GOOD NEWS
Romans 1:16,17 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew, and then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed a righteousness that is by faith from first to last; just as it is written; The righteous will live by faith.
In I Corinthians 15:3,4 the Apostle Paul describes what he calls the gospel. It says, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. While we might say this is the gospel in a nutshell, but it is far from being all that the gospel holds. When we ask Jesus to forgive us of our sins and to come into our heart we become what Jesus calls being born again. In a way it is much like the covenant of a husband and wife. In fact Jesus even calls the church his Bride. From the moment a person becomes a Christian they continually live in a constant state of forgiveness. All our past, present and even future sins are forgiven. This is not to say that this gives a Christian the freedom to sin as much as they like, because like Paul says this would be like trampling the blood of Jesus under foot. It does mean that because we couldn’t live a perfect sinless life before we became a Christian, we never will here on earth. Jesus did for us what we could not do or can do on our own. Jesus was able to live the perfect sinless life, but as Romans 3:23 reminds us, “All have sinned and fallen short the glory of God.” Because Jesus was divine in human form, he was able to take the sinfulness of all humanity and impart his infinite righteousness. And this all come about by grace.
God’s grace is his unmerited favor that he shows on humanity because of Jesus’ atonement on Calvary’s cross. God doesn’t owe anyone anything! We on the other hand owe him everything! His forgiveness comes as a gift to all that would want it. He will not force it on anyone. But because of our free will, God does require us to ask for it. It is something that even a child can do. It is not a matter of great knowledge but rather trusting Jesus to do what he said. When we ask for our forgiveness from him we are putting our beliefs in Jesus into action. This is called faith, and without faith we can not please God. Satan, the other fallen angels all believe in God and even that Jesus is the Son of God, but they will not humble themselves and ask for forgiveness. They have hardened their heart towards God, and have only hate and contempt for him. James 4:2 says, “We have not because we ask not.” In other words Satan, the powers of darkness and everyone else that will go to hell will do so because they refuse to humble themselves before Jesus. Ultimately God doesn’t send anyone to hell, they send themselves there. No one can take our salvation from us, not Satan, the powers of darkness or the evil of this world. What the world didn’t give the world or anyone else can not take away. We can give it up as we are reminded by Paul in I Corinthians 15:2 where is says, “By this gospel you will be saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.” We can give it up as easy as we received. We can reject Jesus by speaking it, or by simply turning our heart away from him. This can be done gradually over a period of time or suddenly. It may sound ridiculous, but people do the same thing with other people everyday. Husbands and wives that have lived together for years suddenly make up their mind it is over and they will stop trying to keep their love for each other strong. It is sad to think it so but it fact just the same. Jesus even points out this in regards to his kingdom in the parable of the sower in
Matthew 13:18-23. There only one out of four becomes all that they could be in Jesus. More good news is that when Jesus went to heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father, he sent the holy Spirit to come and help us to be all that he saved us for. The Holy Spirit comes to live in us and sets us free from the carnal nature that we inherited from Adam and Eve. The carnal nature or sinful nature motivates us to rebel from doing God’s will in our life. This is really the tap root for all sin. It motivates to do what God said not to do and also not to do what God said to do. In its place the Holy Spirit gives us the passion to do God’s will. This is not to say that our free will is taken from us, but rather we now have a new passion in our life due to our new love for Jesus we have after becoming a Christian.
The Holy Spirit begins to daly transform us in every increasing amounts of Christ-likeness. We call this the fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. With each passing day of a Christian's life the Holy Spirit adds to the preceding day the fruit that makes us more like Jesus. This continues until our death when in a twinkling of an eyes we go to be with Jesus and come into full perfection. (I Cor 15:35-58) The Holy Spirit also gives us abilities or gifts to serve Jesus and help the church. Some of these are listed in I Cor 12:1-11. I believe that for every need in the church the Holy Spirit will enable someone to do the task needed. This is what many call the baptism of the Holy Spirit or the second blessing. This is something that the Christian must desire to receive. God will not make anyone serve him that does not want to. Serving Jesus is an honor that will be rewarded at the Great White Throne Judgment as well a on earth.
When we become a Christian, Jesus gives us his backing or authority. He calls this the keys of the kingdom. In Matthew 16:19 it says, “ What we bind on earth, it will be bound in heaven. What we loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Satan and the powers of darkness have to obey a Christian even if they are a child. We can also ask for Jesus to help us and he will as well. We can ask for his blessing, protection, influence, power, provision or anything else. Now we also know that he will only do what is good for us. God will never give sharp knife to a child in other words.
With Jesus there is only good news. I have been a Christian for 42 years now, and he has only been faithful to me. Many times I have let him down and even myself, but he never gave up on me. I can honestly say that my only regret is that I couldn’t have been a “Lord Lover” all my life.
If you have never asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins and to come into your heart, I encourage you to do it right now. Test him and he will prove himself true!
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for coming and dying for our sins, so we could be reconciled to you. We love you Jesus!
