The Gospel: Is It Good News Or Bad News?
Published June 12, 2008
Sometimes we believe that our sin has somehow pushed us so far from God that we are no longer welcome in His presence. We go through trials, sickness, valleys, whatever the case, we go through times when we are hard of hearing, hard of seeing, hard of feeling and hard of living. We are constantly nagged by the quiet whispers that we are dirty, unwelcome by God, no longer worthy, shameful… even rejected by God. It is no wonder that we would think such thoughts today. Today, we are more merits-driven than ever. When things are going good and we are on a “mountaintop,” we subconsciously think that our good behavior got us there.
So it should not surprise us when, in the times we feel so down and depressed, that we think that our behavior has upset God and so now He is pushing us away. This is the logic of many believers, and many churches today; but this is a lie.
We are, as born-again, blood-bought Christians, never rejected by God. We get ourselves into a pickle and then we begin to feel unworthy, and so we in our worthlessness shut ourselves off from receiving God’s love and His presence… but all the while, God has not stopped loving, He has not stop inviting you into His secret chambers to fellowship with Him. We believe the lie that God will reject us every time we mess up. Don’t you see? God did not receive us because of our goodness; He received us because Christ died to take the punishment for our sins. When Christ died for our sins, He died for all of them for all time, past, present and future.
When we mess up, we should confess our sins to God, turn away from our sins and get back into fellowship with God. Doesn’t it seem foolish in hindsight, to run away from the God who is the only remedy to our problems? Yet we do, we run away like Adam in the garden and overlook the blood of Christ that brought us to God to begin with. Paul asks in the Bible, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)
Don’t you see? The same blood of Christ that completely wiped away your sins when you first believed is the same blood – same in power, potency and availability – that now covers you today. Didn’t Paul teach is that it was no longer through offering after offering that we are forgiven, but Christ who died once for all? Hebrew 9:12 says, “He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. “ and resounds in verse 26, “Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (See also Romans 6:10, Hebrew 7:27)
It seems in Churches today that the blood of Christ is good enough to bring the sinner to Christ, but it is only through merit that a believer may stay with Christ… yet this sort of teaching is totally unbiblical!
Just look at how the Church treats John 14:15. Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Yet the Church seems to be preaching , “If you obey God, you'll prove your love for God,” but this of course, is not what Christ said.
The church today teaches that obedience is the root of love for God. Yet the Bible teaches differently, the Bible says that obedience is the fruit of love for God. We do not obey trying to prove or muster our love for God… no, we obey God because we already love Him, and our love for Him makes us naturally gravitate toward wanting to obey Him.
There really hasn’t been another teaching that has so impacted my life than the teaching of God’s grace through Christ’s blood, by faith apart from (though evident by) works. And I hope you don’t just take my word for it – study the scripture, it cannot be broken. Seek God for yourself, and start receiving His forgiveness and fellowship by faith.
And though many do not present it as such, the Gospel is still very good news! God bless.
