Do you ever get tired of bad news? The mantra “If it bleeds, it leads” spills over into our surrounding culture and we find ourselves neck deep in murder, war, greed, malice and unfaithfulness. At times, it seems no good news is to be found.
It may seem we live in times worse than any that have come before. This, most likely, is not the case.
God’s original creation was perfect in every way. After six days and an evaluation of “very good,” He rested. Adam had all he could want except a wife, a predicament God soon remedied. All they could eat, all they could drink, perfect harmony with each other and their surroundings, and daily fellowship with God.
That was good news.
Until they fell to temptation, bringing a curse upon all that God had made.
Since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, humanity has been dealing with the effects of sin. Nothing, absolutely nothing, has escaped sin’s reach. Humanity is tainted, animal life is tainted, and plant life is tainted. From atoms to universes, God created it all. From atoms to universes, sin has affected it all.
This is bad news.
Ben Mandrell, writing in Do Over: New Life in Christ, said it this way:
The bottom line: humanity has no hope from within. This is a problem you and I cannot solve. Someone must break into this jail and show us the way out. Paul has backed us into a cold cell, the bars coldly locked into place. He has our attention. No one is righteous—not even you. Thankfully, there is a solution.
In other words, the bad news is not the final news. There is good news.
From the earliest of Jesus’ ministry He used this phrase to describe what people needed to believe in order to be reconciled to God: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe in the good news!” (Mark 1:15). The core of Jesus’ ministry is described by it: “Then Jesus went to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness” (Matthew 9:35). In remembrance of Jesus’ ministry and message the apostle Paul wrote, “Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel [“good news”] I proclaimed to you; you received it and have taken your stand on it” (1 Corinthians 15:1).
There is good news, but what is it, exactly?
Paul continues, “For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4).
Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection constitute the core of the gospel message—the good news. Our response to the good news is belief, as Jesus stated. Paul echoes, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).
Christ’s offer of salvation is the foundation for regaining everything lost in Adam and Eve’s fall.
