“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Mark 1:15
One of the greatest contrasts between a traditional understanding of the gospel of salvation and what Jesus referred to as the gospel of the kingdom is God’s desire to transform our mentality. When Jesus preached the good news of the kingdom, He told people to repent—to shift the way they think. Paul commanded the exact same thing in Romans 12:2, “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” This is the key to entering the Kingdom.
Every single person on the planet grows up with a “script” being read to them about who they are, what they can and can’t do, their value and worth, how they compare with others, and on and on. This script comes from family, culture, education, friends, and 90% of it all originates from Satan himself. By the time we are old enough to engage with God, we are already fighting a multitude of voices and messages that have firmly concluded that God cannot accept us. When it comes to knowing who we are in Christ, our personal script is our greatest nemesis. This same script has also ensured that we don’t reach our goals or fulfill our calling. It is constantly undermining our dreams and putting us back in “our place.” Scripture calls this script “the old man.” It undermines our true identity and negates our faith with overwhelming fear.
Jesus knew that if we could not let Him rewrite the script that plays in our heads, we would never be able to receive His Kingdom. For us to enter the Kingdom, faith must overcome fear; hope must overcome despair; and we must be able to accept that we have been adopted as sons and daughters by our heavenly Father! The good news of the Kingdom is that we can rewrite our script! We can start believing who He says we are; what He says we can do. We can begin to understand how He values us and what our calling is. Jesus is saying to us, “throw away your old script and let Me write a new one just for you, so you can believe Me when I say I will bring my Kingdom through YOU!” Now THAT’S good news!
