Good News

The word ‘Gospel’ is greek, meaning ‘Good News’. Essentially the entire of Christianity is just news, not advice, just news. And it’s always news because it’s always relevant. But what’s the news?

This guys tells it in a much better way than I ever could:
http://vimeo.com/20960385

But if you want my version…

To understand the good news, the bad news must come first.
God created us, everyone. He created us and made us to be in complete and utter unity and harmony with Him, to be in love. To love and be loved by Him in relationship, to be His people. We were given the desire for joy, belonging, purpose, satisfaction, peace, acceptance, significance, and so on; and all of these things were like the engine of a car, and God is the only fuel. We were made to be completely at One with Him, as sons and daughters of our Father, as people to our King. Above all of creation, only we were given God’s breath as our own, He gave us life through it. We were created in His image, meaning, in His likeness (Genesis 1:26-27). We were like statues on earth, representing that this world belongs to God. Perfect peace and harmony.

Yet, in a world that was created to be perfect, there is not a single person in the world who wouldn’t look at the world and say “what’s wrong with us?” It’s sin. We replaced the Creator as our God with the created as our gods (Romans 1:24-25), we turned to trying to fulfill our desires ourself instead of turning to God (who could do a much better job at it than anything else ever could), we rejected Him and went out own way. The very same breath God graciously gave us, we gave it up to curse Him. All have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, no one has met His standards of perfection (Romans 3:23), no one can say that they have never sinned. Even the greatest people on earth, no one can match upto perfection. Sin brings death (Romans 6:23). God’s heart is grieved that His people have rejected Him (Genesis 6:5-6) and sin has become our very nature, we’re slaves to it (Romans 6:16-17). Nothing we could do could ever redeem us, there’s no ammount of good works that could balance us out, there’s nothing we could do to ever set things right again. If something imperfect, it cannot be perfect again. Our good works are like spraying perfume on dog crap. And because God is a God of justice, He has to judge us for our sin, and no one can escape His judgement. That breath God gave us, we’re to give it up, to give it back, we owe Him.

But this is the good news! From the versy frist sin, it wasn’t Adam who cried out first for forgiveness, it was God who came to him. And from the moment of that very first sin, He promised that He will not leave us hopeless, but that there would be a Saviour to defeat the the devil who had brought sin into the world (Genesis 3:15). And so He did. After countless prophesies told by people from kings to teenagers, from shepherds to priests, who’d never even met or known eachother, hundreds and some even thousands of years before the arrival of that Saviour, the Saviour came. But that Saviour had to be perfect. So since the only person to ever meet God’s criteria is God, God sent Himself as Jesus to pay the price. He was crucified on our behalf. Naked, bloody, and barely even recogniseable as a human being, He hung there. He paid the debt we could not pay, He became our sin, He took our sin, He became us. Remember, sin brings death? Well, He died. He took the penalty that we were supposed to take, He suffered judgement on our behalf. Redeemption, forgiveness. You see, the price had to be paid some way or another, God couldn’t overlook it, so for God to have mercy then Jesus had to die. Our judgement was passed onto Him. That very same verse that says sin brings death, the second half says “but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus.” That is His love.

On the third day, He rose again. All the sins were paid for and dealt with on the cross, and none of them was His own, He was perfect and blameless, so He broke forth from the tomb. He defeated death. If sin brings death, and He took our sin, and so we have no sin, surely then death has no sting? He then rose to Heaven, to sit enthroned in His Kingdom, glorified as the King of all kings.

But it doesn’t end there, what does that mean for us? It means salvation, it means freedom, it means everything. It means that, even thought no one could ever save themselves, Jesus brings salvation to anyone who believes. It’s free. You didn’t earn it, and it’s not because of anything you could have done. And it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, God offers forgiveness. He says “I will not choose to remember your sin, I won’t ever bring it up again.” Peter betrayed Jesus before His crucifixion, yet what did Jesus tell the angels to tell Mary? “Go and tell the deciples and Peter.” He said Peters name. And then He made Peter the first person to ever preach the message of the Gospel. That’s grace. It’s what we don’t deserve but He gives it to us anyway, because He loves us. Those who believe are no longer slaves to sin, but adopted as sons of God, He becomes our Father. He blesses us constantly, reunited with the one we were born to be with. He gives us eternal life in Heaven, end eternal joy and peace that start now. But if you are sons of God, then you are a brother or sister of Christ, and so if Jesus is the heir…aren’t you the heir too? Yeah you are. Not only that, but it says you will rule as a king for ever and ever. You reap nothing but rewards from Him. And the Holy Spirit, who is God just like Jesus and the Father, lives inside of you. After Jesus left, He sent the Holy Spirit to be our Comforter, our Counciler, our Guide, our Helper, our Friend. He guides us through our lives and we are never alone. He works His way into the very fabric of our being and will change our lives, He will bring us joy and peace if we allow Him to. He teaches us how to live. He gives us gifts of wisdom, knowledge, faith; and also the power of healing and prophesy and other gifts like that. Not only this, but He is the promise of salvation. Everyone who believes recieves the Holy Spirit immediately, and as a result, you are destines for Heaven. Just like what you do cannot buy you salvation, nothing that you do can lose you salvation. You are no longer under law, but under grace. That means you can’t break the rules, you’re always under grace. Complete freedom in Christ, nothing will ever be held against you. Where there’s sin, grace abounds even more. If sin were to the depth of the sea, grace goes further, if sin goes to the moon, then grace goes to the sun. If grace is an ocean, we’re sinking. Never any wetter or dryer, we’re wet with the whole ocean. Once saved, always saved. You are a child of God, the bride of Christ, royalty, a temple of the Holy Spirit, you will never be judged or punished, you are saved, forgiven, redeemed, made complete, made whole, eternal life, God is for you and with you, reuinited in perfect unity and harmony as it was meant to be. You are His and He is yours, forever.

The thing is, you didn’t even do this to you. He did if for you because He loves you. All that’s required is belief. But, just like you don’t choose to believe that you’re alive, because you just do, you don’t choose to believe in the Gospel. You just do. That’s why it’s called the Good News and not the Good Advice. You don’t do anything. You can’t do anything. Infact, you could have done nothing you’re entire life and gone from unsaved to saved in an instant, all you do is just believe. It’s not because of anything you’ve ever done, God just wanted to save you because He wanted to, because He loves you, because that’s who He is. Even while we were still sinners, He died for us.  It is the free gift of God; salvation by faith and grace alone.

“For God loved the world in the way that He gave Jesus, His only begotten son, so that the believers would not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

He loves us. He wants a relationship with us, the way it should be.