The Good News is a Person, a King – Jesus Christ the Righteous.
The One in whom dwells all the fullness of the promises of God in the Hebrew Scriptures. Ever since we turned away from God to our own way (sin) God has been preparing the Way for His salvation (Genesis 3:15). Our sin has separated us from God leaving us without the love, order and harmony originally given to us in Eden. But God didn’t give up on us or do away with us. Instead, God’s relentless love for creation moved into action as God separated, filled and blessed Abraham and his descendants to be a blessing to the nations. The Good News of King Jesus is most clearly seen against the backdrop of this Creator God who has made good on His promises – becoming flesh and blood and moving into the neighbourhood of humanity: suffering with us and dying for us – to save us! Jesus fully entered into our situation, took our sin in His body on the cross and paid our ransom.
The Good News is for Everyone.
Jesus embraced the cross “for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). Jesus gives us what we do not deserve and what we could never earn or purchase – grace! And no one is excluded from this grace. It is available for ALL who would come to and abide in Jesus. All are welcome at the Table!
The Good News Separates, Fills and Blesses Us to Be a Blessing.
Jesus separates us or calls us to follow Him wherever He leads as He makes us holy as He is holy. These “called out ones” are the gathering of disciples, the church. We are separated out for God’s own purposes as He brings the Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus fills us with a new heart and with the fullness of His Spirit. “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my ways and be careful to obey my just decrees” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Because God has filled us with Himself and given us a new heart we can walk in victory over sin, over the past, over addiction, over the evil one and any thing else that may come against us. Jesus blesses us to be a blessing. The blessing of a new life, a new family, and a new hope are not for our own sake, but for the sake of the whole world. God separates us out, fills us up and blesses us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, so that we can fully enter into the mission of God in the thickness of the world and shine the light of the glory of Christ. God is still writing this Story and there is a place in it for each of us as we open ourselves up to Jesus working through His Spirit.
The Good News is Coming Again.
Jesus is coming again and with Him the New Heavens and the New Earth with the Tree of Life at the centre – Eden renewed! Jesus is coming to right every wrong, to set up the fullness of the Kingdom of God and to make good on all His promises. The Good News is all encompassing: it’s there from Genesis to Revelation; it’s fully revealed in King Jesus – the Creator and Redeemer; it’s embodied in the church as it lives into the mission of God; and it’s awaiting us on that great Day when all things will be made right! May God make us a people who reflect such Good News.