I've been asked to be part of an ongoing blog series called The Good News For Your City during the Easter season (yes, it's a whole season lasting until Pentecost!) on JR Woodward's blog. The full list of contributors is varied by location, ethnicity, culture, and gender. Should be a lot of fun!
My basic assignment is to imagine that if the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette asked me to write 300 to 500 words describing the good news of the gospel, what would I write?
My post isn't due until May 1 (which I will post here as well), but while I ponder the question, I wondered if anyone else had any input? What is your understanding of the good news of Jesus Christ?
(Illustration by Nidhi Balwada from India)
The Good News of Jesus Christ is exactly that. It is the “good news” of what God has done for us in Christ. He has absorbed the lethal punishment we earned, and paid the unpayable debt that we owe. He has made a way for humanity to once again become all that humanity was created to be. We have lost so much because of our rebellion against God; more than we could possibly understand. The entirety of human capacity which was a gift from God has been marred beyond our ability to repair. Even our capacity to understand the volume of our loss has itself been lost. Our ability to relate with God, with each other, with the world around us and even with ourselves has been warped and mangled by the law of sin and death.
The Good News is that In Christ all that we have lost has been regained, all that we have destroyed will be repaired and all that we were meant to be, from the beginning is once again available to us through faith. In one massive act of literal redemption the sacrifice of Jesus’ life on the cross has bought it all back.
We can love God. We can love each other. We can be fulfilled and have true purpose forever, all and only because of Jesus. That is GOOD NEWS!!!
How you write that in a newspaper article I have no idea – good luck.
Ben,
I know this is a little late, but perhaps this quote from John Driver might be helpful:
“What is gospel? According to Jesus, the One who came announcing the gospel of the kingdom, ALL THIS IS GOSPEL: The announcement that the kingdom is coming; the invitation to change radically and join the new people of God who live under the lordship of Jesus Christ, the spirit and the substance of this new life in community, and finally, the power of the Spirit of Christ Himself which enables one to live the new life.” (John Driver, Community and Commitment p. 85-86)