And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
Coming into Galilee He proclaimed the good news of God's reign, declaring the appointed moment had arrived and urging all to turn from sin and trust the glad tidings. The appointed moment was the close of the sixty-nine weeks foretold in Daniel 9, reckoned by a day for a year as four hundred and eighty-three years from the decree to restore Jerusalem in effect in autumn 457 BC to His anointing by the Spirit at baptism in autumn AD 27. His work then opened the last seven years to AD 34, confirming the covenant first by Himself and then by His followers, with His death as the true sacrifice in spring AD 31 ending the earthly offerings and the stoning of Stephen sealing the special call to the Jews. The reign so near was the reign of grace secured by His death, not a worldly empire nor yet the coming reign of glory, though those who heralded it rightly for their hour looked for an earthly throne at Jerusalem and stumbled over the foretold cutting off of the Messiah. Its call to turn and trust is an urgent present summons to thorough inward change from mere forms and resolutions to love for God and neighbor, contrite conviction, and faith in Christ as the sin-forgiving Saviour and crucified Lamb, cleansing heart and life without delay.
Message and Its Setting
Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. He announced that the appointed time was fulfilled and the kingdom of God was at hand, and He called the people to repent and believe the gospel. His message came after His forerunner had prepared the way by calling the people to repent of sins and be converted and be baptized. That forerunner's call was to turn from sin, and John's preaching convicted many of their sins, and many were baptized in the Jordan.
The calling attached to this proclamation is answered at once by forsaking nets and following Him. Those called do not go first to the priests and rulers, but straightway leave their nets and follow.
After Pentecost hundreds of believers empowered by the Holy Spirit proclaimed the same message that the kingdom of God was at hand. They could not be restrained or intimidated, and threats could not silence them. Their preaching brought to others the hope of the gospel, with life, peace, and joy. Their witness was accompanied by healing for the sick and the gospel being preached to the poor.
Prophecy and the Kingdom
The gospel message rests on prophecy, and the time declared fulfilled is the sixty-nine weeks extending to Messiah the Prince in Daniel's prophecy. By the day-year reckoning where one prophetic day stands for a year, seventy weeks are four hundred and ninety years. From the command to restore and build Jerusalem, completed by the decree of Artaxerxes in effect in autumn 457 BC, sixty-nine weeks or four hundred and eighty-three years reach to autumn AD 27. Then Jesus at His baptism received the anointing of the Holy Spirit as the Anointed One, for Messiah means the Anointed One, and soon began His ministry.
His ministry began the final seven years of the seventy-week prophecy, from AD 27 to AD 34, in which the covenant was confirmed especially with the Jews, three and a half years by Christ Himself and afterward by the apostles. In the midst of the week, in spring AD 31, Christ the true sacrifice was offered on Calvary, the temple veil was torn showing the sacredness of the sacrificial service departed, and earthly sacrifice and oblation ceased. The week ended in AD 34 with the stoning of Stephen sealing Jewish rejection, the scattered disciples preaching everywhere, and shortly after the conversion of Saul as Paul the apostle to the Gentiles. So through that whole period the gospel invitation was especially directed to the Jews through Christ and then His disciples.
The seventy weeks in Daniel 9 are a portion of the same great prophetic period that included the 2,300 days. This first-advent message about fulfilled time and the nearness of God's kingdom had a counterpart in the later proclamation that the 2,300 days were ending, the judgment was at hand, and the everlasting kingdom would be ushered in. The announcement was correct: at the end of the sixty-nine weeks Christ was anointed by the Spirit after His baptism and the kingdom of God was at hand. The kingdom meant here was the kingdom of grace, not an earthly empire or the future kingdom of glory.
Though promised from the time of humanity's fall, the kingdom of grace was established through Christ's death, which secured the plan of redemption and ratified the promise of salvation and opened the hope of salvation. So the death that disappointed the disciples fulfilled the message they had preached. The disciples preached this message as an invitation of mercy to the Jewish nation and Israel, delivering the message God intended and right for its time. But they wrongly understood the kingdom as an earthly empire centered at Jerusalem and expected Jesus to rule over the whole earth. They did not grasp from the same prophecy that the Messiah would be cut off and suffer and die, and their misunderstanding of what the prophecy meant and of the kingdom to be established led to disappointment.
Repentance, Faith, and Application
Repent and believe are not outward acts but spring from living principles of love for God and for others implanted in the soul, and no dependence on religious forms and ceremonies, on correct conduct, or even on great acts of sacrifice can save when the heart lacks that love. Genuine religion is this inward principle of love, and God weighs the heart and the motive and spirit behind words and actions rather than the mere outward deed. Virtuous actions are the natural fruits of that inner principle, not a substitute for it.
Repentance includes true conviction of sin with a sincere and contrite heart, while belief rests upon Christ as the sin-pardoning Saviour. Good resolutions alone cannot bring progress unless the heart itself is changed.
The announcement that the kingdom of God is at hand is the first truth and warning to be presented in missionary work. To present it is to lift up the Saviour before people as Christ and Him crucified, and nothing so impresses them. As those bitten by the serpent were to look and live, so all today who look upon Him as the Lamb of God who takes away sin will live, and in this the question of what to do to be saved is answered.
The call is a present, urgent voice like John's to God's professed people to repent because the kingdom of God is at hand, and time is too short to leave warnings unheeded. It means thorough reformation and turning unto the Lord, seeking God with all the heart and going to Jesus to be cleansed and restored. It means making many plain, definite confessions of buried sins and cleansing the soul-temple and the Lord's institutions from defilement, instead of using false remedies or a counterfeit righteousness. Failure to answer brings perishing and falling into the hands of the living God, so the call is to escape for life now.
This call to repent and believe the gospel is applied to people who are turning from obedience to God's law and perishing in sin, and obedience to God's law would save those who defy truth and righteousness. The message also shows that God works in unexpected ways without asking men how He shall operate, and warns against marking out the precise way the Holy Spirit must come. The Jews refused to receive Christ because He did not come in the manner they expected to glorify them as a nation, holding the aged ideas of finite men as infallible, which shows the danger of letting human expectations dictate how God works.
Coming into Galilee He proclaimed the good news of God's reign, declaring the appointed moment had arrived and urging all to turn from sin and trust the glad tidings. The appointed moment was the close of the sixty-nine weeks foretold in Daniel 9, reckoned by a day for a year as four hundred and eighty-three years from the decree to restore Jerusalem in effect in autumn 457 BC to His anointing by the Spirit at baptism in autumn AD 27. His work then opened the last seven years to AD 34, confirming the covenant first by Himself and then by His followers, with His death as the true sacrifice in spring AD 31 ending the earthly offerings and the stoning of Stephen sealing the special call to the Jews. The reign so near was the reign of grace secured by His death, not a worldly empire nor yet the coming reign of glory, though those who heralded it rightly for their hour looked for an earthly throne at Jerusalem and stumbled over the foretold cutting off of the Messiah. Its call to turn and trust is an urgent present summons to thorough inward change from mere forms and resolutions to love for God and neighbor, contrite conviction, and faith in Christ as the sin-forgiving Saviour and crucified Lamb, cleansing heart and life without delay.
Message and Its Setting
Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. He announced that the appointed time was fulfilled and the kingdom of God was at hand, and He called the people to repent and believe the gospel. His message came after His forerunner had prepared the way by calling the people to repent of sins and be converted and be baptized. That forerunner's call was to turn from sin, and John's preaching convicted many of their sins, and many were baptized in the Jordan.
The calling attached to this proclamation is answered at once by forsaking nets and following Him. Those called do not go first to the priests and rulers, but straightway leave their nets and follow.
After Pentecost hundreds of believers empowered by the Holy Spirit proclaimed the same message that the kingdom of God was at hand. They could not be restrained or intimidated, and threats could not silence them. Their preaching brought to others the hope of the gospel, with life, peace, and joy. Their witness was accompanied by healing for the sick and the gospel being preached to the poor.
Prophecy and the Kingdom
The gospel message rests on prophecy, and the time declared fulfilled is the sixty-nine weeks extending to Messiah the Prince in Daniel's prophecy. By the day-year reckoning where one prophetic day stands for a year, seventy weeks are four hundred and ninety years. From the command to restore and build Jerusalem, completed by the decree of Artaxerxes in effect in autumn 457 BC, sixty-nine weeks or four hundred and eighty-three years reach to autumn AD 27. Then Jesus at His baptism received the anointing of the Holy Spirit as the Anointed One, for Messiah means the Anointed One, and soon began His ministry.
His ministry began the final seven years of the seventy-week prophecy, from AD 27 to AD 34, in which the covenant was confirmed especially with the Jews, three and a half years by Christ Himself and afterward by the apostles. In the midst of the week, in spring AD 31, Christ the true sacrifice was offered on Calvary, the temple veil was torn showing the sacredness of the sacrificial service departed, and earthly sacrifice and oblation ceased. The week ended in AD 34 with the stoning of Stephen sealing Jewish rejection, the scattered disciples preaching everywhere, and shortly after the conversion of Saul as Paul the apostle to the Gentiles. So through that whole period the gospel invitation was especially directed to the Jews through Christ and then His disciples.
The seventy weeks in Daniel 9 are a portion of the same great prophetic period that included the 2,300 days. This first-advent message about fulfilled time and the nearness of God's kingdom had a counterpart in the later proclamation that the 2,300 days were ending, the judgment was at hand, and the everlasting kingdom would be ushered in. The announcement was correct: at the end of the sixty-nine weeks Christ was anointed by the Spirit after His baptism and the kingdom of God was at hand. The kingdom meant here was the kingdom of grace, not an earthly empire or the future kingdom of glory.
Though promised from the time of humanity's fall, the kingdom of grace was established through Christ's death, which secured the plan of redemption and ratified the promise of salvation and opened the hope of salvation. So the death that disappointed the disciples fulfilled the message they had preached. The disciples preached this message as an invitation of mercy to the Jewish nation and Israel, delivering the message God intended and right for its time. But they wrongly understood the kingdom as an earthly empire centered at Jerusalem and expected Jesus to rule over the whole earth. They did not grasp from the same prophecy that the Messiah would be cut off and suffer and die, and their misunderstanding of what the prophecy meant and of the kingdom to be established led to disappointment.
Repentance, Faith, and Application
Repent and believe are not outward acts but spring from living principles of love for God and for others implanted in the soul, and no dependence on religious forms and ceremonies, on correct conduct, or even on great acts of sacrifice can save when the heart lacks that love. Genuine religion is this inward principle of love, and God weighs the heart and the motive and spirit behind words and actions rather than the mere outward deed. Virtuous actions are the natural fruits of that inner principle, not a substitute for it.
Repentance includes true conviction of sin with a sincere and contrite heart, while belief rests upon Christ as the sin-pardoning Saviour. Good resolutions alone cannot bring progress unless the heart itself is changed.
The announcement that the kingdom of God is at hand is the first truth and warning to be presented in missionary work. To present it is to lift up the Saviour before people as Christ and Him crucified, and nothing so impresses them. As those bitten by the serpent were to look and live, so all today who look upon Him as the Lamb of God who takes away sin will live, and in this the question of what to do to be saved is answered.
The call is a present, urgent voice like John's to God's professed people to repent because the kingdom of God is at hand, and time is too short to leave warnings unheeded. It means thorough reformation and turning unto the Lord, seeking God with all the heart and going to Jesus to be cleansed and restored. It means making many plain, definite confessions of buried sins and cleansing the soul-temple and the Lord's institutions from defilement, instead of using false remedies or a counterfeit righteousness. Failure to answer brings perishing and falling into the hands of the living God, so the call is to escape for life now.
This call to repent and believe the gospel is applied to people who are turning from obedience to God's law and perishing in sin, and obedience to God's law would save those who defy truth and righteousness. The message also shows that God works in unexpected ways without asking men how He shall operate, and warns against marking out the precise way the Holy Spirit must come. The Jews refused to receive Christ because He did not come in the manner they expected to glorify them as a nation, holding the aged ideas of finite men as infallible, which shows the danger of letting human expectations dictate how God works.