The Great Differences

The Great Differences

"After that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the Gospel" (Mark 1:14-15).

When the leaders of Israel came to John and asked him if he were the Messiah, "he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ" (John 1:20).  All he would claim to be was a voice, crying in the wilderness.  There is a great difference between the voice and the Word: Christ was the eternal Word, come to perform the work of redemption.  But since God’s plan includes not merely the offer of the Gospel to all the race but also the specific fulfilling in detail of all His promises to the Jews, it was necessary that the forerunner announce the Lord as the Messiah of Israel, and that Christ should come, first of all, unto His own.

There is a great contrast between the early message of Jesus which was the same as John’s message of repentance and His later message which prepares the way for the great doctrinal utterances to be found in the epistles of Paul.  There is a great difference between the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Gospel of grace.  The Gospel of the Kingdom is a threat because of approaching judgment.  Men are warned to repent because the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. John’s ethical message was based on the nearness of the wrath to come.  Men were warned to bring forth fruits meet for repentance. Those who had abundance of goods were to divide with those who had none.  Petty officials were warned against betraying the public trust, soldiers were told that they were not to pillage, but to be content with their wages. This was not unlike the early ministry of the Lord Jesus.  It was primarily an ethical message.

This was far different from the message of Christ’s later ministry when He announced that He was come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10), and that He came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28).  This is the early announcement of that which we shall find stated so strongly by the Spirit of God through the Apostle.

Further Reading: John 3:22-36