“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.” John 3: 16-17
When was the last time you heard some good news? I mean, real good news? The type of news that gets your heart racing, or the type of good news that once you hear it you cannot think of anything else?
It should be shocking, but I love good news! I am one of those people that when I receive good news, I hope you are ready to hear about it. It does not take me long to get my text threads and phone calls moving to share good news with people. Good news typically leads others to experience joy and celebration. Most recently, my best friend told me that he was going to be a dad and it just sent jolts of joy and celebration through my body.
But I have learned that good news alone does not give people joy and celebration, but the influence of joy and celebration comes from the person delivering the news. If my best friend would have come to me in anger and told me they were expecting, I would consider what should be good news as bad news. Or, if he would have told me with apathy in his voice, I would question why he even told me. So, I have learned that the way we deliver, or present good news could be as important as the good news itself.
If you are a Christ follower then at some point you receive The Good News. We often use the Good News as a label for the Gospel message. The Gospel message is a declaration from a Heavenly Father that you are loved, and that love is demonstrated by Jesus dying for the sin that once ruled over your life. And it goes so much further to guarantee that you are in a permanent relationship with a Heavenly Father who calls you his own child. I mean, is there better news than that for humanity?
Unfortunately, there are versions of the Good News that are presented without actual goodness. Some people leverage fear, anger, authority, or prosperity to make the Good News foggy. Ultimately, if your reception of the Gospel is anything other than Good News, you might need to find a new voice to tell you about Jesus.
The goodness of the Good News is that:
You are loved.
You are forgiven. You are free.
You have a Heavenly Father. You have a relationship with him.
You are a messenger of Good News to the oppressed and the captive.
The goodness of our Heavenly is the love and redemption he has for us, and our message could be as simple as that. If we are to be carriers of Good News, love and redemption must be our foundation.
Sometimes I get push back from people as they wrestle with the infinite world of theology and they struggle to think it could be all summed up into sharing love and redemption to others. And I recognize that struggle, it's hard to believe that the world could be changed with love and redemption rather than power, or being louder than the other voices.
Yet, I am convinced that God will have grace upon grace with us if we get some theology wrong. But I worry how God will take it if we get the loving other people, seeking justice, and choosing mercy part of life wrong.
The Good News gives explicit revelation to the goodness of God. His goodness knows no bounds and has no partiality to anyone. Every single person has access to His goodness, His forgiveness, and His love. Our message of goodness to the oppressed, the captive, the struggling has to be love and redemption.
Love and redemption changed the world when Jesus introduced it , and we can believe that it can still change the world today.
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Amen