The Good News

See the Good News expounded by Paul in Romans 1:

16 “For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. 17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in His sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

Notice the gospel (Good News) is the message that tells us "how God makes us right in His sight" and how this is accomplished from start to finish by faith? See how God make us right in His sight in Romans 3-

“26...and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. 27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.”

Keeping the Law in order to maintain a life of godliness or generate goodwill with God is not involved in our attainment of right-standing with God. The law is not of faith. Trying to obey the law (dependence on human effort at obedience) in order to be godly ("be like God" like Adam and Eve did) or for whatever reason at all is being faithless and isn't the Good News about Christ.

This is the crux of the gospel: Righteousness by faith.

Romans 5:9 says: "And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in My sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God."

In Christ, "never" above does not mean "until your next sin." Never means never. But some wolves in sheep's clothing will tell you who are a child of God to expect the wrath of God to fall on you for the same sins that Christ suffered and died to free you from. This false doctrine is as evil as beating a child for bedwetting and expecting him to stop by this means. A loving parent will wake the child up in the night as many times as possible to get her to go and pee until the situation is controlled. How much more our Saviour Jesus Christ of whom it is written in Titus 2:14-

"He gave His life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us His very own people, totally committed to doing good deeds."

God's abundance of Grace and His everlasting gift of righteousness to us in Christ is not to make us free to go on sinning sprees as many who do not yet understand and feel that everyone except them is just itching to commit sin believe. Without His gifts, we would never experience freedom from sin and death, no matter how hard we try.

But many feel that they are doing a good job of being sin-free by their own power. Many feel that there is more to salvation in Christ and that this "more" is driven by human effort at being good (godly) by keeping the Law. Believer, Christ is not in the business of saving sheep who think:

"I have done my best to be good/godly/like God. Jesus will see that I have tried and consider me."

Such feel that they have some good in them. This is the height of self-righteousness and hypocrisy. There is something about the arm of flesh (dependence on human effort at obedience) that wants to be relevant in the story of our salvation. That something is Pride. God's word says human effort (the arm of flesh) will fail, is powerless and cannot — Romans 7:18 —

"For I know that nothing good lives within the flesh of my fallen humanity. The longings to do what is right are within me, but will-power is not enough to accomplish it."

But Pride in the arm of flesh (human effort) that will fail says:

"No, I can. God must be wrong. I still have some good in me. I can keep the law and overcome sin by my will-power."

The earlier every believer understands that of ourselves, there is no good in anybody, the better. Like Peter who boasted in his own strength and ended up falling flat on his face when Satan came a-sifting, many wrongly believe that they have the will-power to do what is right and keep the law.

Peter's example shows us that good intentions will get one nowhere when one is tempted beyond what he can bear. He denied Christ thrice after boasting in himself and knowing 100% that he wouldn't. No sin is beneath anybody. The reason why we are not committing particular sins is because God did not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:12-13.)

Life does not conduct SWOT analysis before throwing weights at anybody, so what do you do when you are thrown a weight that you cannot carry? Conditions like fear, depression, anxiety, chemical imbalance in the brain, oppression, etc often makes man do the improbable, as it was with Peter, but sometimes, we whom God is not allowing Satan to sift like wheat go about pointing accusing fingers at “hard core sinners,” feeding more dos and don'ts (the Law) to people who are already burdened with weights that they cannot carry and saying things like "I can never do that."

The potential to commit heinous crimes is in everybody. God sees this potential and how favourable circumstances can make some people think that some sins are beneath them or that they can obey the Law and overcome sin by their will-power. Believer, let's not be found depending on the arm of flesh (human effort.) The arm of flesh (human effort at keeping the Law/suppressing sinful desires) will fail and when it does, those suppressed sinful urges will explode in a volcanic eruption of sins that lead to death.

Jesus never fails. He came to save us from our sins. Matthew 1:21 says of Him:

"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

Believer, whatever preaching leaves you (believers only) feeling that demons are going to jump you if you don't by yourself have and use a particular set of skills that only this one pastor can give you; whatever sermon tells you that what Jesus did at the cross has not already broken all generational and other curses; whatever sermon tells you that as a believer in Christ, you have to stand in your own righteousness from obeying the law and not that of Another - Jesus Christ; beware of such. They are not of Faith. Not the Good News. They will only keep one locked down under sin's dominion:

"For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under Grace." Romans 6:14.

Only by receiving God's abundance of Grace (undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour) and His gift of righteousness to us in Christ do we get to live in triumph over sin and death, including every symptom of death such as stress, stupid mistakes, sickness, lack, depression and all earthly ills:

""And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ." Romans 5:6-17.

This is Grace- undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour. Grace is the gospel of Christ. Grace is the Good News about Christ.