the word ‘save.' Salvation means 'release from bondage.' It comes from the word ‘salve,' ointment, or comforting balm. It's about the anointing – healing oils – of God's Holy Spirit, the indwelling of God's spirit inside our souls, the Divine Surprise.
Nonetheless, especially in English, salvation and ‘saved in Christ' are used interchangeably, offering the quick-fix, short-cut route to heaven. But this has short-changed many new Christians, like my driver in China, who are missing the full glory of Christ. Most preachers do urge their prospective Christians to "ask God to enter their hearts." Many even suggest to "seek the Kingdom of God." But rarely have I heard an Evangelical preacher connect the two at the same time, fully connecting the dots. If God's spirit, the Holy Spirit, resides in your heart, where is the spiritual Kingdom of God? Shouldn't God's Kingdom envelope your entire being by entering into your heart as well? Eternity starts at the point of salvation. It is not just a ticket to heaven. It is a way of life, on earth, living a purposeful life, ‘filled with the spirit' within the infinite confines of God's spiritual Kingdom in the heart. Who wouldn't want to be caged inside God's infinite love and wisdom? Life is not the destination. It is a journey with God. That's heaven on earth, the rebirth or 'born again' triumph.
The Gospel … Even for Samaritans
The Gospel or Good News of the Universal Spiritual Kingdom of God is for Jews and Gentiles; for ALL mankind, EVEN SAMARITANS of old as well as our Samaritans [Palestinians] today. Ironically, today's ‘Samaritans,' living in the West Bank, are now cruelly maligned by their Israeli overlords, dispossessed and displaced from their land. They are captives interred behind iron walls in some of the most inhuman concentration camps on earth; detention-sites such as Gaza or the West Bank, part of Israel - Palestine for millennia now renamed Samaria by today's Israeli occupying forces.
The ‘New Covenant' is the story of salvation. It speaks of a new spirituality, a new orientation to worship God. It is the Good News that offers an incomparable priesthood in Christ, an unparalleled heavenly sanctuary of the spiritual kingdom of God in the heart, and grander promises for both Jew and Gentile (Hebrews 8: 6, 10, 13).5 Now, "the people of God are a creation of God's Spirit. Belonging to the people of God is not a matter of Israelite blood and ancestry."6
Peter, the Apostle, boldly takes the words given to Israel at Sinai and applies them to Gentile Christians:
"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy" (I Peter 2: 9-10; Exodus 19: 4-6).
The people of God have a spiritual identity, and it does not require ancestry (John 1: 12-13; Romans 5: 1-8; 8: 3).
God’s Holy Spirit … Like a River
Jesus says that the indwelling of God's Holy Spirit is like a spring of water, welling up to eternal life, enabling worship in Spirit and truth (John 4: 13, 21-24; 7: 37-39; see also John Chapters 14-16). Passages from Isaiah, Zechariah, and Joel speaks of refreshing waters. Jesus' reference to ‘living water' is Ezekiel's river flowing from the temple (John 7: 38-39; Ezekiel Chapter 47). Ezekiel envisions a river of water flowing from the temple. The farther the river goes from the temple, the deeper it becomes (Ezekiel 47: 306); and, wherever the river goes, it brings life. It flows southward into the Arabah, where it enters the Dead Sea, making the salty water fresh, bringing life to the fish – "so where the river flows everything will live (Ezekiel 47: 9)."
The symbolism of the Dead Sea indicates a spiritual life that flows from Israel to the nations, bringing spiritual life to the Gentiles. Jesus as the fulfillment of Ezekiel's prophetic vision, speaks of the gift of the Spirit that His disciples will later receive to accomplish Jesus' mission to the world. At Pentecost, Jesus' disciples have become "temples of the Holy Spirit" (II Corinthians 6: 16); and, the spiritual life of God has flown from the new inclusive 'Israel of Christians,' bringing spiritual life far beyond themselves.
John's use of the words of Jesus from the prophet Ezekiel is a pointed reminder to his contemporary audience that the nation of Israel has failed at this universal mission in the Old Testament.7 Today, Ezekiel's words reflect modern Israel's failures as it is still in search of itself to becoming "… [from] where [Israel] the river flows everything will live" (Ezekiel 47: 9). In short, Modern Israel is still God's biggest headache.
The prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, among others, focus on Israel's failure 'to bear fruit' as the people of God (Isaiah 5; Ezekiel 15). The Israelites do not fulfill God's purpose for which God has 'planted' the vine/nation ... to become an exemplary people of God, the Light Among Nations. The Sacred Texts of the ancient faith reveal a spiritual kingdom (Jeremiah 31: 31-34; Isaiah 53; Joel 2: 28-29), including prophecies indicating a Gentile mission; and, of Israel's responsibility as a nation to ‘foreigners and aliens' living among them. Though Jesus condemns corrupt Judaism, He upholds the law and the ancient faith of Israel.
Israel … ‘A Failed State,’ says Jesus
Jesus' parable of the vineyard is direct and to the point, focusing on Israel's failure to produce fruit (Luke 20: 9-19; Matthew 20: 1-5; 21:28-41; Mark 12: 1-12). Israel today is as much of a failed state as 2000 years ago when Jesus, their Son of Man, God in the flesh has offered to release the Israelites from bondage of 1) the Law of Moses, 2) ancestry with self-proclaimed and prideful pedigree and 3) their claim as the sole Chosen People of God, taking their chosenness for granted, with neither good works or faith.8
The gospel is a radical message for the Jews of Jesus' generation. John states in the Prologue to his Gospel, the majority of the Jewish Christians in the early church do not receive this good news of the kingdom as ‘good news' (John 1: 11). The truths of the gospel of the kingdom of God are spiritual. There is no longer a need for the earthly temple order of worship in Judaism. God's rule and reign are now in the hearts of his people (John 4: 21-24). Heavenly realities are not earthly realities; they are two different categories of truth. In no way is a supposed earthly reality of a future Jewish kingdom superior, then and now.9
The unfathomable Good News, its full meaning, daze the apostles and the early Jewish Christians. Their expectation from Judaism is that the Messiah will establish a Jewish political kingdom. Jesus, however, has come as God in the flesh to announce the presence of a universal spiritual kingdom. The "good news of the kingdom of God" that Jesus proclaims is not about a political, Jewish earthly kingdom like David's and Solomon's kingdoms. It is a spiritual kingdom of the heart that provides a unique spirituality for worship in Spirit (John 4: 23-24; I Peter 2: 1-10). It is a kingdom of the unprecedented power of the Holy Spirit in Christians.10
The good news of the ‘new spirituality' that Jesus heralds provokes consternation in the early Jewish (Christian) church; it involves an intense struggle to harmonize their Jewish identity and tradition with the universal, spiritual gospel of the kingdom of God. They repudiate Jesus as the fulfillment of the ancient promises of God. The clash between the Christian ‘Judaizers’11 and the Christian Gentiles lasts until the end of the first century.
Jesus' gospel of the kingdom of God is a "divine surprise" (Habakkuk 1: 5), a mystery hidden for ages, now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings (Romans 16: 25-26; I Peter 1: 10; I Corinthians. 2: 6-10). It comes in an unexpected form12, and it exceeds the expectations of everyone. Neither the prophets of old nor the apostles fully understand
