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Good News?

You've probably heard christians throwing the phrase "Good News" around and wondered what they were talking about. Well, the word "Gospel" is a greek word that literally means "Good News". Now that we've got that out of the way, what's the news? A little history first. A long time ago God created the universe (Many questions about that answered here and here ). He created all living things and last of all He created man. The first man was called Adam and from his flesh God created a woman, Eve. They were made perfect and they were made to live forever as God's companions. They were different from all of the animals in that God gave them the ability to choose. He gave them "Free Will". God wanted them to love Him just as He loved them, but He wanted them to love Him willingly. Would you want someone to love you if they didn't choose to? What good is that? God didn't want slaves, he wanted willing participants in His plan.

The problem with free will is that the choice can go either way. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve rebelled against the only command God gave them. They chose to disobey God. The moment that happened, their companionship with Him was broken. No longer would they be able to live forever in a perfect world. Their disobedience, called "Sin", caused death to enter God's creation for the first time. "Sin" is a Hebrew word that means "to miss the mark". If God's perfection is the bullseye on a target, anything outside of that bullseye is sin, missing the mark. Since they were created in perfection, Adam and Eve would have lived forever. But when they sinned they brought imperfection into the world and that meant that they would now age and die. God didn't abandon them, however. He could have implemented His judgment and caused them both to die immediately. Instead, he provided animal skins for them to wear to cover the shame brought about by sin. The blood of the animals these skins were taken from was payment in lieu of Adam and Eve's blood. This was the first sacrifice .

Adam and Eve lived for almost 1000 years and in that time they had many children who in turn had many other children... and so on right up to today. One thing that all of those people had in common was that they all inherited the sin nature of their forbears. Every person that ever lived has a sin nature. What that means is that no matter how hard you try to "be good" you can never be good enough to overcome your nature. Can you stop being human? Can a dog be anything else but a dog? Or a tree or a fish or a bird? It's a misunderstanding of sin that makes people think they can be "good" enough to earn God's forgiveness. From the most holy saint down to the most evil serial killer, we are all sinners and deserve death and eternal separation from God, which is Hell. We are born into sin. But God has a solution to this problem.

Fast forward several thousand years. God has raised up the nation of Israel. He has given them His Law, summarized by ten commandments that instruct them how to live and worship. These commandments are:

1. Do not worship any god but Me
2. Do not make any kind of idol
3. Do not misuse the name of God
4. Remember the sabbath day by keeping it holy
5. Honor your mother and father
6. Do not murder
7. Do not commit adultery
8. Do not steal
9. Do not give false testimony
10. Do not covet

These are the basic, minimum requirements of God. Wouldn't the world be a much better place if everyone followed these rules? The problem is, even "good people" have broken at least one of them. I know I've broken several; matter of fact, all of them. No, I've never actually murdered anyone. But according to the Bible, which is God's instruction book, if you even think about murdering someone, even if you never intend to go through with it, you are guilty of murder in God's sight (Mattew 5:22) . So, if it's impossible to live up to God's standard, how are any of us to be spared? Good question.

The rest of the Law that God gave to Israel mostly outlined how people were to atone, or pay for, their sin. It involved making various kinds of sacrifices , mostly animals. This may seem cruel or barbaric but there were many good reasons for it, most importantly this; if the penalty for sin is death, something must die for sin to be forgiven. In the case of Israel, any animal offered for sacrifice had to be perfect; no spots or defects of any kind. For an agricultural nation a perfect, spotless, healthy animal was highly prized so to sacrifice one of these illustrated the seriousness of sin. Just like with Adam and Eve, the death of the (innocent) sacrifice was accepted in lieu of the death of the (guilty) sinner. In this way the sacrifice foreshadowed another death.

Fast forward again, this time to around the year 6 B.C. God, the creator of the universe, became a man. He conceived Himself in the womb of a virgin in Israel; Nazareth to be exact. Her name was Mary and she gave birth to a son she named Immanuel , which in Hebrew means "YHWH is salvation" (More on the name of Jesus and the virgin birth) . He was conceived by God's Holy Spirit, so by nature he is God. He was born just like the rest of us, by a woman, so he is human. He lived for 33 years and faced all the same temptations, trials and hardships all the rest of us face. False accusations, beatings, hunger, thirst, poverty... the list goes on. These are the kinds of things that tempt us to break God's rules. Anything that has ever tempted you also tempted him. Certainly he was tempted to steal. As a carpenter he would have had plenty of opportunity to deal dishonestly with people. He would have had plenty of opportunity to covet or be jealous of someone else's wealth. He was probably tempted every day to be disrespectful of his parents. His human nature made it impossible for him not to be tempted. But he never, not even once, sinned. No little white lies, no talking back to his parents, if he was over paid for work he did he would not keep it, he never broke any of God's rules. He lived the perfect life that you and I cannot live. He was truly innocent, just as we are truly guilty. And he did it for us. He did it for you

. "What does that have to do with me?", you ask? Everything. Jesus told people the truth, and truth was the last thing some of them wanted to hear. The leaders of Israel at that time were fearful of the following that Jesus had. There were political reasons as well as "religious" reasons that they wanted him killed. Officially, they wanted him killed because he claimed to be God. The only problem with their logic was that they didn't realize he is God. Ultimately, he was executed, in public and in the most excruciating way imaginable. But he did this voluntarily; he could have stopped it at any moment, but he didn't. He was crucified, nailed to a cross, but only after being beaten so badly that he wasn't even recognizable as human. Flesh was ripped from his body and his blood was spilled in great quantities. By the time he was actually nailed to the cross, he was already as good as dead. But it still took 6 hours for him to die; that's how slow crucifixion was, and every moment was unimaginable agony. He was buried in a tomb. A guard of Roman soldiers was set to watch the tomb and the seal of Rome placed on the large stone covering the entrance. This happened on Friday. Sunday morning he was no longer in the tomb. He came back from death, just as he had said he would. Because he was truly innocent, he did not deserve death and therefore could not stay dead. (Just as amazing, all of this was foretold in Scripture.)

So why did he die? Remember the animal sacrifices? They foreshadowed the death of Jesus. His blood washes away sin. Notice that it doesn't cover sin, it washes it away, as if it never happened. Because he was truly innocent, his death was enough to cleanse all the sin of everyone who has ever lived or ever will live. This is the "Good News"; That God became a man in order to be the perfect sacrifice for you . Anyone who accepts the payment that God has already made through Jesus is no longer guilty of sin, no longer has to die, no longer has to be afraid of God's judgment. And this is available to anyone . No matter how bad you think you are, God loves you . He wants to forgive you, but because He is Just, sin must be paid for. The choice is easy; pay for your sin yourself by eternity in hell (which isn't really payment, just the natural result), or let God pay it for you. All you need to do is ask Him, but it must be sincere. Not that there's any "magic" in sincerity, but what God has desired all along is willing obedience. Don't trust God because you're afraid of hell; trust God because He is worthy of your trust. Because He loves you and only wants the best for you. Because he is worthy of your love and obedience.

Prayer is simply having a conversation with God. No special words or postures or places. Any time, any place, in any circumstance God is only a prayer away. Shout from the rooftop or don't say a word out loud, it doesn't matter; God hears you. If you want to accept the sacrifice God has already made for you, simply ask Him and trust that He hears you. If you don't know what to say, something like this is good:

"God, I agree that I am guilty. I am a sinner and I deserve death because of it. But you sent Your Son, Jesus to live among us. He died in my place so that you could forgive me, so I ask you now for forgiveness. Thank you for paying the price I could not pay so that I could be forgiven. I willingly give my life to you now and I trust you to guide me in every circumstance and to lead me as I continue to grow in knowledge of you. Fill me with your Spirit and help me to make you the Lord of my life."

God's word, the Bible, tells us that if we ask Him, he will come live in our hearts and minds and forgive all our sin. His Holy Spirit will guide and instruct us as long as we are willing to listen, to spend time in conversation with Him, and to study His Word. The Good News is that we are reconciled with God. But there is so much more to Christianity than that. It is a daily walk with the Creator of the universe. Spend time studying the Bible. Spend time in prayer. Getting to know God personally is the result and there is nothing better. Be willing to be obedient and God will do amazing things in your life. Find a good church and get involved. Volunteer to help out in some way; Every church needs people to volunteer. Most important though is that you seek God. He has promised that if you seek Him with all your heart you will find Him.

Read this story and be sure to check out the links page. There are lots of valuable resources to help in your growth.

If you haven't decided yet that this is for you, I pray that God will continue to reach out to you. And he will; he never gives up on us. If we find ourselves at the end of life and only then realize that God has been calling us all along, it's still not too late. As long as you're breathing you can still turn to God. But you should never take your next breath for granted. God never stops loving you but you must love him to have life. He has set before you a chioce; life or death. I pray that you will choose life.

Feel free to email me. I've just scratched the surface here but there is so much more, and I'm sure you have questions. I'll try to respond in a timely manner. In the mean time, check out these links . Maybe you'll find your question answered at one of these sites.

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