When I talk about Christianity, I often refer to the Jesus-died-to-save-me-from-my-sins-so-I-can-go-to-heaven-when-I-die “gospel.” I use quotations marks there because that isn’t actually the Christian good news. There isn’t a single place in the Bible where you’ll find the gospel presented in that way. Nevertheless, most people I know, both inside and outside the faith, think that Christianity is about getting saved from (one’s individual) sin. In other words, they think that the offer Christianity is making is to have your sins forgiven so you can go up when you die, instead of down.
But that’s just not the case.
The offer that’s being made is to join a new kingdom.
The invitation isn’t to have your sins forgiven. It’s an invitation to confess a new lord.
I do want to say, emphatically: Jesus is the redeemer. In him, we do receive forgiveness of sin. In him, we are promised that death does not mean entering into judgment, but entering the nearer presence of the Lord Jesus. It’s just that those things come along with the larger reality of Christianity. In other words, forgiveness of sins is part of the package of Christian benefits (if you’ll allow me to put it that way), and not the point of Christianity.
The point of Christianity is that, in the resurrected, redeeming Jesus, God has become king. Jesus is the Lord of all. He is the sovereign ruler of the cosmos. His kingdom has come and his kingdom is coming and you—yes: you, yourself, personally—are invited to join that kingdom in the here-and-now, and inherit it fully in the age to come.
All you have to do is forswear every other loyalty.
That’s the ask. And it’s a huge one.
If I accept the offer to become a part of the kingdom of Jesus, if I accept the invitation to confess him as Lord of all, then he and he alone commands my loyalty. Everything else comes second to that—including my right to my own life.
In other words, the strange invitation of Christianity is to give up everything, in order to gain something even better.
The kingdom of heaven is like a student who was shopping for a new laptop. He found one that had a bitcoin wallet on it, containing an unimaginable fortune. So the student sold his meager possessions, cashed out his savings account, and even used his tuition money to purchase that computer.
He who has ears, let him hear.