” (Psalm 89:14).
  • “Steadfast love and faithfulness meet; righteousness and peace kiss each other” (Psalm 85:10).

This was relational language: ḥesed named God’s refusal to walk away. ʾemet named His utter trustworthiness.

So when John described Jesus as full of grace and truth, he was making a staggering claim: what Israel had known about God had now taken on flesh.

Grace and Truth Took on a Face

Jesus did not merely speak about grace; He embodied it.

He welcomed the unclean, shared tables with the compromised, and refused to reduce people to their worst decisions. That was ḥesed embodied — covenant love moving toward the undeserving.

But He also spoke with piercing clarity.

He named hypocrisy. He confronted self-righteousness. He exposed illusions of power and wealth. That was ʾemet — truth anchored in reality, not sentiment.

And in Him, these were never at odds.

Grace never diluted truth.
Truth never canceled grace.

When Jesus encountered the woman caught in adultery, He did not pretend sin didn’t matter — but He also refused to let condemnation have the final word. When He met Zacchaeus, grace came first — and truth followed close behind, reshaping his life from the inside out.

Jesus did not oscillate between grace and truth. He lived at the intersection of both.

Why We Pull Them Apart

We tend to pull grace and truth apart.

Some of us lean toward grace — valuing kindness, empathy, welcome — but hesitate to name what is broken or distorted. Others lean toward truth — certainty, conviction, moral seriousness — but struggle to extend mercy without conditions.

Jesus refused that split. Scripture refuses that split. God never asked Israel to choose between love and faithfulness. He revealed Himself as abounding in both.

Grace is not permissive.
Truth is not harsh.
Together, they restore.

Grace and Truth Dwelling Among Us

John said the Word dwelt among us — literally, tabernacled. The same glory that once filled the wilderness tent now walked the roads of Galilee. That meant…

To encounter Jesus was to meet steadfast love.
To listen to Jesus was to hear faithful truth.

Living Full of Grace and Truth

John was not composing a theological treatise; he wrote so we would recognize the character of God.

If Jesus was full of grace and truth, then those who follow Him were invited into that same way of being.

Not graceless truth that wounds.
Not truthless grace that avoids reality.
But love that remains steady and truth that leads to life.

Perhaps the question this text presses upon us is not Do you believe this? But where might you be resisting half of God’s character?

Where do you long for grace but avoid truth?
Where do you cling to truth but withhold grace?

When God moved in, He brought both — and entrusted that way of life to those who would bear His name.

And maybe the world, weary of distortion and suspicion, still longs to see what ḥesed and ʾemet looks like with skin on.

1 See Colossians 2

2 When Hebrew scholars translated their scriptures into Greek, ḥesed and ʾemet were translated as charis and alētheia.

3 Keep in mind that when we read LORD (all caps.), it is translated as Yahweh in the Hebrew scriptures. It’s the name God revealed to Moses when he wondered what to say once the Israelites questioned who had sent him. Yahweh effectively describes God as the one who was, who is, and who forever will be. See Exodus 3.

The Visible Expression of the Invisible God

Paul wrote with breathtaking clarity: “Christ is the visible expression of the invisible God.” (Col. 1:15, JB Phillips). Not a sketch. Not a shadow. Not a partial rendering. Jesus was the visible expression of the God no one had ever seen.

That claim did not emerge in a vacuum. It rested within Israel’s long, layered story of a God who had always made Himself known through visible expressions of His presence. The incarnation did not interrupt that story. It fulfilled it.

John began his Gospel by reaching all the way back before Genesis. “In the beginning was the Word.” The Greek word John used was logos – a term thick with meaning. Logos carried the sense of speech, reason, and self-expression. God was not merely silent power behind the cosmos; God had always been expressive. He had always spoken.

And then John stunned his readers: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”

We might say it this way: Jesus was God’s Logos made legible.

In our modern world, the word logo functions in a strikingly similar way. A company’s logo is not the company itself, but it is the visible expression of its identity, mission, and purpose. A well-designed logo makes values concrete. It takes something invisible – vision, intent, character – and renders it visible.

John suggested that Jesus did for God what a logo does for a company – except infinitely more. Jesus did not merely point toward God. He embodied Him.

God Had Always Made Himself Visible

Long before Bethlehem, God had been revealing Himself in visible ways.

When Israel emerged from slavery, God went before them as a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. His presence was not abstract. It was luminous, directional, and protective. He guided them not by theory, but through His presence.

At Sinai, the mountain trembled. Smoke ascended. Thunder rolled. Fire crowned the summit. God’s holiness overwhelmed the senses. The people did not merely hear about God; they encountered Him as glory, sound, heat, and fear. Theophany – the visible manifestation of God – marked Israel’s story from its earliest chapters.

Later, God instructed Moses to build the tabernacle. The tabernacle became a portable sign that the God of heaven chose to dwell among His people. Glory filled the space. God localized His presence, not to limit Himself, but to make Himself known.

The same pattern continued with the temple. When Solomon dedicated the first temple, the glory of the Lord filled it so fully that the priests could not stand to minister (2 Chronicles 6:12-42). Though no walls of stone or beams of cedar could hold Him, He made His presence known within them. The temple functioned as a visible expression of divine nearness.

Yet each of these expressions carried limitations. The cloud and fire guided but did not speak. Sinai revealed holiness but created distance. The tabernacle and temple mediated presence, but only through layers – curtains, sacrifices, priesthoods.

They were real revelations, but they were not the final word.

The Logos Took on a Face

John wrote that the Word “dwelt” among us – literally, “tabernacled.” In Jesus, God did not merely revisit the tabernacle; He redefined it. The presence of God was no longer housed in fabric or stone, but in a human life.

Jesus healed with touch. He taught with stories. He revealed mercy through meals, forgiveness through proximity, authority through self-giving love. When people encountered Jesus, they encountered what God was like.

– If someone wanted to know how God treated sinners, they watched Jesus eat with them.
– If they wanted to know God’s posture toward the marginalized, they watched Jesus stop, listen, and restore.
– If they wondered what divine power looked like, they saw it kneel and wash feet.

Jesus did not merely talk about God. He showed Him.

This is why the incarnation matters so deeply. God did not finally reveal Himself through a book alone, or a building, or a system. He revealed Himself through a life. In Jesus, everything God had shown before finally came into focus. The cloud, the fire, the mountain, the tent, the temple – all pointed forward. Jesus gave them a face.

Gospel Immersion and the Discovery of God

If Jesus was the visible expression of the invisible God, then knowing God is inseparable from knowing Jesus.

This is why gospel immersion matters. Not as an academic exercise. Not as religious obligation. But as the discovery of the centrality of our faith…

The reality, the core, the import, is found in the Anointed One (Colossians 2:17b, VOICE).

We do not come to the Gospels primarily to extract principles. We come to behold a person. As we linger in the stories – watching how Jesus moved, listened, responded, withdrew, confronted, healed, and forgave – we are learning what God is like.

Gospel immersion trains our imagination. It reshapes our instincts. It reorients our assumptions about power, holiness, love, and faithfulness. Over time, Jesus becomes the lens through which we interpret God – and ourselves.

In a world still tempted to reduce God to abstraction, ideology, or utility, the Gospels insist on something better: God made Himself visible. God allowed Himself to be seen, touched, understood, misunderstood, rejected, and crucified.

And in doing so, God showed us Himself.

The invisible became visible.
The seemingly unknowable became near.
The Logos took on flesh.

And we behold His Glory.

When God Moved In

Frank Tillapaugh once told a story that has never quite let go of me.

In Unleashing the Church, he described a church struggling to figure out how to minister to trailer-court kids in their neighborhood.  As committees met to discuss various programming options, a group of Young Life leaders quietly started ministering to the kids. Rather than running programs for kids who lived in the trailer court, they chose to move into the neighborhood. They showed up at sandlots and basketball hoops, laundromats and front porches. Over time, relationships formed – not because of program strategy, but because of proximity. Presence did what programming never could.

Tillapaugh’s point was simple and unsettling: transformation often begins not with proclamation, but with incarnation.

John, in the opening of his Gospel, made a strikingly similar claim…

“And the Word became flesh and lived among us…” (John 1:14)

While many English translations render the phrase as “lived among us,” John’s language carried far greater weight. The Word did not keep a divine distance. The Word tabernacled among us.

God moved into the neighborhood.

The Word Who Pitched a Tent

The Greek verb John used – eskēnōsen – literally meant “to pitch a tent” or “to dwell in a tabernacle.” John was not being poetic for effect; he was making a strong theological claim.

For Israel, the tabernacle was the first place God’s glory took up residence among the people. It was portable, humble, and situated right in the middle of the camp. God was not distant. God traveled with them – through wilderness, uncertainty, and vulnerability.

Later came the first temple built under Solomon: permanent, majestic, and symbolically central. God’s presence was no longer housed in fabric and poles, but in stone and cedar. The second temple, rebuilt after exile, carried the same hope with far more ache – glory remembered, longed for, but never quite restored.

Across the tabernacle and temples, one theme held steady: God desired to dwell with His people. Yet access remained limited. Curtains, courts, sacrifices, and priests all served as reminders that something still stood between heaven and earth.

John was telling his readers that the long story had turned a corner. The dwelling place of God was no longer a structure. It was a person.

Glory With Skin On

John continued: “We have seen his glory.”

That word – glory – would have triggered memories of cloud and fire, of Sinai and the Holy of Holies. Glory was weighty, dangerous, and awe-inducing. It surpassed superficiality.

And yet here, glory wore skin.

It ate meals. It attended weddings. It touched lepers. It wept at gravesides. The glory that once filled sacred space now filled ordinary places. God’s presence was no longer something one traveled toward, but something that drew near.

Eugene Peterson famously paraphrased John 1:14 this way: “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.”

That is not a sentimental phrase. It is a kingdom announcement.

The Kingdom at Hand

When Jesus stepped into Galilee proclaiming, “The kingdom of God has come near,” he was not introducing a new idea. He was naming what had already become true.

The kingdom was “at hand” because the King was standing there.

Before Jesus preached a sermon, healed a disease, or forgave a sin, the kingdom had already arrived in embodied form. God’s reign showed up not first as instruction, but as presence.

This reframed everything!

The kingdom of God was no longer confined to sacred space or guarded by religious systems. It was now encountered wherever Jesus went. Fields became holy ground. Dinner tables became sanctuaries. Roadside conversations became moments of revelation.

Incarnation Before Instruction

This is where John 1:14 quietly challenges many of our instincts about ministry, discipleship, and witness.

We often want to start with explanation – beliefs clarified, doctrines defended, behaviors corrected. Jesus began elsewhere. He began by dwelling. By staying. By being present long enough for trust to grow.

Like those Young Life leaders in the trailer court, Jesus did not love from a distance. He crossed boundaries of comfort and respectability. He entered neighborhoods others avoided. He made himself interruptible.

The incarnation was not only theological in nature; it was fundamentally missional.

God did not shout salvation from heaven. God walked it into town.

A Dwelling That Still Continues

John’s language also carried a quiet promise forward. If God once dwelled in a tent, then a temple, and now in Jesus, where does God dwell now?

The rest of the New Testament dared to answer: among a people shaped by the same Spirit who anointed Jesus. The presence that once filled sacred space now fills human lives.

Which means the question is no longer whether God desires to dwell among us. The question is whether we are willing to dwell among others in the same way.

The kingdom comes close again and again wherever followers of Jesus resist power and prestige in favor of presence and proximity.

God moved into the neighborhood. He invites us to do the same.

The Kingdom Thesis and the Nazareth Manifesto

When Jesus stepped onto the public stage, He did not speak vaguely. His announcement was commandingly clear: “The kingdom of God is at hand.” That declaration functioned like a thesis statement – one central claim that organized everything He taught, did, and embodied.

A thesis tells you what is true and how everything else should be read. Jesus’ announcement did exactly that. God’s reign was no longer distant, deferred, or abstract. It had drawn near. From that point forward, parables, healings, interactions, forgiveness, and even rejection only made sense in light of this claim. The kingdom was not an idea to be debated; it was a reality to be encountered.

Yet a thesis alone does not explain how it will be lived out. That clarity came in the synagogue in Nazareth.

From Thesis to Mission

In his gospel, Luke deliberately placed Jesus’ synagogue moment near the beginning of His public ministry. After His baptism and wilderness testing, Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. When He stood to read in his home synagogue, He was handed the scroll of Isaiah. The words were familiar – long associated with Israel’s hope:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (see Isaiah 61:1-2)

Then Jesus made the claim unmistakable: “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

If “the kingdom of God is at hand” functioned as Jesus’ thesis statement, Luke 4:18–19 read like His mission statement. It articulated what He had been sent to do because the kingdom had arrived.

Mission statements answer concrete questions: Who are you? What are you here to do? Who is this for? Jesus answered all three in one decisive moment.

Jesus rooted His mission in divine initiative: The Spirit of the Lord was upon Him. This was not a self-generated agenda. The same Spirit who descended at His baptism empowered His vocation. Luke made clear that the kingdom did not advance through force or spectacle, but through Spirit-empowered faithfulness.

A Mission Turned Toward the Margins

The recipients of the mission were equally clear: the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed. These were not vague metaphors meant to be spiritualized. In Luke’s Gospel, they appeared as real people with bodies, histories, and wounds.

Jesus brought good news to those for whom the existing religious and social systems had failed. The kingdom He announced did not bypass suffering; it moved directly toward it. God’s reign was revealed not in withdrawal from the world (think Pharisees), but in restoration within it.

Here, the thesis pressed closer. If God’s reign had truly drawn near, then faithfulness could no longer be measured by religious performance, but by renewed, restored humanity.

A Mission Made Visible

In any sustained argument, evidence matters. Jesus’ actions functioned as embodied proof of His kingdom claim. Healings, exorcisms, and forgiveness – all of his interactions – were His mission lived out.

When the blind received sight and the excluded found welcome, Jesus showed what life under God’s reign looked like. The manifesto of Luke 4:18–19 became flesh and blood. Each encounter served as a living confirmation of the kingdom’s nearness.

A Mission That Provoked Resistance

What began as admiration in Nazareth quickly turned to rage. Luke included this reversal to make a point: His mission statement, when taken seriously, disrupted settled expectations. 

Read that again and ponder a bit.

Jesus reminded His listeners that God’s saving work had often extended beyond Israel’s borders – to a widow in Zarephath and a Syrian named Naaman. The implication was unavoidable. The kingdom He announced could not be controlled, managed, or claimed as exclusive possession.

The thesis was expansive. The mission was unsettling.

By the end of the scene, the hometown crowd attempted to throw Him off a cliff. Luke was not subtle. This was the cost of bringing the kingdom near without reshaping it to fit familiar categories.

Holding Thesis and Mission Together

Separated, these two moments are easily distorted. The kingdom announcement without the mission drifts into abstraction. The mission without the kingdom collapses into activism.

Held together, they revealed Jesus’ integrated vision – that God’s reign had arrived and therefore…

  • Good news was proclaimed to the poor.
  • Captives experienced release.
  • Sight was restored.
  • The oppressed were set free.

And Today?

The temptation remains to affirm Jesus’ mission while softening His thesis. Or to confess the thesis while avoiding its implications. The Gospel allows for no such division.  Jesus’ thesis described reality according to God’s economy. His mission showed what that economy looked like when it touched the ground.

If the kingdom truly drew near in Jesus, then allegiance, imagination, and daily life must be reoriented. It is about learning to live under a different reign.

And Luke left readers – then and now – with the same lingering question…

If this was Jesus’ mission because the kingdom had arrived, what does it mean to pray, “Your kingdom come,” and actually expect an answer?

The Kingdom Has Come Near

The Kingdom Journey

As we have been discovering over the last year of blog posts, the “kingdom of God” was not a new idea initiated by Jesus. Throughout Israel’s history, God’s kingship was a central confession. The Psalms proclaimed, “The Lord reigns!” (cf. Psalms 93:1; 97:1; 99:1). God was Israel’s true King – ruling with justice, righteousness, and steadfast love (hesed).

Yet by the time Jesus appeared in Galilee, that kingdom vision felt distant. Israel had endured centuries of foreign domination – Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and now Roman. God’s people lived in their land but did not rule it. They waited for deliverance – for God to act again as He did in the Exodus, overthrow oppressors, and restore His reign among them.

The prophets kept that hope alive. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and others spoke of a coming day when God would reign in fullness, when peace and justice would flourish, and when all nations would come to know the God of Israel. By the first century, this hope often took on political and messianic expectations. Many longed for a new Davidic king – a Messiah who would reestablish Israel’s sovereignty and throw off Rome’s yoke.

Into that setting came Jesus, saying, “The kingdom of God has come near.”

Mark’s Gospel wasted no time getting to the heart of things. After introducing John the Baptist and recounting Jesus’ baptism and temptation, Mark moves straight to the core of Jesus’ message:

“After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’” (Mark 1:14–15)

These verses functioned as a thesis statement for Jesus’ ministry. Everything that followed – His teachings, healings, table fellowship, death, and resurrection – flowed from this announcement: The kingdom of God has come near.

Not the Kingdom They Expected

For many, Jesus’ announcement must have sounded electrifying. Was this finally the moment when God would set things right?

But as Jesus’ ministry unfolded, it became clear that the kingdom He proclaimed was not the one many expected. He spoke not of political revolt, but of transformed lives. He welcomed the poor, the outcast, the sinner, and the marginalized. He declared that the kingdom belonged to such as these.

In other words, the kingdom arrived not through might or coercion, but through mercy.

God’s reign was not being reestablished on a throne in Jerusalem but revealed in human lives yielded to His will. The divine rule came near in the person of Jesus Himself. Wherever He went, the kingdom broke in – healing the sick, forgiving sinners, restoring the broken.

Repent and Believe

Jesus’ announcement came with a summons: “Repent and believe the good news.”

Repentance (metanoia) meant more than feeling sorry for sin. It meant reorientation – a turning away from old ways of imagining God’s reign and a turning toward what God was now doing in and through Jesus.

But repent from what?

Israel was called to turn from false expectations – nationalistic hopes of deliverance by force, empty religious performance, and self-assured confidence in being God’s chosen people. The kingdom was not coming through them, but to them – and that required humility.

And so does our repentance.

To “believe the good news” was to trust that God was acting, that His reign was breaking into the world, and that life under His gracious rule was now possible.

Why It Was Good News

Mark tells us Jesus came “proclaiming the good news of God.” In the ancient world, the Greek word euangelion (good news) referred to royal announcements – a new king, a decisive victory, a turning point in history.

Jesus’ use of the word was no accident. His message was royal news: God was reclaiming His world.

But for whom was this news good?

For the poor, it meant hope.
For the captives, freedom.
For the blind, sight.
For the oppressed, liberation (see Luke 4:18–19).

For sinners and those on the margins, it meant forgiveness and restoration. In short, the kingdom was good news – very good news – for everyone who knew they needed God.

Yet it was unsettling news for those who thought they already possessed Him. The self-assured, the powerful, the religious elite – they often found Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom threatening. The arrival of the kingdom through Him was leveling the playing field – exalting the lowly and humbling the proud.

The kingdom of God turned the world upside down (or perhaps, right side up).

The Nearness of the Kingdom

“The kingdom of God has come near.”

That nearness was not merely chronological but relational. In Jesus, God’s reign drew close – visible, tangible, embodied. He revealed what life under God’s rule looked like. On earth as in heaven.

And the nearness continues.

Where mercy triumphs over condemnation, where forgiveness replaces bitterness, where hope rises from despair, the kingdom draws near again and again. It is not something we build; it is something we receive and reflect. The kingdom is God’s reign in action, lived out through those who have repented and believed the good news – the community we call the Church.

Living in the Kingdom Today

Jesus’ first words in Mark were not abstract theology but an invitation to a present reality.

To live as citizens of the kingdom today is to trust that God’s reign is both already present and still unfolding. It means participating in His redemptive work – loving enemies, forgiving freely, serving sacrificially, and living as those blessed to be a blessing (Genesis 12).

The kingdom is not about escape from the world but the transformation of it. Jesus did not come to remove us from the earth, but to renew it – to bring heaven’s rule to bear in every corner of life. Again, think, “On earth as in heaven.”

So when Jesus said, “The time has come,” He announced more than a moment in history. He proclaimed the embodiment of God’s great restoration project – the King Himself stepping onto the scene and saying, “This is what life under God looks like.”

As Stanley Hauerwas observed, “Repent, and believe the good news is the radical proclamation that Jesus has unleashed a movement that puts in jeopardy the powers of this world, powers that gain their power from our fear of death and of one another.”1

That is good news indeed.


1Hauerwas, S., & Harrison Warren, T. (2025). Jesus changes everything : a new world made possible (C. E. Moore, Ed.). Plough.

Jesus’ Baptism

The scene at the Jordan River is one of the most beautiful and mysterious moments in all of Scripture. Jesus – thirty years old, fresh from Nazareth, with no disciples, no miracles, no sermons yet preached – stepped into the murky waters where John had been baptizing the crowds. This act seems, at first glance, unnecessary. After all, John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. What did Jesus have to repent of? So why was He there?

The answer takes us deep into the heart of God’s redemptive story – a story of fulfillment, identification, and revelation.

Fulfillment

John’s ministry had drawn attention across Judea. People flocked to the wilderness, confessing their sins and being baptized as a sign of repentance and renewal. His message was clear and prophetic: “Prepare the way for the Lord” (Isaiah 40:3). John stood at the hinge point of history – the closing of one age and the dawning of another.

So when Jesus came to John to be baptized, Matthew tells us that John resisted: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (Matthew 3:14). John sensed a reversal. The greater was submitting to the lesser. The sinless One was stepping into waters meant for sinners.

But Jesus’ response mattered: “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness” (v.15).

That phrase, fulfill all righteousness, isn’t about moral perfection or rule-keeping. In the Scriptures, righteousness often refers to God’s saving action – His commitment to set things right. Or, as N.T. Wright frequently puts it, to put the world back to rights. Jesus’ baptism wasn’t a personal need; it was a divine necessity. It was His way of saying, I am fully aligned with My Father’s will, and I will walk the path before Me.

Jesus stepped into Israel’s story as its perfect representative. Just as Israel had passed through the waters of the Red Sea and then the Jordan into a new life of covenant faithfulness (Exodus 14; Joshua 3), Jesus passed through these same waters. He embodied the true Israel – obedient, faithful, and ready to inaugurate the kingdom of God.

Identification

But Jesus’ baptism wasn’t only about fulfillment but also about identification.

In choosing baptism, Jesus identified Himself with the very people who needed repentance and renewal. He stepped into the same waters as sinners – not to confess His own sin, but to stand in solidarity with theirs (and ours).

This is the Incarnation made visible. The eternal Word does not remain distant or aloof. He entered fully into human brokenness. He doesn’t shout from heaven, “Get your act together.” He stepped into the muddy Jordan and said, in effect, “I’m with you.”

John’s baptism had become a sign of repentance for those longing for forgiveness and a new beginning. By entering those waters, Jesus declared Himself to be the One who would make that forgiveness possible. Paul later captures this mystery when he writes, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). That began in the river Jordan.

It’s easy to miss how radical that act of identification is. The Messiah – the one John had said was coming with fire and Spirit – came first with humility and submission. The very first public act of Jesus’ ministry was to align with sinners. That’s what divine love looks like.

Then Came the Revelation

As Jesus rose from the water, heaven opened. Matthew tells us, “The Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased’” (Matthew 3:16–17).

The moment is profoundly Trinitarian – the Son standing in the water, the Spirit descending upon Him, and the Father speaking from heaven. It’s as if the curtains of eternity were pulled back for just a moment, revealing who Jesus truly is. What began as an act of humility becomes a moment of divine affirmation.

This was no private whisper. The Father’s voice publicly announced what the world needed to know: God’s kingdom had arrived in His beloved Son. The Spirit’s descent marked Him as the anointed One – the Messiah.

Fulfillment, Identification, Revelation—For Us

What happened that day at the Jordan wasn’t just for Jesus; it was for us. In His baptism, Jesus inaugurated the kingdom breaking into human history. He fulfilled righteousness, identified with humanity, and revealed the heart of the Father.

Our own baptism carries those same echoes. When we step into the waters, we are identifying with Him – dying to the old and rising to new life. Baptism isn’t a private ritual; it’s a public declaration that we belong to the One who first stood in the river for us.

Jesus’ baptism also invites us into a deeper trust in the Father’s love. Before Jesus had preached, healed, or done anything “public,” the Father’s voice declared, “You are my beloved Son.” That same affirmation is offered to us in Christ. Before we accomplish anything, before we succeed or fail, God says, “You are my beloved child.”

In a world driven by performance, this is good news. God’s righteousness isn’t about earning approval; it’s about relationship. It’s about restoration. It’s about making all things new.