Adapted from Becoming Whole: Why the Opposite of Poverty Isn’t the American Dream, pp. 195-206

Last week, we talked about how good intentions aren’t enough—how we can actually harm people in poverty when we try to help. 

It turns out that how well we walk into serving our neighbors actually depends on how we answer two key questions:

1. Why did Jesus come to earth?
2. What is the gospel?

While these questions sound very basic, there are nuanced differences in how Christians answer them, and those differences shape every aspect of our lives. Understanding Jesus’ mission changes everything, so Jesus made sure His disciples got it right.

When Peter declared that Jesus was “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16), Jesus blessed him and said this truth was revealed to him by God.

The “Messiah” (Hebrew) or “Christ” (Greek) is the king who God had promised would restore the kingdom to Israel. Indeed, the entire New Testament emphasizes Jesus’ kingly mission—He was the Messiah whom the prophets said would usher in a kingdom that would bring unprecedented peace and prosperity. 

The prophet Isaiah described this coming King and kingdom in glorious and comprehensive terms: “the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.” (Isa. 9:6–7) 

Note that this kingdom would bring “peace” without end. The word for “peace” in Hebrew is shalom, which is more than just the absence of war. It means harmony, prosperity, comprehensive happiness, and wholeness. Amazingly, this King would increase this peace, this wholeness, without end, liberating the entire creation from the ravages of sin and restoring it to all that it was designed to be. 

Of course, as the very height of creation, human beings would necessarily be included in the King’s comprehensive restoration. Throughout Isaiah, the restoration of human beings is described in holistic fashion to include the salvation of both their bodies and souls, the reconciliation of their relationships, and the recovery of their high calling as priest-rulers (Isa. 9:6– 7; 35:1–10; 53:5, 55:12–13; 61–62). In other words, this King would achieve the goal of the biblical story of change for His people: People experience true flourishing when they serve as priest-rulers, using their mind, affections, will, and body to enjoy loving relationships with God, self, others, and the rest of creation.

Declaring and Demonstrating the Kingdom

When Jesus came, he launched his ministry by quoting Isaiah at the synagogue in Nazareth: “‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor…’ The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’” (Luke 4:18–21; italics added) 

Jesus did not simply preach the kingdom, though. His actions demonstrated that the kingdom, His kingdom, had actually arrived. Jesus’ words and actions should never be separated, otherwise we won’t properly understand His identity and significance as the Messiah. The King had come, and His power was cosmic in scope: He clearly had authority over nature, over sickness, and over the demonic, and He had come to proclaim the good news to the poor (Matt. 11:4–5). 

Even death and sin were not too great for Him, for He would overcome even these ancient enemies. Jesus’ miracles were not cool magic tricks that might help convince people to follow Him. No, they signaled so much more: they displayed His identity as the unique Lord of heaven and earth, the one who was distinctively able to reconcile all things in Himself (Col. 1:19–20). 

In Jesus, we see the first stages of the kingdom bursting forth into this messy and broken world, but that is only the beginning. Just as Isaiah prophesied, the kingdom expands without end, liberating God’s people—both body and soul—along with the entire cosmos (see Rom. 8:19-25). This is the gospel, the good news that Jesus is Lord of all the world and that He is bringing His people into the new kingdom that He is establishing through all the earth, a kingdom of shalom that will have no end. And this is the gospel that Jesus committed to His followers (Luke 9:1–6; 10:1–12). As theologian Herman Ridderbos notes, “It may rightly be said that the whole of the preaching of Jesus Christ and his apostles is concerned with the kingdom of God.”¹

The Bible also describes other reasons Jesus came to earth, and each of these contribute to the overall story of the kingdom:

• To fulfill the law and the prophets (Matt. 5:17), who wrote about this kingdom
• To give His life as a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28) to bring them into the kingdom
• To call sinners to repentance (Luke 5:31) that they might be fit for the kingdom
• To seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10) for the kingdom
• To give life to the full (John 10:10), the shalom of the kingdom 
• To testify to the truth (John 18:37) that His followers would understand the kingdom
• To enable the Gentiles to glorify God (Rom. 15:9) by becoming part of the kingdom
• To redeem those who were under the law (Gal. 4:5) to become citizens of the kingdom
• And more. 

Because the entire Bible is God’s Word, all these verses are simultaneously true. We should not pit them against one another! Nor should we focus on just one verse and ignore others. Rather, each of these verses highlights different aspects of the whole. Because Christ’s kingdom is so big and so complex, it simply can’t be described in just one verse. If we focus in on just one feature, we won’t understand the kingdom as a whole, and we won’t even really understand that one feature very well.

Tell the Whole Story

If we don’t see the whole story, our answer to the question “Why did Jesus come to earth?” will be incomplete. And this can lead to some serious problems:

• A partial answer that reduces the work of Jesus Christ to saving our souls—when the kingdom of God and the promises associated with its consummation brings good news for every square inch of the universe—makes it hard for us to see how the good news of the kingdom truly is good news for those in poverty, for every part of their being. 
• While we can be confident that when those who have trusted in Christ die, they will immediately be with the Lord (see Luke 23:43), such a disembodied vision is certainly not the ultimate Christian hope. Rather, believers await the resurrection of our bodies and the reuniting of heaven and earth, a new creation in which God will dwell with His people (1 Cor. 15:35-58; Phil. 3:21; 1 Thess. 3:13– 18; Rev. 21:1–5). 
• This partial answer can lead us to act as though there are no present benefits from the fact that King Jesus reigns right now. This certainly is not a very compelling story for people who are poor, abused, exploited, sick, hungry, and alone. Imagine saying to them, “We are sorry that your life is so miserable, but cheer up: your sins can be forgiven so that your soul can go to heaven when you die.” This story simply isn’t listening to the heart cries of the poor. We can almost hear them saying to themselves, “Huh? I thought you said you had good news.” By so quickly providing a spiritualized answer, we risk not simply sounding insensitive and offensive, but also undervaluing the fullness of the gospel! 

Certainly, Christ’s kingdom is “not yet” in the sense that it will not be fully manifested until Christ returns. On the other hand, two thousand years ago, Jesus clearly stated that there is a “now” to the kingdom, saying “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21; emphasis added). Jesus Christ has complete power over the entire universe, right now, and He demonstrated that power by healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead, and preaching good news to the poor (Luke 7:18–23). And it’s a power that He continues to demonstrate And that vision shapes our lives in the present. 

Jesus Christ reigns over everything, right now, and He is using His power to help His people, His church, right now. While this does not mean that God will take away all our suffering in this life, there is hope—fully embodied hope—for the possibility of healing in this life even as we eagerly await the full healing in the next. 

How we answer the questions above depends on what story we think we’re in. And we need to make sure we’re living into the story Jesus is unfolding, and designing ministries that flow out of that.  

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¹ Herman Ridderbos, The Coming of the Kingdom (Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing, 1962), xi.