The Fear of the Kingdom and the Love of Christ
First off, read John 12:31-32.
When Jesus Christ was crucified, the judgment of God upon the world was leveled entirely against Him. The time of His crucifixion was a time of judgment, only against His own body exclusively, He being judged in our place.
The cross shows both the wrath of God and the love of God. Wrath because God, Isaiah says, crushed Jesus Himself (Isaiah 53:4-12) and placed upon Him all sin and its punishment (1 Peter 2:24, Romans 6:9-10, Romans 8:3). Jesus' suffering was the revelation, in this sense, of the intensity of God's wrath.
However, what great love is also shown through the cross in that our God, despite our wickedness, has taken away from us such wrath and has placed it upon Christ instead! There is no greater demonstration of God's love than through the cross of Jesus Christ. How much would God have to love us, knowing how wretched we were, in order to clear us from such great guilt?
See what's written in Romans 5:6-9.
Whoever therefore does not believe and follow Christ rejects His payment for their sin; and they will be judged nonetheless. Now is the time for men to obey the gospel of Jesus Christ, receive the grace of God, and thus escape the approaching wrath.
This in mind, the preaching of the gospel means preaching two things:
- The promise of God's kingdom is judgment upon this world for its sins (Colossians 3:6).
- The promise of God's kingdom is also that those who believe and obey the Son of God (John 3:36, John 5:24) will be forgiven of all sin and delivered from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10).
We have to include both the wrath and the grace of God in our preaching (Romans 11:22). God is both good and severe. His severity is real and is coming upon the ungodly and/or unbelieving. His goodness is also real, and it is what believers will get to enjoy in full.