I read Mark 1 yesterday. Mark 1:14-15 says,
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."
When you ask the typical Christian what the gospel is, I think the usual answer would be that Jesus died for sins and was raised from the dead, and we should repent and believe in Him.
Gospel, simply stated, is "good news." We see in Mark 1 that Jesus spoke about the good news long before His death and resurrection. So is His death and resurrection THE good news, or is the Kingdom the good news?
Now there isn't any doubt in my mind that to speak of the good news of the Kingdom is to speak of how He brings the Kingdom, through Him being the Lamb of God led to slaughter. But is Jesus using the good news to identify the means of bringing the Kingdom (death and resurrection) or is He speaking directly to the Kingdom as the good news?
It seems in verses 14-15, the answer is the Kingdom. He was "proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."
It seems we have let the Kingdom take a back seat to individual salvation. The individual salvation of sinners is how God populates the Kingdom He establishes in Christ, but the Kingdom is the point.
Thoughts?