“The Christian faith, in its earliest forms, is presented as good news. That is the original meaning of the Old English word gospel…We need, I suggest, to ask afresh: What is the good news that Jesus Himself announced and told His followers to announce as well? Most people–including many Christians–never ask themselves this question…
In many churches, the good news has subtly changed into good advice: Here’s how to live, they say. Here’s how to pray. Here are techniques for helping you become a better Christian, a better person, a better wife or husband. And in particular, here’s how to make sure you’re on the right track for what happens after death. Take this advice: say this prayer and you’ll be saved. You won’t go to hell; you’ll go to heaven. Here’s how to do it.
This is advice, not news.
The whole point of advice is to make you do something to get a desired result. Now, there’s nothing wrong with good advice. We all need it. But it isn’t the same thing as news. News is an announcement that something significant has happened…
The good news is primarily that God–the generous God, the loving God–is being honored, will be honored, has been utterly and supremely honored, in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.”
N.T. Wright in Simply Good News: Why the Gospel is Good News and What Makes it Good (New York: HarperCollins, 2015) 2, 4, 166.
The reason that all generosity flows from the gospel is because our generous God is at the heart of the good news. As we approach Passion Week and in perpetuity, let us proclaim the good news by lifting up Jesus, whose life, death, and resurrection, brought all glory to the Father. And as we do, may He draw all humankind to himself!
“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—’Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. John 12:27-33.