Good news is only good news in light of the bad news.
Jesus, (yes, Jesus. the guy that lived about two thousand years ago) spells this out plainly for us, he says, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” Hospitals, emergency rooms, doctors, paramedics and a like are good news, in fact great and relieving news for those with health related needs. In some cases, these are the factors on which life and death hinge from. Now, our mistake would be to take Jesus’ words and interpret them literally, in which case many of us would say; “Aha! Thanks but no thanks dude! I eat well. I exercise. I take great care of my body.” In fact, some of us may say, “I even care for myself mentally and emotionally. You see, Jesus is not for me.” However, in this case Jesus is penetrating a much deeper and critical issue.
Following that first statement Jesus says ” I have not come to call the righteous but the sinners to repentance.” Jesus equates sickness to sinfulness. And indeed we all are, not just some. We are all sick with sin. We are horribly and utterly infected. Romans 3:11 says that “there is no one righteous.” In other words, no one human in healthy spiritual condition. No one who is in good standing with God the creator. Think on it for second. Even the nice elderly neighbor in your apartment building who you help with the groceries and she responds with a warm, “gracias mijito”, has at some point in her life committed some wrong doing. The point here is not to emphasize the errors but to acknowledge that we all have the flawed and in the terms of Jesus, sickly nature. This isn’t just a moral issue, where we have failed to “follow the rules.” This is much greater. But because of our bent toward wrong and suppression of the truth, we are in spiritual disconnect from God. Ephesians 2:1 tells us that we are spiritually “dead in the trespasses and sins which [we] once walked in.” And so let’s keep it one hundred, if murder can get you the death penalty, then we would imagine that a crime against the God who created you demands the same, perhaps worse. That’s exactly how God penalizes sin – spiritual death. Romans 6:23 – “the wages of sin is death”
That was the bad news. here’s the good:
God came. Although we were the ones beefin’ with Him and were the ones infected with sin, He understood that someone who wasn’t infected, someone from the outside looking in would be the cure. And so God while we were yet sinners, his enemies, demonstrates how great his love for us that he sends Jesus, his son, to die IN OUR PLACE, FOR OUR SIN. That he would actually BECOME OUR SIN, past, present and future in order to open the door that would reconcile us to God. In fact, Jesus would go on to call himself “the door” by which people can be saved from their sin nature and saved toward God.
In order to kill the beef between God and man, Jesus is the only mediator. He is God in order to rightly forgive us of our sins and he wrapped himself in flesh in order to rightly take on our sins and put it to death when he resurrected from the dead! I’ll leave it at this. As he was being murdered for our sake on the cross, Jesus said “it is done.” The debt and forgiveness of our sins has been taken care of by Jesus on the cross. Righteousness, or spiritual health is achieved by placing your trust on him who died so that you may live…Jesus. Now that’s good news!
