What is the good news?

The good news is the gospel.

The word gospel is a biblical word that comes a Greek term

“Euangelion”, which means “good news”.

The gospel is knowing that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and that
He rose again on the third. It is a message of salvation.

1 Corinthians 15:1-5
Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I
preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken
your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the
word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For
what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that
he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that
he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 8

From 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, the gospel is the death, burial, and

resurrection of Jesus as God’s appointed means of salvation to those
who believe. And this is good news.

Why is this good? On our part is knowing 4 things: 1) Who is our

Saviour; 2) What we’re saved from, 3) how we’re saved, and 4) what
we’re saved to). Jesus paid the penalty of what we deserved. He was
cursed so that we could be blessed. Our sin was put on Him so that His
righteousness we would be counted to us.

Paul says that the good news must be received, stood upon and held to.
Salvation to Jesus is not automatic; it is offered to those who believe.

Right understanding of the gospel is important.

Right understanding of the gospel has powerful implications in regard
to our growth in the Lord.
John Piper’s book, God is the Gospel, is very helpful here. Piper’s
conclusion is astounding. He writes:
If you embrace everything . . . about the facets of the gospel, but do it
in a way that does not make the glory of God in Christ your supreme
treasure, then you have not embraced the gospel. Until the gospel
events of Good Friday and Easter and the gospel promises and
justification and eternal life lead you to behold and embrace God
himself as your highest joy, you have not embraced the gospel of
God. You have embraced some of his gifts. You have rejoiced over
some of his rewards. You have marveled at some of his miracles. But
you have not yet been awakened to why the gifts, the rewards, and
the miracles have come. They have come for one great reason: that
you might behold forever the glory of God in Christ, and by beholding
become the kind of person who delights in God above all things, and
be delighting display his supreme beauty and worth with every-
increasing brightness and bliss forever. (pp. 37-38)

My takeaway from this is that what changes us is delighting in Him in

whose image we are being remade. Delighting in divine grace propels
us toward Christ. It is not a pursuit of a “must do” list of Christian
duties that moves us toward change, but rather submitting ourselves
to the one we love to serve. Application of the gospel in the process
of changing the heart of the believing sinner is not simply changing
beliefs (though that is involved), but rather ever-increasing changes
of affection—that is, what the heart delights in.
Piper is right. While the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of
Jesus, what makes it good news is that it provides a means whereby
we can get to God, whom by the very grace He freely gives changes
us to delight in Him. Spiritual disciplines, in this context, become a
means to a pleasurable end—that is, knowing God and enjoying Him
both now and forever.
We need to rethink what we are asking people to do when
encouraging them to embrace the gospel. Consciously we are asking
them to consider that God is the object of the longings of their
naturally rebellious and deceitful hearts. In application to our own
hearts we are acknowledging the same. Faith, not works, is the
means by which we come to know God, taking Him at His word that
the end of our pursuit for pleasure, safety, meaning, and life will only
be found in Him. Our precious Savior died to this end, that He might
bring us to God.
Considering this gospel reality reorients us to a different view of heart
change, one that makes Christ the center, because we love to behold
His glory, rather than a duty-oriented approach that centers on self.
The gospel is God—He is the good news. To live with and enjoy Him
is essence of life.

To believe in Jesus is to embrace him, rely on him, trust in him. To

believe in the gospel is to admit that you can’t save yourself and to
choose to rely totally on Jesus to save you.

The gospel is good news because it proclaims a salvation that Jesus has
already accomplished and overcome and that we need only embrace
that.

GOD LOVES US
1 John 4:8-9

God is love

Next, John says "God is love." Sublime as this is, some have
misunderstood it because it can be misleading. God is not
just an abstraction like love. He is a living, dynamic, and
powerful Being whose personality has multiple facets. He
cannot be boxed, wrapped, and presented as merely being
one attribute.
John's statement literally reads, "The God is love." The
Greeks used an emphatic form of writing, and here the
emphasis is on the word "God." The syntax means the two
words "God" and "love" are not interchangeable. "Love"
describes God's nature. A good paraphrase would read,
"God, as to His nature, is love." God is a loving God!

This does not mean that loving is one of God's activities, but
that every activity of God is loving. If He creates, He creates
in love. If He rules, He rules in love. If He judges, He judges
in love. Everything He does expresses His nature. God and
His nature are manifested by what He does. By love God is
revealed and known.

The very existence of life in others besides Himself is an act

of love. His love is revealed in His providence and care of His
creation. Since we are not robots, free-moral agency is an
act of His love. God, by a deliberate act of self-limitation,
endowed us to respond with mind and emotion. We are not
animals. God's love is the explanation for redemption and
our hope of eternal life. Out of love, God has given us
something to live for. Life is not just a matter of going
through the paces. We do not live our lives in vain.

God is holy
The Bible teaches that God is a holy God. The idea behind the
concept of holiness is "separation." It comes from a word meaning "to
separate or cut off." God is separate, or cut off, from everything that
is sinful and evil-He cannot tolerate sin. John wrote this truth in
figurative language.

To say that God is holy means there is no trace of evil in his

character.

Only God Is Holy

What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to
destroy us? I know who you are -the Holy One of God (Mark 1:24).
Because only God is holy, any people or objects that are said to be
holy are described in this manner because God has made them holy,
or set them apart. Therefore the term holy is applied to persons or
objects that have some type of relationship with the Lord - they are
set apart for His service.

God Is Unable To Look At Sin

Because He is holy, God is unable to look at sin.

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your
God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not
hear (Isaiah 59:2).

God's holiness demands that sinners are separated from Him. He

cannot tolerate evil in his presence.

Only God is holy. The main idea behind holiness is separation. God is
separate from all sin. He is perfect in His nature. His character is one
of flawless moral perfection. Holiness has a positive and negative
side. On the positive side He always does what is right. On the
negative side He is separate from all sin. Believers are commanded
to be holy as God is holy.