Good News
The West Side Herald
Wouldn’t you like to hear some good news? We all would! Bad news brings fear, pain, and sorrow; but “good news refreshes the bones” (Prov 15:30). “Like cold water to a thirsty soul,” declares another proverb, “so is good news from a far country” (Prov 25:25). Isn’t it time for some good news?
Here it is: you’re deeply, deeply loved, for no one has ever loved you like God your father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, it’s easy to doubt yourself. But never doubt Him. He knows you better than you know yourself, and He assures you, “I. Love. You.” Sometimes we’re tempted to think that if we don’t measure up, if we let Him down, if we step in the wrong place or take a wrong turn, God will give up on loving us. But your rescuer says, “I want you to know that nothing can separate you from my love for you” (Romans 8:35-39).
Good news. God majors in it. In the still of the darkness, to a gathering of lowly shepherds, the voice of an angel echoed this sweet refrain: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people,” ending in “peace on earth” and glory to God in the highest (Luke 2:10, 14). This was the announcement that the King of Kings had come among us, God incarnate in a manger in Bethlehem.
The good people of West Side want to major in good news. We want to fill your soul with good news of great joy! Because the gospel we live by is simply the announcement that Jesus Christ is Lord. God in the flesh was crucified for us all, raised to life by the power of the Spirit, and is now enthroned in heaven above. The grave could not hold him. Death could not defeat him. And because his love is limitless, nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:39). He told us so. Now, isn’t that good news?
Maybe you, like me, don’t feel good enough, strong enough, tough enough, or holy enough for such a story to be true…about you. But who did Christ die for in the first place? Those who had their act together? Those who measured up? Not a chance. When we were dead in our trespasses and sins, when we were without hope and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:1-2), God so loved you and me that He gave His son’s life for us (John 3:16).
Listen to me: if He could love you like that before you had anything to offer him, what makes you think that now, in the midst of your troubles, failures, pains, and mistakes in life, He could somehow love you less? Here is the truth of the matter: He couldn’t love you more! Can’t you hear Him crying out to you? “Nothing can separate you from my love for you!”
Nathan Guy