Good news in a world of bad news

They say that the “proportion of headlines denoting anger, fear, disgust, negativity and sadness” grew markedly in the US between 2000 and 2019. News reports always begin with bad news because humans have a “negativity bias”. We tend to pay more attention to negative experiences than positive ones.

I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is something about us and the good news is something about God.

1. The first good news

In the beginning God made a perfect world
“God looked over all He had made, and He saw that it was very good!” (Genesis 1:31NLT)
It was paradise. People lived in harmony with each other and with God.

2. The bad news

But the good news was spoilt when people rebelled against God. That was bad news!

Since then, everyone has sinned
^“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23).

The penalty for sin is death and separation from God
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). We deserve to die and be separated from God forever.

Judgment comes after death
“Each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

Jesus will be the judge
“They will have to give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead” (1 Peter 4:5).
Non-Christians will be judged according to whether they accepted the death of Jesus for their sin. If they did not do this, God will reject them for admittance into His heaven.

“Each of us will give a personal account to God” (Romans 14:12).
Christians will be judged according to their life.

3. The second good news

Since there was no way we could come to God, the Bible says that God came to us! That was good news!

Jesus died for our sins
“Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3).
“God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8).
Jesus suffered and died and rose back to life because of our own sins. He took the penalty or judgment that we deserve instead of us.

Jesus is the way to heaven
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to (God) the Father except through me” (John14:6).
Jesus came to provide the way to heaven for us.

If we confess our sins to God and trust that Jesus paid the penalty for them, we become a child of God
“But to all who believed Him [Jesus] and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God” (John 1:12-13).

We are to trust that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died for our sins. We can do this by praying:
“God, I have sinned against you and deserve to be punished. I have no hope of eternal life in heaven other than Jesus dying for my sin. I trust in His death for forgiveness of my sin. Amen.

Salvation is a gift from God – it is not earnt or deserved
“God saved you [delivered from sin’s penalty] by His [God’s] grace [undeserved favor] when you believed (that Jesus died for your sins). And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
No good thing that you might do will get you to heaven.

Salvation gives us eternal life with God
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave His one and only Son [Jesus], so that everyone who believes in Him (that He died for their sins) will not perish (in hell) but have eternal life (in heaven)” (John 3:16).

Summary

“God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:21).
The exchange of our guilt and sin for Jesus’ perfect goodness and righteousness is good news. But it’s bad news if we don’t trust in what Jesus did for us on the cross, because then we will pay for our own sins forever.

Jesus took our hell that we might have His heaven. That’s the best news that you will ever hear.

Background

The original version of this post (“The steps to trusting in Jesus for your eternal salvation”) was written for Joseph Samuels who passed away recently at 92 years of age.

Written, January 2024

Also see: Good news and bad news
God’s good news