The Reign of God

What, specifically, is the good news that Jesus proclaimed?  According to the Gospels, Jesus announced that the final and absolute reign of God predicted for the end of time, the new creation foreseen by the prophets, the "Kingdom of God," was now coming into the world through Jesus' own words and acts.  "The time has come," he says.  "The kingdom of God is near.  Repent and believe the good news!" (Mark 1:15)

The "reign of God" which Jesus heralds does not mean the constant providential care which God has given the universe since its creation.  Rather he startles his hearers with unbelievable news that the ancient plan of God to upend the present course of the world, wipe out Satan's bondage of sin and death, terminate all pain and sorrow, and save the broken creation is on the brink of full realization (Lk 10:18-19).  Because God is love, another term for God's kingdom might be "Love's Dominion" or the "Triumph of God's Love."  Jesus, the bearer of  divine love, himself inaugurates and embodies the eschatological, all-powerful reign of God (Lk 11:20).

The kingdom of God is synonymous with the "salvation of God" and the "peace (shalom) of God."  When Jesus preached that the kingdom is at hand, he was understood to be saying that the day of God's salvation had dawned.  This is truly "good news" because human efforts to throw off the crushing weight of evil in the world and in our own hearts have led nowhere.  What a comfort to know that God is riding to the rescue.  The reign of God is a miraculous event, brought about by God alone without our help.  As Jesus forgives sin, heals the sick, feeds the poor, casts out demons, and raises the dead we see God's new world relentlessly pushing out the old (Lk 7:18-23). 

We can do nothing to usher in God's new creation, to assist in its construction, or expand it.  It is a sovereign act of God himself.  It is his reign.  We simply plead, "Thy kingdom come," knowing that in Christ the kingdom has come, is coming right now, and will come (Mt 6:10; 12:28; Lk 22:18; Mk 9:1).  Jesus invites us to seek out and enter the kingdom, to hold ourselves in readiness for it (Mt. 6:33; Lk 13:24; Mt 25:1-13; Lk 12:35-40) but it is God who gives the kingdom to whomever he will (Lk 12:32; Mt. 5:3,10).  Some rabbis taught that if Israel could keep God's law perfectly for two weeks, God's longed-for reign would come.  Jesus rebuts this salvation-by-human-effort view entirely.  Kingdom seekers put their whole trust in God's acts, not their own (Mt 6:25-34).  God's reign is experienced by believing, not achieving.  We cannot seize it, but only receive it like little children (Mk 10:13-15).  It is because of the wholly gratuitous nature of God's reign that Jesus calls it "Good news"!

Note: To really "get" the freeness of God's reign we should all read the above scripture references and let them slap us in the face.  Only Christ's radical words can arouse us from the stupor of works-righteousness.
Photo:  "Christ the Redeemer" on top of Corcovado mountain overlooking Rio de Janeiro.