I remember learning the ABCs as a child. Not the alphabet, the gospel ABCs: Accept that you are a sinner and you cannot earn salvation on your own. Believe in Jesus, the son of God, who paid for your salvation through His death on the cross. Confess He is Lord over your life. And you shall be saved!
This simple accounting of the gospel message has often been used as an evangelical tool in Vacation Bible Schools (VBS) and large outreach events. Usually, it is preceded by a fire-and-brimstone type of sermon that literally puts the fear of hell in people.
But is that all that the gospel is? Is it all about escaping hell and going to heaven? Or could there be more to it?
Jesus says in Luke 4, quoting from Isaiah, that He came to "proclaim good news to the poor. [God] 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."
Funny He didn't say anything in there about Heaven and Hell.
I often wonder if the shallowness of Christians in Western cultures today is due to the way we have watered down the gospel message to a simple belief and a quick half-hearted prayer. I also wonder if this is why Christians are so easily misled and deceived. Jesus does talk about heaven and hell, but more often, He speaks about the Kingdom of Heaven. The "Kingdom of Heaven" is not a reference to the eternal heaven where God has His throne, but rather it’s something we are called to bring about here on earth. Actually, the word "heaven" was likely used by the Jewish gospel writers to replace what Jesus more likely said - "God". They had such reverence for the name of God that they avoided using it in fear of using it disrespectfully. So, Jesus likely said, the "Kingdom of God". God's Kingdom.
Jesus talked about bringing that kingdom come here on earth. If that phrase sounds familiar, it’s because we say it in the Lord's prayer: May your kingdom come and your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (from Matthew 5).
What does it mean for God's kingdom to come on earth?
I find it helpful to consider creation. Whether you believe in a literal creation account or not, Genesis 1-3 tells us a great deal about how God wanted the world to be. God created man and woman in His image. He created them with the ability to connect and be relational. In fact, neuroscientists today have found that our brains are wired for connection. So much so that if we live in isolation or without social connections, parts of our brain actually wither and die!
God desires to be in relationship with us. That's why He created us with this ability. That's how we are created in His image. He didn't want a bunch of mindless drones or blind sycophants. He wanted someone who had some of His characteristics and qualities who could commune with Him. This meant giving human beings the ability to reject Him as well.
According to the story, that's what Adam and Eve did. They rejected God and His way in pursuit of their own way. Going their own way ruptured their relationship with God.
We have the same problem today.
The biggest problem we have, therefore, is not hell. Hell is merely a consequence of a bigger problem. The biggest problem we have is that we are no longer able to connect to or commune with our Creator. Our Father. Who loves us.
The problem is so big, we could not solve it ourselves, so God Himself had to come down in Jesus the Son, to die and rise again and make a way for us not just to escape hell, but rather to be restored to right relationship with God. A right relationship which will last forever.
They say that children who are adopted at birth, even when they grow up in good families, often feel like something's missing. Most go and search for their birth parents as adults. It is as though they cannot fully develop their sense of self or their identity without knowing where they came from.
Without God, something is missing. Even if we have a good family or a good home or a good life, we are incomplete until we are restored to the state we were created for - restored to be in communion with God. Only in Him do we truly understand who we are and why we are here. Only in Him are we whole.
It is this communion with God the Father that equips us with all we need to establish His kingdom come here on earth. When our connection with God is restored, our connections with others are restored as well. Our connection with the world is strengthened (we are after all supposed to take care of this world). True followers of Jesus seek to emulate the way He lived, including the compassion He had, His love and mercy towards others, and the way He constantly embraced the marginalized, the vulnerable, and the poor. This is the way of the Kingdom.
If we have merely embraced God for a ticket to heaven, boy, are we missing out on all that this life has to offer! Not only are we missing out, but we’re depriving others as well. Presently, people who identify as Christians are supporting policies coming down from the White House which are stripping children and families of food stamps and school lunches, cutting Medicaid, ending HeadStart, and tearing apart important services for Veterans, people with mental illness, and people with disabilities. I have to stop and question, are these policies creating God's Kingdom come? Would God ever support an earthly kingdom that takes from the poor to give to the rich?
Not according to the Bible.
Perhaps we’ve been told we have this golden ticket to heaven and so we start to feel full of ourselves and think that somehow we’re better than everyone else and no one else matters. We have forgotten that our golden ticket has nothing to do with us at all and everything to do with Jesus. Furthermore, Matthew 25 warns that even those who say they're followers of Jesus, if they do not do the things Jesus said to do (like welcoming the stranger and feeding the hungry), they will not get the entrance into heaven that they are expecting. Their very salvation is in question.
The problem with the ABC model is that it's too shallow. There's no discipleship. No commitment. No change. No actual connection. No understanding of what the Bible says and demands of God's people.
I think it’s time we tell people - Christianity isn’t about a golden ticket. Christianity is about coming back into relationship with God, a restored relationship that only Jesus can access for us, which changes us from the inside out to be more like Jesus, so we then can go and transform the world.
Not into some image of hyper legalistic morality, but into a world that takes care of people. Where there is no suffering or hunger or homelessness, where no one is lonely or alone.
I believe that world is possible, at least in part, but only if we understand it is our mission to build it.
To God be the glory.
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