The Best News

What is the Gospel? Why is it good news?

At one point Jesus turned to His disciples and asked, “You do not want to go away also, do you?”

Peter spoke up, a heart cry of all who choose to follow Jesus: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.”

There are many different schemes and systems, ideologies and religions. They each purport to reveal the path to eternal life, or to offer enlightenment. But Peter perceived that it was in Christ alone that he would find the way to God.

This is the claim that Jesus made about Himself: “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

The reason these words are relevant to us all is because we share a common human condition: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” God’s standard of righteousness is perfection. And we all fall far short of that. In fact, “There is no one who does good, not even one,” and, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick.”

The result is that “your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God” and “the wages of sin is death.”

But the God who created and loves us also provides a way for us to be reconciled to Him. John the Baptist said of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” The Son of God lived a sinless life and then died a death He didn’t deserve.

Jesus took your sins upon Himself when He died on the cross. He paid the debt of your sin. He suffered the judgment of God so that you wouldn’t have to. In Christ alone can you find forgiveness—and the way back to God.

“He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God…”

The yearning of the human heart is to be in a right relationship with the Creator of the universe. And this is precisely what God made possible by sending His Son to die, rise from the dead. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.”

A certain man asked, “What must I do to be saved?” The profoundly simple answer he received was, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.”

That is the Gospel. And that is the best news!

Scripture references:

John 6:67-68, John 14:6, Romans 3:23, Psalm 53:3, Jeremiah 17:9, Isaiah 59:2, Romans 6:23, John 1:29, II Corinthians 5:21, I Peter 3:18, John 1:12, Acts 16:30-31