Good News

Good News!

One of my roommates from college had grown up raising sheep and cattle. I remember how much he loved his animals and could tell you the name of each one even though there were dozens. Raising them was his life and living in Chicago proved very difficult for him, but he still had pictures of them which were placed all over his side of the room. I will never forget the day that I came into our room and found him broken and torn apart because he had to sell his animals. To me, they were dirty sheep and cattle which ended up in our cafeteria for lunch, but to my roommate, they were his life. I learned a lesson from my roommate that I will never forget, which pictured my Savior's great love for His sheep.

Jesus said in John 10:11, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep."

Our comparison with sheep is very accurate; sheep are generally very dumb animals, they need constant care and attention, and they have to be led because they will not go the right way on their own. We are very much the same. We go our own way and by nature we do the things that we desire to do rather than what the Good Shepherd says is right and best.

The bad news is that we are separate from God by our sin. Romans 3:23 reads, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Again, we have gone our own way. God has a standard that He has set because He knows what is best for His glory and for us. That standard is holiness; absolute perfection. If we fall short of that standard (which every one of us has), then we can have nothing to do with Him, because He will not allow sin into His holy presence. Every one of us has sinned. We have willfully and by our sin nature broken God's law and disobeyed. And so we have a problem: we, the sheep, are separated from the Master and that separation brings death.

Romans 6:23 starts saying, "For the wages of sin is death." That death is eternal; we not only die physically because of our sin, but also eternally in a second death. Hell and the Lake of Fire are very real places (Mark 9:47,48; Matthew 10:28; Revelation 20:11-15) that were created for Satan when he rebelled against God, but when we sinned, we earned our wages with it: death, both physical and spiritual.

What makes the bad news worse is that we, ourselves, can do nothing to gain our salvation from sin and death and to earn our way to heaven. Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8,9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." No works of our own can cross the gap that sin has made. Going to church or youth group will not save you. A prayer, good works, or religion will never be enough for you to reach heaven.

But there is good news in those verses. We can be saved. It is by grace through faith. In the second half of Romans 6:23, we read, "but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." And that is indeed what it is: a free gift, something that is given to us that we gain only by accepting, not by earning it.

Because our salvation cannot be earned by our own works, it must be earned by the work of someone perfect, who knew and committed no sin. And that is exactly what Jesus did. The Good Shepherd has laid down his life for the sheep. Jesus is God and He gave up the glory of heaven to become a man as we are, yet He did not sin. "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21). Because the penalty for sin is death, Christ (who met the requirements of holiness) took our place and died on a cross. He died, was buried, and rose again after three days, thus conquering sin and death.

And so salvation is by GRACE. Grace is undeserved favor; getting something we don't deserve or not getting something we do deserve.

Salvation is by grace through FAITH. Faith is believing in something; trust.

Salvation is by grace through faith in JESUS CHRIST. We must believe that what Jesus did on the cross paid the penalty for our sins. It is His work that earned our salvation.

Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ ALONE. It is not Jesus plus works; not Jesus plus church; not Jesus plus a prayer. It is believing that Jesus alone earned your salvation. It is knowing what He did and trusting God to forgive you as a free gift based on what Jesus did alone.

So, what must you do to accept the gift of God:

1. Accept the reality that you are a sinner and thus separated from God (Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23).

2. Know that only Christ can save you (John 3:16; 14:6).

3. Trust Christ to forgive you of your sins (Acts 16:29-31; John 3:36; 6:47; Isaiah 55:6,7).

Is there anything keeping you from trusting Christ as your Savior? Will you worship the Good Shepherd who became the lamb.

"Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice:

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain

To receive power and riches and wisdom,

And strength and honor and glory and blessing!

And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying:

Blessing and honor and glory and power

Be to Him who sits on the throne,

And to the Lamb, forever and ever!

Then the four living creatures said, 'Amen!' And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever."

(Revelation 5:11-14)

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