There is so much bad news and negative news in the world that it is refreshing when we hear good news. The Biblical word Gospel means good news. The good news throughout the Scriptures is that God provided a Savior to reconcile sinful people to Himself. The best part of the good news is that it is free and we do not have to do anything but accept what God has done.
In order to understand God’s good news we point out the following truths in the Bible:
God
The Bible is about God – the only true and living God who chose to reveal Himself to us through His Son and and through His written Word. The Bible begins with God as the Designer and Creator of all things (Genesis 1). His nature is graciously displayed throughout the Bible, including His attributes of holiness and perfection. The Bible provides us with His moral standard, the principles and truths that we are to live by. The Bible ends with God as the Sovereign Ruler of all (Revelation 22). We are, therefore, accountable to Him to live according to His standard.
Man
The Bible is also a book about people, the pinnacle of His creation, made in God’s very own image (Gen. 1). However, to appreciate the Good News, we must first acknowledge the Bad News, which is that we all have broken God’s law or standard, thereby cutting ourselves off from Him (Gen. 3, Rom. 3). The Bible calls this sin, which comes from our disobedience and is a direct offense against our holy God. To make matters worse, the Bible says that we are all dead in our sins, without any hope of fixing the problem ourselves (Eph. 2). This means that without any divine intervention, we must bear God’s righteous wrath eternally.
Christ
But the Good News is that God has already arranged for our need. He sent His own Son, Jesus Christ, Himself fully God, to live among us on earth (John 1). Jesus Christ lived a perfect life (without sin) as a substitute, and He died the horrific death of Calvary’s cross as a sacrifice for all who would believe on Him (Heb. 9). He bore God’s wrath on Himself so that sinners like we are would not have to. And then Jesus was raised back to life on the third day to reign forever over all mankind (I Cor. 15). In His death He paid the price for our freedom from the curse of sin. In His new life He effectively restored all that was corrupted from the Fall of man.
Response
This Good News becomes good for us only when we respond to it by embracing Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. According to the Bible, we do this through (1) repentance of (or turning away from) our sin and self-centeredness (I John 1:9) and (2) by believing in faith that Christ is our Savior according to the Scriptures (John 3). We must appropriate God’s gift of grace by trusting in Him as the only answer to our problem. It is only when we see Jesus Christ as our greatest treasure that we can live for Him and with Him forever. We are now able to apply or experience His renewal in all the areas of our brokenness. We find that the Good News of the Gospel has great reward!