“The Good News is Because of The Bad News”

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is Good News exactly because it deals with the bad news that takes a terrible toll in human life. The bad news – also known as sin, although that seems to be a word we don’t want to talk about  – is real, and makes itself known in so many ways. Greed, systemic racism, rampant poverty, abuse of power for a self-serving end, an unwillingness to admit that we are not God, a desire for comfort over integrity, and a fundamental unwillingness to accept that we need what God offers us only in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, to name a few. The point is not to wallow in the wickedness of sin. And it’s certainly not to spend our time and energy pointing our fingers at all the sinners around us. Rather, it’s to acknowledge sin’s reality and power, our inability to escape it on our own, and our need to trust Jesus enough to embrace the freedom he offers us as a free gift.