Musing – Is the Gospel message about the Kingdom or Personal Salvation?

Hebraic Musing – Is the Gospel message about the Kingdom or Personal Salvation?

Someone asked me an interesting question recently.¹   What is the main Gospel message according to the Gospels?   Are the Gospels about (a) the Kingdom of God?  Or are they about (b) personal salvation?

Interestingly, when I did an initial straw poll of traditional church-attending Christians, they said “Personal Salvation.”  But when I asked our Tuesday Torah study group, they all responded “Kingdom of God” almost in unison.  So it is obviously an interesting question.   What think you?

In the NIV concordance, the word ‘salvation’ appears only 7 times in Gospels, and 33 times in Epistles.  ‘Save(s)’ appears 21 times in Gospels and 17 in Epistles. On the other hand – the word ‘kingdom’ yields 114 references in four Gospels alone, plus an additional 35 references in the Epistles. Some mentions reference the “Kingdom of the air” which represents ‘kingdom’ issues.²

John the Baptist is quoted in the first Gospel …preaching…and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." Matt 3:1.  And Jesus opened His famous beatitudes with "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”.  Matt 5:3

Why is this question important? Human nature has a strong temptation to emphasize a selfish ‘I, Me, My’ mindset.  But, the message of Jesus and people like Paul was not focused on an individual’s entry into salvation. Their message was about the world being redeemed by God and individuals being called to join “God’s Kingdom” and reject the “Kingdom of the air.” 

Another view: The name Jesus is a Greek translation of the Hebrew Yeshua, which means ‘Salvation’ or ‘Savior’.  However we add ‘Christ’ to His name which in Greek means ‘Anointed’; however the word in Hebrew was ‘Messiah’, a deliverer.  The thinking and background of Paul, Peter and all the writers was Torah-based – they were looking for the Messiah to deliver them, and us, and to usher in the “Kingdom of God.”

The individual is not unimportant to Jesus or Paul; but the place of the individual is in a bigger, corporate picture. Focus on salvation demonstrates our Western culture’s ‘me-ism’ vs. the Eastern ‘corporate’ culture.

There are two differing concepts being compared. Before interpreting the question as either/or, consider that the Kingdom of God is, was and still is the goal of Yeshua and should be the goal of today’s church – living by the guidelines that were established in the Torah. Personal salvation is the converting of our lives or repenting and joining in the Kingdom effort, which happens to also have the benefit of ‘personal salvation.’ The challenge is for those who claim the saving grace that Yeshua provided to also accept a corporate responsibility rather than settling for the selfish ‘I/me/my’ mindset.

I remember a pastor I respect who opened his message confessing that he had come to a realization – “My role is not to build my church, nor to build my denomination. My role is to build the Kingdom of God.”

Point to ponder

“Is the good news about the kingdom, or about your personal salvation.” 
What think you?  T/F or somewhere in between?

Simchat Torah (Joy of the Torah)

Yosef   a.k.a.  Joe Brusherd                                     August 27, 2013