The Gospel according to Jesus

Every Christian knows what the gospel is: The good news that Jesus, son of God, came to die for our sins on the cross and resurrected so that He has conquered death and we may now enter into His life and be counted righteous. And of course, everyone has seen the bridge diagram:But is this all? Is the whole scope of the gospel simply about one's path into eternal life? Is there more? The gospel that we so commonly know it came after Jesus' death. After all, it is Jesus' sacrifice that made the bridge in the above diagram. But what did Jesus have to say about the gospel before He died? There's the gospel according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but what about the gospel according to Jesus? What exactly was the good news that Jesus brought, while still alive on earth?

¹⁴ Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, ¹⁵ and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” - Mark 1:14-15

Whenever Jesus talked about the good news, He was clearly referring to the Kingdom of God. Most of Jesus' parables were about the Kingdom of God. So, it's clear that the gospel according to Jesus was the good news that the Kingdom of God has come.

What exactly is the Kingdom of God?
A kingdom is made up of a king and his subjects. So, the Kingdom of God is a kingdom where Jesus is the King and we are His subjects.
Jesus preached that the Kingdom of God has come already. He was calling people to come and join His kingdom by repenting and believing - in Him who is the King. To Jesus, spreading the gospel was spreading His kingdom by recruiting people to come and live in it.

So whats different about this Kingdom of God than any other earthly kingdoms? Why should one live in this new kingdom over others?
Earthly kingdoms are damaged by evil. There's corruption, murder, injustice, theft, broken relationships, disease, fear, hate, and many more symptoms of sin. We can attest, being in our world at this day and age, that things are not as they should be.
²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. - Romans 8:22
We long for a better world, to live in a place where pain and suffering do not exist. This place is the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom of God is where Jesus rules with mercy, justice, grace, and love. There is no pain nor suffering, everyone lives with selfless love. Its subjects follow the ways of its King and the kingdom reflects the glory of God. This kingdom is how the world should be.

I guess what I want to say is that the gospel encompasses so much more than just personal salvation. Through Adam's sin, all of creation was cursed.
²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. - Romans 8:20-21
But through Christ, not only us, but all of creation is reconciled to God.
²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. - Colossians 1:20
So the gospel is not just good news for the individual, its good news for the world - that a perfect kingdom is here and now.

The next time we present the gospel, maybe we can do it a bit differently. Try the following diagram:
Designed for Good:
In the beginning, creation was designed for good. We had a perfect relationship with each other and with God (represented by the inner circle).
Damaged by Evil:
Then, through sin, creation was damaged by evil. The world is broken, our relationship with God is broken, and our relationship with each other is broken.
Restored for Better:
Then, Jesus came and died so that our relationship with God may be restored. By the cross, our relationship with each other and God is healed. This is where the bridge diagram can come in and add more detail. But it doesn't end here. After all, the world is still damaged.
Sent together to Heal:
Jesus calls us to go and spread His kingdom, to be fishers of men and come and live in His kingdom by following His ways thereby healing the world of the symptoms of sin. Of course, through all this, Christ is the center of our strength and power.
Notice:
We can't go from the second circle directly to the fourth. We will only fail if we try to heal the world by ourselves. We need to go through the third, which by Christ's power, we will be able to succeed in the fourth circle. The diagram is not so much man-centered (like the bridge diagram) than God-centered.


I came across all these ideas and the diagram from a book I recently read called "True Story A Christianity Worth Believing In" by James Choung