A couple of post back, in Good news?, I reflected on how some aspects of the teaching and example of Jesus seemed to be missing from modern “gospel” presentations, and suggested “we could improve our presentation of the good news to be more positive, forward looking and reflecting ‘God’s favour’”.
I’ve now had a go at writing a summary that tries to be more faithful to Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God, although using modern language. Here it is …
1. God made human beings in his image – as moral, rational beings who must take responsibility for our choices.
2. Because things have gone wrong on earth, God sent Jesus to begin the process of putting things right, by beginning a new community who follow Jesus as king. Jesus did this by:
- teaching,
- putting things right in people’s lives through healing, love and acceptance,
- establishing a new community of followers,
- dying to redeem us, and
- being resurrected to demonstrate he has conquered sin and death.
3. Jesus invites us to trust him and join/follow him in putting things right. This will involve us in:
- recognising we need to stop doing things our way and start doing things God’s way;
- asking for forgiveness for the things we get wrong;
- living a life in which we love God wholeheartedly and love/ serve our fellow human beings;
- sharing the good news that God is putting things right and inviting others to follow the same path.
You can see the Bible verses which support this outline in What message? What do you think?