Treating the Gospel like the Good News it is

A 17-year-old opens the mailbox everyday in hopes of finding that letter, that one letter that could change his very life.  Everyday he opens the box with eagerness and closes it with sorrow at another depressing day without the letter and without relief from his anticipation.  Then, one day, like the hundreds before, there it is.  He pulls the envelope out of the box and breaths it in, opening it with deliberation and exhaling a scream of jubilant release.  From the mailbox, he sprints to his home, almost falling through the threshold as he leaps into the kitchen to yell at his mother across the kitchen: "They accepted me! I'm going to Harvard!"

Good news, like finding out that you're going to Harvard, or going to have a baby, or you've finally been offered the dream job, or the reports are in that the cancer is gone.  This sort of news will always demand to be expressed.  Undoubtedly, the joy of genuine good news will cause us to tell everyone we know because truly good news is nto something to remain hidden, but something to be shared.

The Gospel, the Good News about our Lord Christ Jesus saving all of humanity from sin and restoring a broken relationship with God Almighty, is something that should prompt us to share with everyone.  This Good News is the best news because it means that by faith we can spend eternity in the presence of the Lord.  Therefore, we should be ever-compelled to think of the Gospel at least as amazing as any other possible good news, and should be treated accordingly with the same joyous vigor.

In new believers, those who have recently made a confession of faith in Jesus, this kind of joyful sharing of the Gospel comes naturally and with ease.  Unfortunately, because of stagnant comfortability, the Gospel seems to loose some of its luster and awesomeness in their hearts and they don't share it with as much joy and gladness as news of its kind demands.  Pray that we never cease to think of the Gospel as any less than it is because it is the very power of God.  May we never think of the Gospel as common for it is supernatural and amazing.  In this way, let us seek to praise God for the Good News of His Son to be quick and excited to share it with everyone we can!

The Good News of the Gospel

An emotionally-spent struggles to sleep.  For the past two years her son, a marine, has been deployed overseas.  Everyday the mother watches the reports, praying that she will not hear her son's name listed among those soldiers who had lost their lives in battle.  She is strained and worn from worry, having been for several months since her son's last correspondence.

Early one morning, before the sun dawns its brightness over the horizon, the mother hears rustling in the kitchen.  She gets herself dressed and walks down the stairs with reservation.   When she gets to the doorway of the kitchen, tears begin to wrench from her eyes as she is startled to see her son making her breakfast.  He had returned stateside days earlier and wanted to surprise her with good news.

Good News, that news which is a salve to our hearts and an encouragement to our lives.  The Word of God speaks of the greatest news to ever be received, which is the Gospel of Jesus, the story of sweet salvation.  The Gospel, the good news of Jesus, is the story of God's grace, the redemption from sin, death being conquered, and the reception of life eternal through the torn flesh and shed blood of God's Son, Christ Jesus.

Although the whole of Scripture speaks to the Good News of Christ Jesus, perhaps the most concise verse is the oft-quoted John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but shall have eternal life." The richness of this well-known passage is its theological density and literary precision.  John, empowered by the Holy Spirit, is indicating that at the heart of the Gospel of Christ is nothing less than God's very love for us!

Moreover, the Gospel, the Good News of salvation brought about by God through Jesus, is story that took centuries to write.  The Law and the Prophets (the Old Testament) prophesy of it (Rom 1:2-3; Heb. 1:1-4).  Profoundly, the Gospel was a centuries-long preparation of God for the redemption of humanity by the work of His Son, Christ Jesus.  This is certainly Good News.  Let us not eschew our passion for this news but let us, like the mother in the above story, weep tears of joy at the joyfulness of the Good News of Christ Jesus!