Headline: Good News!

“I am proud of the good news! It is God’s powerful way of saving all people who have faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles.” Romans 1:16

 I am so glad that I can always have good news. No matter the weather; darkly wet or scorching dry, the good news remains the same. I am glad there is always a headline to each day that reads: “The Good News is still available.”

 I can be having lunch with a friend or sitting with a loved one at their hospital bed; and I will have good news. The wrong person may have been elected; the congress, president and supreme justices all be crooks, but the good news does not change.

There is something in this world to smile about, no matter the changes that ripple across the surface. For the one who truly understands God’s great intentions, life takes on a brand new hue. God has written His good news across the universe, spoken it through the voice of His own Son dying upon the rough-hewn lumber: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And, just before breathing his final breath, Jesus announces, “It is accomplished!”

Yes, the magnificent plan is final; mankind can walk in freedom with God. No more wandering in the dark, no more making up our own religions to pacify the ache for truth, no more sweating it out trying to overcome our failings with a new batch of manufactured good deeds.

This good news is “God’s powerful way of saving all people who have faith.” Wandering, lost, blind about the state of ourselves and the character of God, we knew about as much concerning Him as a chipmunk does about semiconductors. But God did it! He switched the light on brightly for all who will simply accept His gift: “Whoever believes on My Son, Jesus, will never die, but have eternal life!”

My only question is why so many who have believed spend their days as if the darkness has won? The Good News does not make us unaware of the many ways mankind messes up God’s beautiful word. But it certainly should strike the glorious chord within us that sounds above the rumble of a sickly world. It is the song, the symphony, the ageless chorus that God has reconciled the world back to Himself.

And the good news is that everyone is included. Back then it was “Jew and Gentile”. Today it might be “poor and rich”, or “liberal and conservative.” For the one who has legitimately experience the “good news”, nothing else matters. Everything has changed. The good news has radically improved my vision. I can see the world the way God sees it; completely free and reconciled to Himself.

The good news bathes my heart to love more fully all for whom Christ died. The good news tunes my ears more accurately to hear the Plan of Forgiveness in every cry of pain. The good news has sharpened my vision to see the love from the Cross filling the lives of every person separated from God. The good news has rewritten my language to speak the everlasting truth that humans can be free, absolutely free!

Why some of us refuse to abandon old language that separates people is such a puzzle to me. Paul was proud of the good news that brought together the most separate group during his time. Jews and Gentiles simply did not walk the same spiritual paths. They held as little daily concourse with each other as possible. Jews were God’s chosen, Gentiles were not. But Jesus changed all that!

Who, indeed, are the “Gentiles” in my life for whom Jesus died? I must die to the language of “in” and “out”, “chosen” and “rejected”. The good news opens God’s arms wide to all, the powerful way of saving all who believe!

We once were so far from God we made up stories to describe what we thought He was like. Now, upon believing, we have His very Son indwelling our hearts. What better news could there ever be?