“For unto you is born this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11
The gospel of God is that of Christ, the Messiah, having come into this world to save sinners from sin, Satan, and death, to obtain a certain hope of life eternal, a Life that comes to dwell in the heart of all who will truly believe. The message is a group of truths, given and ordered by God, so that by the mouths of men filled with the Spirit, they can act as keys to unlock impenetrable doors of hearts and minds, to set free the captive to sin, that he or she can KNOW the living God of the gospel, the God of salvation, and the God of Glory. It is a message for ALL men, for by it one discovers that the Redeemer of all men tasted death for EVERY man, having born the sin of all on the cross. Though it will remain to be seen, when all the hearts of men are revealed before God, who has believed unto salvation, the message is to the world, and every individual in the world. “For God so loved the world…” is perhaps the greatest and most monumental truth of Scripture given to lost, rebellious, independent sinners, who have no hope apart from the intervention of God. However, in those few words is encapsulated the beauty and wonder of the God of Isaiah who declared by Isaiah’s words: “For unto US a Child is born, Unto US a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (9:6) The God of creation, perfect, good, and holy in all of His eternal, unchanging being, is also the God of Redemption, revealed throughout the Scriptures as the One who has not only provided sinful man a path to know Him, but the very means and power to choose it. Christ has paid for the souls of all men, even though all men will not come to Him for salvation. He is ever seeking the wandering, lost, thirsting soul, to bring him to a consciousness and conviction of his lost, helpless condition, so that, by the pitiful cry of a desperate heart needing to be saved, he will be heard by Divine Love, the only source of truth and power to be saved. To this one who has received this God-given thirst to Live, and that eternally, to be saved from the downward bent and trend where sin always takes us, comes the wonderful words: “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13) The descent of man into the darkness of sin and death is a certain reality, and no amount of culture, worldly knowledge, or religious duty, can stop the descent, for death will always claim its own. But the good news is that there is One who is greater than death, who has conquered it. He also has conquered every device and manifestation of sin as a dominating law, making man to be its prisoner. Christ has by His sacrifice, and the power of the Holy Spirit, broken every shackle, and Satan’s claim and control of the soul. The one who has believed in Christ, and has been born again by the Spirit, has been set free from the “world” system, over which Satan claims to be its prince and authority. When Christ died on Calvary, everything for the believer in Christ changed, for by His death, the sinner in the eyes of God, died with Him, only to be raised up with Him to know a new life where sin was no longer the soul’s master, the world had become a dead thing, but where Christ’s life had become his living power and love.
The message of the Gospel is indeed “good news,” wonderful news, for by it one can escape the certainties of godlessness, in order to enter into the kingdom of God, and a true communion with God by the Spirit.
Dear Father, Anoint us to live. In Jesus’ name, Amen.