The Bad News

The Gospel—English for euangelion—literally means “good news.” But what exactly is the good news? For there to be good news, there must first be bad news. And the bad news can be summed up quite simply: To truly understand the Gospel, you must understand both the nature of God and the nature of humanity.

The Most High—the Creator of the universe — is holy. We often think of holiness in terms of moral purity, but in this context, it means that God is completely and utterly set apart. He is unique, distinct, extraordinary, atypical, and unlike anything or anyone else. He is entirely in a category of His own. There is none like Him. He alone is sovereign, and He has no equal.

He is righteous. Everything that proceeds from Him is without blemish. His ways are higher than our ways and utterly unstained by sin. Furthermore, because of His righteousness, He must judge the evildoer.

So, what's the bad news here? Simply put, God is a good God. Wait — how is that bad news? Isn't this a good thing? That God is good? At first glance, this sounds like good news in and of itself. But that’s only half of the equation. What about the nature of man?

In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul writes the following:

“There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become worthless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.” “Their throat is an open tomb, With their tongues they keep deceiving,” “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”; “Their feet are swift to shed blood, Destruction and misery are in their paths, And the path of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” — Romans 3:10-18

We read here that the gravity of our sinful nature as human beings is much deeper than we often realize. Not only are we sinful, but in our fallen condition we are incapable of doing anything good in His sight. The apostle Paul — formerly a Pharisee — describes our throats as open graves, our tongues as filled with the venom of serpents, and our feet as swift to shed blood like that of a murderer.

The point is simple: from head to toe, surface to core, our lives are thoroughly contaminated by sin. Like a bottle of water tainted by a single drop of red dye, so too our lives become—completely permeated and stained. The dye spreads through the entire bottle, leaving no part untouched. That is a picture of our spiritual condition.

Worse yet, the things Paul lists are elements that, under Jewish ceremonial law, would render a person unclean. In effect, he is declaring that we, as human beings, are unclean because of our sin.

So the question is this: What does a holy, just, and righteous God do with sinners like us — completely stained by sin and living in active rebellion against Him? As the righteous Judge, He is obligated to condemn sinners. Like those declared unclean under the Old Testament law, we are cut off from the presence of God because of our sin, left with nothing but a guilty verdict and a swiftly approaching day of judgment.

Only when you understand both the nature of God and the nature of humanity can you truly grasp the Gospel — the good news of Jesus Christ.

The Good News

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith, for a demonstration of His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed." — Romans 3:23-25

At the cross, the most costly transaction in all of history took place. God made Him — Christ Jesus — who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. The penalty that was due to you and me was placed upon Him at Calvary. The Father’s cup of wrath — depicted on numerous occasions throughout the Old Testament — was taken from the hands of His people and placed into the hands of His Son.

This is the good news: that at the cross, the sins of those who belong to Him were paid in full, and the perfectly righteous life of Christ was credited to our account — so that one day we can stand blameless before a holy, just, and righteous God.

If you have not turned from your sin and believed in the name of Christ for salvation, cry out to Him. He alone has the power to save. No amount of good works can rescue you. But those who turn from sin and place their full trust in Christ Jesus have a sure and steadfast anchor of salvation.