Good News

Have you ever considered any of these questions?

‘How can I live a good life?’

‘Why is there so much suffering in the world?’

‘How can I feel better about myself?’

‘Why is my marriage in such a mess?’

‘Is death all we have to look forward to?’

God’s good news provides a comprehensive answer to all the big questions of life, satisfying our desire for truth and hope, and our need for forgiveness and healing.

What’s our problem?

Sin is doing anything that misses out on God’s best for us and for the people around us. If we are living in any way that excludes God we are in rebellion against him. Each one of us has been harmed by sin, which is why the world is so screwed up. In our pride and selfishness we often look to what we do in life, or our relationships and pleasures, to give our lives meaning and fulfilment. This might seem to work for a while but these things will always let us down in the end.

The condition of sin makes us blind to our own pride, selfishness and wrongdoing, making us very reluctant to admit to having done anything wrong. We love to blame someone else. Our sin creates a barrier between us and God. His standards are perfect, and his holiness means that there is nothing we can do to make ourselves acceptable to him. Our sin separates us from God and leads to death.

Jesus to the rescue

As we were helpless to remove the barrier of sin that separates us from God, the only solution was for God to deal with it on our behalf. God achieved this by coming into the world in the person of his Son, Jesus. He alone lived a sinless life. The life of service to God that Jesus led, his powerful acts and his authoritative teaching provide examples to us to follow in our own lives – we are to love our neighbours as much as we love ourselves, love our enemies, and forgive others as we have been forgiven by God. However, God’s rescue plan hinges on one monumental act of sacrifice – Jesus dying on a cross to fully pay the price for all our sin, by which every barrier between us and God was torn down forever.

The punishment we deserved for our rebellion was poured out on Jesus. He who was blameless took the blame for our sin. What’s more, because we are now in Jesus, his Father in heaven looks at us and sees the beauty and holiness of his Son in us, and extends all the love, honour and blessing that was reserved for Jesus to us, adopting us into his family for evermore.

Finding forgiveness

Through the work of Jesus on the cross, you can receive forgiveness right now from God. Being forgiven by God is an end to bitterness, selfishness. pride, all the negative in our hearts and lives. It makes a new beginning. A new relationship with God. The old has gone. Everything is wiped clean. A clean slate. A new start. God changing us on the inside… Forgiveness leads to an end of all guilt, the restoration of relationships, inner peace and freedom from the hurt caused by living for ourselves in a broken world. But we must be ready to personally ‘own’ our sin before God to access his forgiveness.

Receiving the gift of forgiveness

Use the following steps as a pattern for asking God to forgive you:

Tell God that you are sorry for the bad stuff in your life.
Ask God to forgive you, acknowledging that Jesus died to take all the guilt, shame and blame that we deserve.
Ask Jesus to come into your life and show you how to live for him. He will!

New power, new life, new destiny

Once you ask Jesus to come into your life, he will give you the power to live for him, not by doing lots of showy religious things on the outside, but by changing your attitudes and behaviour from the inside out. The word ‘repentance’ means turning from what we once were and once did, and going in the opposite direction, living for God and finding out what he wants for our lives.

Jesus didn’t just stay in the tomb. He rose again and has conquered the grave. He lives today, and through the Holy Spirit, God gives us power to live as Jesus did. What’s more, when you give your life to Christ, you have everlasting life. You don’t need to be afraid of death. God loves you and will be with you always. Tell someone else about what he’s done for you. You may just save a life!

If this article has impacted you, why not contact us and discuss it?