SELF-LOSING

The gospel of the kingdom is the gospel that Jesus preached. “And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them.” (Gospel of Matthew) The gospel of the Kingdom includes salvation (being made whole) but surely includes the above wholeness and deliverance as well.

There is not a second, or third, or any other way. The gospel of the Kingdom is a gospel that causes us to gain and express ourselves by losing ourselves. We have found a self to express. We can knock and bang at the doors of life all we want, but in the end, if we want to find life, we must find it by the narrow door of self-losing. Jesus could say, “I am the Life” because he went through the narrowest of narrow doors of self-losing. The narrow gate is not life, it leads to life, just like the wide gate is not destruction, but it leads to destruction. That’s the gospel of the Kingdom.

Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus