Often newspapers and news programs only report the bad, ugly side of life. We hear the phrase that “No news is good news.” One expert even said, “The real news is bad news!” While the bad news grabs most of the headlines and sound bites, and some do believe that the real news is bad news, good news is very welcome I’m happy to report, of at least one exception to that gloomy sort of thinking. I believe the greatest news of all is good news!

 

The “good news” I’m talking about is the Gospel. As a matter of fact, the word “gospel” means “good news; glad tidings.” In a world filled with sadness and tragedy, the worst of all tragedies is SIN! But God sent His Son to save us from our sins, and the foundation upon which the gospel rests is the death, and resurrection of Jesus (1 Cor. 15: 1-4). Thus, without Christ’s sacrifice the only real news would indeed be bad news! For example, when Jesus was born, an angel said to the people, “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” (Lk. 2:10-11). Later, Jesus said, “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Lk. 19: 10). There has never been better news than that. The guilt and condemnation sin brings can now be removed, i.e. God will forgive us. Thus, through Christ’s sacrifice, lost men and women can have the promise of the forgiveness of sins, having their sins washed away by Christ’s blood (Rev. 1: 5; Acts 22: 16), and that is “GOOD NEWS!” 

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Without Christ there is no salvation, because He is the only avenue to the Father (Jn. 14: 6). That is why the gospel is the “power of God to salvation to everyone who believes” (Rom. 1: 16). Of course, incorporated in “believes” is obedience (2 Thess. 1: 8). 

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While the news is composed of the good, the bad, and the ugly, and there’s plenty of the bad and the ugly in your newspapers and on the news casts, but let’s not forget the good news (the gospel), yea, the great news in your Bible. Don’t miss it. Please read it, and please obey it, while you have the opportunity. The burden of sin can now be removed (Matt. 11: 28-30). “Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins” (Rev. 1: 5; Acts 22: 16). The gospel is all about redemption, forgiveness, justification, reconciliation, and pardon, and Jesus is the summation of them all! Think on these things. 

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Dennis Abernathy