How Do You Hear The Gospel?

Daniel 9:24, "Seventy 'sevens' are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place."

When Jesus stood to read in the synagogue, He chose to read from the portion of Isaiah's prophecy. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." When He finished, He sat down, and told the crowd that this Scripture had been fulfilled in their reading. What does this have to do with Daniel 9:24? Because the "seventy 'sevens'" were upon them!

The Father has spoken to us through His Son. What has He said? Or maybe the question is: How do you hear it?

New Testament Scholar, Author, and retired Anglican Bishop N.T. "Tom" Wright talks about our hearing in the Gospel this way:
He says to imagine you are in a room with four speakers. The volume level of the speakers are not what they ought to be. Some are too loud and some are too quiet. Wright would tell each of us to keep these speakers in balance.
(1) The Gospels are an organic fulfillment of the story of Israel (The Old Testament), and not simply Genesis 1–3
(2) The story of Jesus is the story of Yahweh visiting his people, and this means that his deity is assumed
(3) Jesus comes to launch God’s renewed people into the kingdom or into kingdom life. This is what eternal life is all about
(4) The kingdom of God conflicts with the kingdom of this world, because it subverts the expectations of worldly kingdoms. In many ways, this
means the Christians are called to live out this new life that Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension inaugurated.

Depending upon where you are seated, and which speaker is the loudest in your life, you may be focused upon one or the other. However, I wonder if you have even heard the Gospel through any of these speakers? Western Christianity has often focused upon Jesus' coming through a totally different lens. We have failed to view the message of the Gospel through the lens of Israel. We have also forgotten the implications of the answer to Daniel's prayer that I quoted earlier. These lenses (or lack thereof) have created a dialogue that falls short of this glorious Gospel. Missing out on the heart of the Father for Israel and the rest of the world.

To be fair to my brothers and sisters, I believe that we all believe Jesus "finished" something.
To be fair, I believe that we all believe that what Jesus did was accepted by His Father.
To be fair, I believe that we all believe that Jesus has granted forgiveness and opened up a new way of life for humanity.
But what I don't see among my brothers and sisters is an agreement on how all of this plays out for us. Which probably has a lot to do with the "speakers."

I've wrestled with this idea myself. I have thought about the speakers. I've even considered the way in which we interpret the Gospels. It seems as though a lot of people hear the words of Jesus and elevate them to a sense of heightened spirituality. Almost a Nirvana type of existence. That...maybe...someday...we will come into. But I often wonder if Jesus wasn't demonstrating, and teaching, the glory in which humanity was always meant to live. Self giving love, compassion, and forgiveness. Peace rather than discord. Mercy over judgement. This reality all wrapped up in the restoration and reconciliation of humanity. All of it, a possibility, through the finished work of Christ.

Did we need Jesus to die for the sins of humanity? Yes!
Did we need to be reconciled to the Father? Yes!
Did we need someone to set humanity free from the fall of Adam, to release us from the captivity of the darkness, and to usher in a new creation? Yes...Yes...a thousand times, YES!
All accomplished. All finished. All of it, beautifully displayed in the incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.

What each of these speakers will tell communicate with you, what you will hear through each of them, is a need for you to come to terms with this reality in Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the door. The abundant life we have been looking for is found in Him. Not a life filled with "rule keeping" but a life that is ruled by the reconciliation of the Father. A life where you can truly "become."

The degree to which we do not trust in the finished work of Christ is the degree to which we will try to fulfill some religious duty.
The degree to which we trust in the finished work of Christ is the degree to which we will rest in Him.
What's the difference? How does this play out?
It's the difference between "doing" and "being." As you rest in all that He has done, what you do will flow from who you are in Him. Not the other way around.

Do you hear what I hear?