Good news? Good news for what?!
The Suburban Gospel of America is becoming frightening. Humanism and religious pluralism is tearing apart Christianity.
The problem arises (as always) with sin. The natural man does not like to hear that he is sinful. The natural man also doesn't like to be disliked or hated. So one of the natural tendencies of man when telling the gospel to others is to shy away from the awful reality that we are evil by birth and so we do hateful, selfish, evil things, and that God is holy, just, and good to punish us eternally for our rebellion against HIm, our Creator. Instead, we give the modern gospel that goes something like this:
"Put on the Lord Jesus Christ because he gives you love, joy, peace, happiness, pleasure, and fulfillment."
These things are very true. But this is not the fullness of the gospel. The question to be asked here is, "If I am receiving these things by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, did I not have them before I believed in Jesus? And if not, what did I have if anything?"
Answer: No, you didn't have these things. Rather, what you had was Romans 1:29-32. You have hatred for God. You have disobedience to your parents. You have evil, envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, foolishness, and heartlessness. You not only have these things, you are these things. This is your natural being. You are not good. You are not discovering your potential. You are lost (without any possibility of finding your way, I might add.) And your punishment is coming.
Enter Jesus Christ.
The problem arises (as always) with sin. The natural man does not like to hear that he is sinful. The natural man also doesn't like to be disliked or hated. So one of the natural tendencies of man when telling the gospel to others is to shy away from the awful reality that we are evil by birth and so we do hateful, selfish, evil things, and that God is holy, just, and good to punish us eternally for our rebellion against HIm, our Creator. Instead, we give the modern gospel that goes something like this:
"Put on the Lord Jesus Christ because he gives you love, joy, peace, happiness, pleasure, and fulfillment."
These things are very true. But this is not the fullness of the gospel. The question to be asked here is, "If I am receiving these things by putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, did I not have them before I believed in Jesus? And if not, what did I have if anything?"
Answer: No, you didn't have these things. Rather, what you had was Romans 1:29-32. You have hatred for God. You have disobedience to your parents. You have evil, envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, foolishness, and heartlessness. You not only have these things, you are these things. This is your natural being. You are not good. You are not discovering your potential. You are lost (without any possibility of finding your way, I might add.) And your punishment is coming.
Enter Jesus Christ.