The Gospel of God’s Reign

In Isaiah 52, God sends his preacher across the hills to Zion. He’s running swiftly, running gladly—and what’s his message?

In verse 7, he says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’

 That’s a surprising word to us. We expect God’s messenger to say something like, “Your enemies are toast! Your city is safe!” But instead, he tells us about the rule of the LORD: “Your God reigns.”

Think about why that really is the best news. Why is that news worth celebrating, that God reigns? There are many moments when the only thing we can see is what’s directly in front of us. All that we can see is this trouble at home. This financial stress. This disappointment. All we see is this anxiety, or this sin. Or we look in around in this world and see a whole lot of violence, unrest, uncertainty.

In those times, we probably haven’t rejected the idea of God’s sovereignty. We don’t deny that He’s involved in this moment. But somehow that truth doesn’t move us.

Same for Judah: harassed by their enemies, slated to go into exile, hopeless, God seemed a world away. That’s exactly what Judah was saying. Think of Isaiah 40, where the prophet admonishes the people, “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel? ‘My way is hidden from the LORD?’” (v 27). There’s nothing worse than feeling forgotten: forgotten by others, forgotten by God.

But here comes God’s messenger, and in a nutshell, this is his good news, “Your God reigns.” The LORD is still on his throne! Your king hasn’t died, hasn’t abdicated, nor been replaced, but your God reigns. He is king over all. When Judah was fretting and fearful, they could know: “Your God reigns.”

When we fear all sorts of things in this life, from the uncertainties of our health, to the weight of our sin, the gospel tells us, “Your God reigns.” 

Don’t forget it. Don’t think that this changed when you weren’t paying attention. The Lord is still directing every event in your life—and in this world, and in the church—by his goodness and in flawless wisdom. So you are secure and free through God’s great power.

It’s only a three-word announcement—“Your God reigns”—but Isaiah works it out through describing the different parts of the message. God’s messenger comes flying over the hills, and as soon as he’s within earshot, he “publishes peace” (v. 7). This is one of Isaiah’s all-time favourite words—peace—and it stands for the wholeness that God restores. There is the end of war, the ruin of the enemy, the stilling of strife.

But it is much more. Real peace goes deeper than surface realities. It is deeper than Judah’s politics, and it is deeper than your mental health. God’s peace, under God’s reign, means that God is putting all things right. Not just among the nations and not just in your heart, but fundamentally, universally: He is creating peace through Jesus Christ. Christ reconciles us to God, so that He becomes your Father—your eternal refuge, your everlasting home.

God’s preacher comes proclaiming peace and bringing “good news of happiness” (v. 7). You can’t get more “gospel” than that: ‘good news of happiness’ is a message that makes people glad, a word that people receive with joy. The Christian preacher’s message can be unmistakably good, consistently positive: “Your God reigns,” and He reigns for your benefit.

That’s good news, all on its own—just to know that the Almighty Lord is active on our behalf. God’s not idle, sitting still, uninvolved. But He stretches out his arm to save us.

Isaiah doesn’t tell us in this chapter how all these marvelous things are possible. But we just have to read one chapter further to find out. Isaiah 53 tells the story of Christ, God’s servant. It tells of how He “bore our griefs and carried our sorrows,” how He “was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities” (vv. 4-5). Here is the good news, the glad tidings of great joy—how peace is possible. For Jesus came to comfort his people and restore our hope.

And now Jesus reigns over all. We said there’s such a gospel in those three words, “Your God reigns!” When we open the New Testament, we find the same message. But now it has a new brilliance. For in the New Testament, it has become this:

Jesus is Lord!

That’s the good news, the best news. Jesus is Lord—He is Lord of all, for He conquered all his enemies: He cast out Satan, swallowed up death, and destroyed the power of sin.

“Jesus is Lord” means that He is the Lord of all who believe in him. You belong to him, in body and soul, in life and death. So you are secure. He is on his throne today, so you can trust in him with everything, and need never fear those who stand against you.

Give thanks and be glad, for this gospel shall always be true, in 2026 too: “Your God reigns. And Jesus is Lord.”