Good News and Bad News

All of us are familiar with the setup, "I've got good news and bad news - which do you want first?" Most of the time, the conversation (or joke) proceeds with "Give me the bad news first!" Why is that? Well, generally, we just want to get the bad news over with, or we want a context for the good news after we've received the bad news.

What about the Gospel? The term Gospel is from the old English gōd-spell which means "good-news" or "glad-tidings". This, in turn, was derived from the Greek euangelion (εὐαγγέλιον), which literally means "good message" or "good announcement." So, when we are proclaiming the Gospel, we are literally telling people the good news! It is an announcement of what God has done for His people, not (inherently) a way of life or acts of mercy and charity.

So, back to my original setup here - if there's a good news to tell people, isn't there a corresponding bad news that helps contextualize the good news for us? I believe the answer is a clear yes. That bad news is the law - what God holds against us for our acts of treason against Him, and breaking the moral law which reflects His very nature. Only after we understand our debt before God can we appreciate the good news of God's amazing grace he extends to us through the cross.

I will have some posts later on

• What it is is that God holds against us.
• How we can understand the relationship of law and gospel.
• How the Gospel can really become the good news instead of "good advice," or just a way to have our best life now.