WE MUST REPENT BEFORE WE MAY PROCLAIM
What we call the “Great Commission” (better understood as a ‘Command’) in Matthew 28 is anchored in what we could call the “Great Commitment” of Matthew 24. The responsibility placed upon bondservants at the close of Matthew’s Gospel, and again as Luke opened his record of the Acts of the Apostles, is anchored in Jesus’ confident promise in the Olivet Discourse. Consider and compare:
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”[1]
Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” [2]
And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.[3]
It is immediately clear that not just any gospel is to be declared among the nations and shared with your neighbors; it is the “Gospel of the Kingdom.” It should be no wonder that after forty days under the teaching ministry of a resurrected Jesus, the question burning on the hearts and lips of the apostles—for “out of the heart, the mouth speaks”[4]—was “Lord, will You now restore the Kingdom to Israel?” Yet many Bible teachers throughout the global church rebuke the apostles (consider the audacity required to rebuke the apostles) for being too narrow-minded on “things below,” like a petty piece of “geopolitical real estate.”[5]
I’m inclined to think if the apostles saw us today, they’d rebuke us for preaching a gospel too narrowly emphatic on the salvation of Gentile souls.
The singularity of the Gospel of the Kingdom is not the emphasis on one particular nuance of the message, but the prioritization on the singular message as it was foretold through the Hebrew prophets and stewarded and proclaimed by the apostles under the leadership of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Paul, for example, was apprehended on the road to Damascus and then hid out in Arabia to grapple with the consequences and implications of the Lordship of Jesus of Nazareth. Over the years to follow, he would expound on these theological mysteries for our benefit—if we had the humility to receive them. Peter encouraged the Jewish world, from the locus of Jerusalem, to learn from Saul of Tarsus without twisting the message entrusted to him:
Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.[6]
So what did Paul preach? Certainly he is not the only source of the Gospel of the Kingdom, nor the only messenger of it. He even considered himself significantly less important than the message itself, as he remarked to the Galatians:
I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the Gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.[7]
The message, then, is more important than the messenger—and woe to those who distort the message. Woe to “untaught and unstable people” who “twist” the Gospel of the Kingdom “to their own destruction.” What then, are the core tenets of the “Gospel of the Kingdom”? What were Paul and Peter preaching (to the Gentiles and Jews, respectively)? Here are the marks we see consistently:
The Curse of Sin and Death Eve was deceived, and Adam disobeyed. The lethal cocktail of deception and disobedience bound all of mankind under the curse of death and decay. In kindness, we were expelled from paradise with God in Eden. Yet Adam “was a type of Him who was to come,” the Deliverer promised to come from the womb of Eve to break the curse, shatter death, and crush the head of the serpent after a triumphant collision with his seed. All in Adam die; the Son of Man was then born through the virgin womb of Mary/Miriam to bypass bondage yet become a bondservant, embody the curse, and become sin in death such that He can impute life and righteousness on His enemies.[8]
To Turn Away from Ungodliness We can call this, in a word, “repentance.” We cannot repent without God’s help, and it is truly His kindness that makes it possible and gives us courage to do so. Jacob is the example of ultimate cleansing, in such a way that God is both just and the Justifier of all who call upon His Name.[9]
The Resurrection from the Dead The ultimate victory over the deception and disobedience striking us from the Lord’s presence and sending us into exile is the final judgment on the great plague of the human experience—death. Those in Christ are raised in immortal glory in the first resurrection at the beginning of the thousand year reign of Jesus, and those who died apart from Him are raised at the end of the thousand years to judgment. It is the end of death.[10]
The Restoration of All Things The city Abraham sought, the New Jerusalem built by God, descends out of Heaven from God and is knit to Jerusalem on earth. It is the governmental epicenter of the cosmos during the thousand years, and the two are unified at the end of the Millennial Reign. It is the absolute end of all sorrow; God will wipe away every tear; there will be no more death, no more sorrow, no more pain. The sun and moon are retired from their Genesis 1 duties to regulate time through light; the eternal God who dwells in unapproachable light is the Light. His Name will mark the foreheads of His children. Man’s access to the tree of life is restored, and its leaves will heal the nations of the earth. We will be with the Lord forever.[11]
Paul asked for prayer both that “the Word of the LORD would run swiftly and be glorified,”[12] and that he would “speak as he ought to speak.”[13] He took his own admonition in Galatians 1 very seriously—“if anyone preached any other gospel [than what Jesus imparted to him through revelation and he passed on], let him be accursed.” Fidelity to the full counsel of God, and the integrity of the Gospel of the Kingdom in proclamation, bore incredible weight upon the apostles’ shoulders. James warns: “Do not seek to be a teacher.”[14] Why? “Knowing we shall receive a stricter judgement.” Because if you lead a little one astray, you would wish for the mercy of a millstone dragging you to the depths of the Pacific in light of what Jesus would reckon with you in judgment.[15]
But the Gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed, faithfully and fully, to all nations of the earth as a witness before the Great King returns to His city. Before the Son of David establishes an immutable throne in the center of the earth and reigns for a thousand years to usher in the restoration of all things, the better Eden.[16] Isaiah foretold a marvelous sign and wonder, that the Gospel of the Kingdom, this “new song” at the end of this “present evil age,”[17] would be heard from the very “ends of the earth.” In the “great tribulation,” the “time of Jacob’s trouble,”[18] untold nameless and faceless Gentiles in the far-flung islands of the South Pacific would worship with unoffended hearts, in actual “spirit and truth,”[19] “magnifying the God of Israel”[20] in the very ends of the earth Jesus instructed His bondservants to reach in Acts one.
The God of Israel.
They lift up their voices, they sing for joy;
over the majesty of the Lord they shout from the west.
Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord; in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of
Israel.
From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise,
of glory to the Righteous One.[21]
There is no room for “replacement theology” in the Gospel of the Kingdom. This “new song” apprehending uncircumcised heathen is a sign and wonder, looting the nations for the “fullness of the Gentiles.”[22] Jesus will receive an inheritance from every tribe, tongue, and nation.[23] He deserves nothing less. But He will return to a Jerusalem beckoning Him with a song: “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the LORD!”[24] And when Jerusalem sings, the window of mercy closes and the Son of Man returns to the Mount of Olives via the clouds in power and glory.[25] Maranatha.
Isaiah saw and heard the Gospel of the Kingdom reach the very ends of the earth, all the way to the Ring of Fire in the South Pacific—the furthest inhabited geographical location on the globe from Jerusalem—and then travel all the way back to Jerusalem through the Arab world. And then the Lord returns:
Sing to the Lord a new song,
And His praise from the ends of the earth,
You who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
You coastlands and you inhabitants of them!
Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice,
The villages that Kedar inhabits.
Let the inhabitants of Sela sing,
Let them shout from the top of the mountains.
Let them give glory to the Lord,
And declare His praise in the coastlands.
The Lord shall go forth like a mighty man;
He shall stir up His zeal like a man of war.
He shall cry out, yes, shout aloud;
He shall prevail against His enemies.
“I have held My peace a long time,
I have been still and restrained Myself.
Now I will cry like a woman in labor,
I will pant and gasp at once.”[26]
The remarkable thing about the Gospel of the Kingdom reaching all nations is the absolute absence of Gentile arrogance. The new song heard by the prophet Isaiah does not “boast against the branches.”[27] The voices heard in these passages are not at risk of being “cut off,”[28] not at risk of being “accursed”[29] for the crime of proclaiming a “different gospel.” They are declaring the Gospel of the Kingdom—the Gospel of the Great King, until the song sweeps through His city.[29] There is no room for replacement theology in the Gospel of the Kingdom. King Jesus will not tolerate it. Let the ends of the earth sing. Do not prevent them from receiving the song of the Gospel of the Kingdom. Let Saudi Arabia and Jordan sing. Do not white knuckle the good news of the Kingdom soon to be restored in the center of the covenantal commonwealth.
As a Gentile, and a quintessential American mutt with every nation flowing through my veins except for Israel, and particularly (in light of these prophecies as they pertain to the Gospel reaching the Arab world) as the granddaughter of Syrian immigrants to America, I humbly, soberly, and urgently submit this invitation to “my people”:
We need to repent.
We need to repent of ever proclaiming a distortion of the Gospel of the Kingdom.
We need to repent of ever daring to believe the Church has replaced Israel.
We need to repent of ever having the audacity to claim the promises for Israel while condemning all judgments and warnings to a wayward Jacob.
We need to repent of accusing the Lord of whisking us away to play harps in the clouds while He administers the violence of the final judgment on the earth without preserving a prophetic witness.
We need to repent of being proud, unfaithful witnesses of Jesus and His Kingdom.
We must actually repent of these demonic doctrines and haughty ideas.
We must relate to Jacob as Jeremiah did—weeping in opposition to sin, yet fervently interceding in prayer and faithful in proclamation.
Should it be that God would be so kind as to allow us to wash Jacob’s dirty feet, I believe we would erupt with the same praise flowing from the pen of Paul, a man marked by “continual sorrow and grief”[30] in his heart for Israel:
For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.”
Concerning the Gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?” Or “who has first given to Him And it shall be repaid to him?”
For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. [31]
Stephanie Quick is a writer/producer serving with FAI. She cohosts The Better Beautiful podcast with Jeff Henderson. Browse her free music, films, and books in the FAI App and at stephaniequick.org.
[1] Matthew 28:18-20, NKJV (emphasis added)
[2] Acts 1:6-8, NKJV (emphasis added)
[3] Matthew 24:14, NKJV (emphasis added)
[4] Matthew 12:34; Luke 6:45
[5] I am referring to, and quoting, unnamed teachers of “covenant theology,” or “supersessionism,” better known as “replacement” or “divestment” theology. It is an atrocious fountain of anti-Judaic sewage that has no place within the Body of Jesus the Messiah. We must gently but sternly discern and rebuke this teaching.
[6] 2 Peter 3:14-16, NKJV (emphasis added)
[7] Galatians 1:6-9
[8] See Genesis 3; Isaiah 9:6-7; Romans 3:26; 5:8-21; 6:23; Luke 1:26-56; 2:15-38; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13; Philippians 2:5-11
[9] See Joel 2:32; Acts 2:37-38; Romans 2:4; 10:9-10; 11:26; Hebrews 4:16
[10] See Daniel 12; 1 Corinthians 15; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Hebrews 11:17-19; Revelation 19-22
[11] See 1 Timothy 6:16; Hebrews 11:10, 16; 12:22; Revelation 21-22
[12] 2 Thessalonians 3:1
[13] Ephesians 6:19
[14] James 3:1
[15] Matthew 18:6; Mark 9:42; Luke 17:2
[16] Psalm 48:2; Isaiah 9:7; Matthew 5:35; 19:28; Revelation 20:1-7
[17] Galatians 1:4
[18] Daniel 9:24-27; 12:1; Jeremiah 30:7; Matthew 24:21
[19] John 4:23-24
[20] Isaiah 24:15
[21] Isaiah 24:14-16a, NKJV (v. 16a ESV), emphasis added
[22] Romans 11:25
[23] Psalm 2:8; Revelation 7:9-12
[24] Matthew 23:37-39
[25] Daniel 7:13-14; Acts 1:9-11
[26] Isaiah 42:10-14, NKJV (emphasis added). The imagery of the labor and delivery of childbirth, and the Lord’s active role as a Man of War are both consistent with the prophetic testimony of the Day of the LORD
[27] Romans 11:18
[28] Romans 11:22
[29] Matthew 23:37-39; Zechariah 12:7-14; 14:3-4
[30] Romans 9:1-2
[31] Romans 11:25-36, NKJV (emphasis added)
