How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation, and says to Zion, "Your God reigns!" (Isa 52:7)The good news was "salvation," and that salvation was, "Your God reigns!" When Jesus arrived on the scene, He started out almost immediately proclaiming the gospel. "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:14-15). "The time is fulfilled." For what? For that "salvation" to arrive, for that "good news" Isaiah wrote about, for "Your God reigns!" Jesus said, "The kingdom is at hand."
There is a problem. People are sinners. The mind set on the flesh is hostile to God (Rom 8:7). We are not naturally wired to embrace God. So there's a big problem. But Jesus said, "For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). Ah! See? A solution. A way to make things right. And Paul said that the gospel at its core was "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Cor 15:1-4). He said He came to give Himself as a ransom, and He did.
The gospel, then, is that God reigns. It's as easy as that. It started in Genesis 1:1 -- "In the beginning, God ..." When Jesus arrived, He taught that God's reign was at hand. It was imminent. But here's the problem: that's not a good thing to sinners. It's not good news to those who are enemies of God. It only becomes good if there is a solution to the problem of sin. So Christ came to give Himself as a ransom for many. And He succeeded. The good news, then, is that God reigns, and those who are His can rejoice.
5 comments:
The good news and the bad news must be together, or they're not good and bad news. If God doesn't reign, there is no wrath, no condemnation, no sin, no need for salvation. The slogan "Jesus saves" may be true, but it's meaningless if we don't know what He saves from what.
It's always interesting when people who deny that there is any judgement, punishment, sin, and the like even exist use the language of salvation. Which comes back to salvation from what?
Regarding the Bad News & the Good News: I heard or read somewhere years ago that to share the Gospel (“Good News”) effectively, one should first attempt to persuade an unsaved person of their sinful state (the Bad News) and only after the sinner is convinced of their plight should the Good News of Christ’s death on their behalf be presented. The premise is that an unsaved person must first be brought "down" to the point of seeing their need for a savior, and then they would genuinely accept God’s grace and forgiveness with a glad heart. Ideally, then, we present the Bad News and the Good News together—both Truth & Grace. (The Four Spiritual Laws is a “lite” version of this method.) Supposedly, unless this is done, the “sick” don’t know they need the Great Physician. (The drawback I have found with this method is that if you are never able to get past that first step with people (due to their closed hearts, etc.), you can be viewed as a negative and judgmental person!) Many (self-righteous) people claim they don’t need salvation, but we know that God sees things quite differently and has provided perfectly. Thanks, Stan, for that reminder!
That was precisely Paul's approach in Romans. He spent nearly 3 chapters on the bad news before he ever got to the good news.
Indeed he did, and you wrote about that on May 26, 2022. (I was poking around reading some of your older posts just now and came across it. What a coincidence!)
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