Dear friends,

At some point in my youth, I sensed something missing from the gospel message I was taught, or at least the one I caught. That message went something like this:

We were perfect. Then we messed up. So we deserved to die and eternally burn. God was furious at us and needed to punish us. But he also loved us. So God sent Jesus to take our punishment. He died on the cross and came back to life. And the good news is that believing these facts means we get to go to heaven instead of hell when we die. Until then, we should tell others this good news, read our Bibles, pray, and try to be good.

To be fair, the gospel preached at my church was probably more robust and gracious than that. That’s simply how I understood it.

As a teenager, I felt a growing disconnect between this life-after-death gospel and life on earth now. Having my sins forgiven and not going to hell is fantastic. I wanted that for others, too. But is that it? Why all the rigamarole of being alive for decades after getting saved? Just beam us up. It’d save a lot of trouble.

Then I read The Divine Conspiracy. Willard’s book blew down the walls of my tiny gospel to reveal a vast terrain. My focus shifted from believing things about Jesus to believing on and in Jesus. 

I discovered that Jesus’ proclamation—the Kingdom of God is at hand—didn’t get postponed when he ascended. It is still true today for anyone who desires to bring their daily life under the reign of God. 

I learned that while eternal life flowers into full bloom after death, this life begins growing now. Because Christ himself said, ​“This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent” (John 17:3).

And that perplexing gap between when we believe in Jesus and when we die? It finally made sense. God is growing our character, a process for which there is no shortcut. He is teaching us how to love him and one another, and how to be loved: lessons that expand our capacity for joy and community forever. 

It wasn’t that my childhood picture of the gospel was wrong. It was simply small and incomplete. My soul longed for a more expansive gospel, which it turns out is exactly the one Jesus preached.