The Good News
Extra Extra Read All About It!!!!!!!
The Gospel Defined
In The King Jesus Gospel, McKnight contends the Good News is Jesus’ fulfillment of Israel’s unfolding story.[1] The author believes Israel’s story derives from God’s creation narrative; Adam and Eve’s rebellion.[2]
He views Adam’s transgression; his inability to manage the group God created him to lead (i.e., Eve and the Serpent), as mankind’s weakness, but not part of God’s plan from the beginning (Ps 90:2).
Like | Comment | Share | Subscribe
McKnight suggests God’s plan for Israel parallels Adam’s redemptive mission in the world, which he cannot accomplish, along with subsequent worldly saviors like Israel’s kings. These failures require God to adjust His salvific plan and dispatch Jesus to complete the mission.[3]
The author conflates Israel’s narrative with God’s purpose behind entering the world to establish His Celestial City.[4], [5] He sees Jesus’ story as the resolution to Israel’s narrative bringing it to completion.
This completion saves Israel from sin and death in the world while freeing it from bondage of it. McKnight suggests that mankind achieves salvation, forgiveness, and reconciliation with God through their actions.[6]
Thanks for reading
You’re helping to share God’ Word
The author advocates separating personal plans and methods of persuasion from the Bible’s gospel message.[7] In Bates’ Salvation By Allegiance Alone, the author chooses a concise definition of the gospel: Jesus proclaims God’s kingdom comes.
It is the Lord’s announcement that He now reigns at God’s right hand, partaking in the Father’s heavenly rule.[8] Jesus’ life and ministry define what the Old and New Testaments’ gospel is.
Please Subscribe - It’s Free
His proclamation of God’s kingdom come fulfills Old Testament promises of victory, renewal, and restoration while making Himself the center of it.[9]
During Jesus’ life and ministry, He carried the Good News throughout the cities and villages He traveled through (Luke 8:1).
Old Testament Context
I cannot say Old Testament narratives have framed my understanding of the gospel in the past. My focus is on what is yet unfulfilled in God’s plan and how His will for my role in the world helps to bring it to fruition.
Playing a good part, sharing the Truth, the Way, and the Life, helps reach the LORD’s people still lost in the world.
Like | Comment | Share | Subscribe
Aware of Christ’s preexistence among the divine council, I learned how Scriptures’ purpose unfolds to create holiness in God’s chosen people, starting with Adam and ending with God incarnate, Jesus the Christ.
Through Abraham and his progeny, a chosen people arise, Believers, from which derives Christ’s bride, the church. Believers in the world reflect God’s image back on it through their growth in Christlikeness (i.e., holiness).
They become God’s ambassador in the world.[10] Isaiah’s prophetic utterance of the Israelites return to Jerusalem, and his own anointing to proclaim the Good News to the poor, broken, and imprisoned, foretells of Christ’s ministry to come.
I am grateful for all you do
This Good News changes people lost in the world into those Born Again in Christ (Isa 61:1, 10). Bates makes the point; the synoptics and John’s Gospel contain one gospel. It is the story of how the preexistent Christ ascended to the right hand of God to rule His kingdom.[11]
This is the narrative Jesus preached about Himself. It is what New Testament writers later witness to; the story of the Messiah’s universal Kingship.
A Better Understanding
I have a better understanding of Jesus’ teachings and their connection to the pervading biblical message (i.e., the gospel of God’s kingdom proclaimed), after reading McKnight and Bates’ books.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes people groups comprising God’s kingdom, like in Isaiah’s prophecy; the meek, merciful, and pure-hearted (Matt 5-7 cf. Isa 61:1). The parables show what God’s kingdom looks like while Jesus illustrated moral and spiritual lessons (Luke 13:18-19; Matt 13:3-9).
What questions do you have?
Jesus taught with clarity that God’s kingdom is at hand (Mark 1:15) and to seek it first (Matt 6:33) while He healed the sick and cast out demons. Jesus preached the Good News; God’s kingdom is among you (Luke 17:20-21).
Old Testament Covenants and Jesus
In the Adamic covenant, Jesus is the seed who crushes the Serpent’s head (Gen 3:15).
The Lord is the promised King referenced in the Davidic covenant (2 Sam 7:12-16).
Jesus is the true seed promised to Abraham (Gen 12:3).
The Lord closes the Mosaic covenant on the cross and brings in the New Covenant where God’s people again start to fellowship with their creator (Heb 8:6).
Jesus proclaims the Good News; God’s kingdom, reign, and rule, restored through the Christ’s sacrifice (Luke 4:31-44).
Like | Comment | Share | Subscribe
[1] Scot McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited (Zondervan, 2016), 44.
[2] Ibid., 35.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid., 36
[5] See Buyan’s, A Pilgram’s Progress.
[6] McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel, 38.
[7] Ibid., 37, 43.
[8] Matthew W. Bates, Salvation by Allegiance Alone: Rethinking Faith, Works, and the Gospel of Jesus the King (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2017), 70,
[9] McKnight, The King Jesus Gospel, 127.
[10] Bates, Salvation by Allegiance Alone, 47.
[11] Ibid.
This is well communicated!