Now That's Good News!

It is fairly common to interpret the Bible through the lenses of personal bias, group associations, or even convenience. A person can approach the Bible, read a certain section for many months and even years, and seek to read into it something that is not there. For years I have heard through preaching and books that one key role of the Holy Spirit is to convict/convince the world of sin. Sin would cover all of the unrighteous acts that humanity commits repeatedly. The purpose of a preacher and a church is to point out the wrong that people do and urge them to "repent" and believe in Jesus.

Do we need to repent? Yes. Do we need to believe in Jesus? Yes. But the critical issue that makes all the difference in the world is what is it that we need to repent of? In John 16:7-9 Jesus explains what the repentance is for. " But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate[a] (the Holy Spirit) won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment. 9 The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me (John 16:7-9 NLT).”

We by nature trust our judgment. We trust our decision-making. We are self-reliant. We believe that within us lies the ability to overcome any problem that may arise. Is that not the source of our problems in life? Is that not the reason we run into so many dead ends? Repentance is not a negative. It is a positive! Jesus is telling us that the chief sin in our life is refusing to believe in/trust in/have faith in Jesus. He is telling us “stop doing things your way, and do things my way.” Turn from a life of self-reliance and turn to a life of dependence on Jesus.

He is offering us eternal life, meaning HIS life within us by the Holy Spirit. When we trust in Jesus, we receive divine life, eternal life, the life of Christ within our very being. That is why the chief sin is refusing to believe in him. For it is only through the Holy Spirit living in us that we overcome this sin or that sin. So the message, the Good News, the Gospel, is that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead with forgiveness in his hands for all who trust him. That we can have a life in which we know and experience the great love that God has for us. That we can live a life not based on do’s and don’ts but on listening and following the leading and direction of God’s Spirit within us. That we can live a life where we are not slaves to our desires and impulses.

Ladies and gentlemen this is called the New Covenant and it is what the Lord Jesus Christ has established. Don’t you want to be a part of it?