Redemption

The Gospel as Good News

Have you ever learned something that completely changed your life?  Maybe it was the fact that you were having a baby, or that you had lost your job, or that you passed a big test.  All of us know what it’s like to learn something that changes everything.

We have a word for this sort of information: it’s called “news.”  News is information that changes the way things are.

There’s a word you hear a lot around churches, and it’s the word “gospel.”  This word simply means “good news.”  

In other words, the gospel is information that changes everything.

Sometimes people forget that the gospel is good news, and just try to make it into good advice.  “Here’s how you can have peace in life,” or “Here’s how you can go to heaven.”  The fact is, many people today are searching for personal fulfillment, and there are many popular gospels promising those things.

But the good news is not just good advice.  It’s something that actually happened.  Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose again.  That means that nothing is the same anymore.

Last time, we learned that sin makes us slaves, spreads chaos, and causes us to be alone.  But today, we’re going to learn that sin doesn’t have the final word.  Because of what Jesus did, God is bringing redemption to the world.  

The gospel is the good news of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection—which means that God sets us free, renews all things, and adopts us as children.

One of the things we should notice about this definition is that it all hinges on Jesus.  There’s a temptation to make the gospel all about us, and what we get out of it.  But that misses the heart of things.

Sin makes us slaves.  But the good news doesn’t simply mean forgiveness for sin—as wonderful as that is.  It means freedom from sin’s power.  God offers us more than forgiveness.  He wants to set us free as well.  We are forgiven and free!

What’s more, God is in the business of renewing all things.  Sin spreads chaos, but redemption means that God’s original plan will come true.  Through Jesus, everything that was broken in the fall is being made new.

Finally, God restores our relationships.  Whereas sin causes us to be alone, the gospel means that we can be adopted into God’s family—never to be alone again.

There is much more to be said about the gospel.  One sentence can’t possibly sum up all that God has done.  But that’s the beauty of it—we get to live this life with God, living it our more and more each day.

And that is good news.

Why is it important to remember that the gospel is good news, and not just good advice?

1 Thessalonians 5:23 suggests that God doesn’t just forgive us but makes us holy as well. What does it mean for the gospel to be “more than forgiveness?” How is the good news meant to change us?

How has the gospel changed you?