I am a firstborn daughter. And like many stereotypical firstborns, I was an overachieving student, receiving straight A’s throughout most of school.
My sister, on the other hand, even though she’s brilliant and savvy, struggled in a typical school setting; she needed more freedom to explore. As a result, she would typically receive lower grades than me.
When we brought home our report cards each term, my parents were, of course, proud of me, but the normalcy of my good grades soon grew lackluster. They stopped cheering or being as excited because they grew to expect that I would get good grades.
My good grades became normal. My sister, on the other hand, would receive a C+ and they’d be like, “You can get your ears pierced! You can have friends over! You can have a reward of your choosing!”
So, while my good grades were good news, that good news soon became old news.
The point is. So often, good news can become old news. The fact that I got straight A’s was great news, but nobody cared anymore because it was rote, stale, and expected.
Good news can become old news when you hear it often enough.
That is particularly true for many of us when it comes to the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For some of us, we’ve heard the gospel most of our lives.
We’ve even loved the gospel and been transformed by the gospel. But if we’re being honest, sometimes the good news of Jesus’ death, resurrection, salvation, and return — can become old news for us.
For those of you who are new to church, or new to Jesus, I hope you haven’t lost your fire for him. But I think for many of us, if we aren’t careful to pursue the presence of God and the Spirit’s reign in our lives, the good news can become old news.
Romans 3:21-26 says, “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood — to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished — he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
If the good news has become old news to you, here are a couple of “Good News” to remember from the above passage of Scripture.
There’s a concept in theology called The Kairos moment...which is the fitting moment, the right time, a divine-alignment moment.
And what the above passage in Romans is saying, is that at the very, right, perfect moment — when all of history was ready and ripe — Jesus died for us — so that we might be freely justified by his grace.
What that means, is that God’s “arm” was not twisted; God wasn’t like, “Oh, I guess I’ll forgive them and set them free if I must.”
Rather, God offered his justification freely for us through the costly sacrifice of Christ — at the perfect time he had decided beforehand.
God waited for the perfect timing so that we would know his salvation. And, still today, God continues to work all things out in his perfect, kairos timing.
The idea of justification today is like a criminal’s record being expunged. All of those things we’ve done or left undone, our own sin against God and each other, our own apathy, our unwillingness to worship or submit to God — all of that has been annulled, abolished, deleted, eradicated, erased, and exterminated freely and graciously because of Jesus’s death on the cross.
When I was growing up, I thought that when we died, we would have a heavenly television screen revealing our secrets.
We’d go to heaven and God was going to make us sit and watch the story of our life, all while pointing out all the ways we’d messed up, or been selfish, or chosen sin instead of obedience.
But when we put our faith in Jesus, Romans 4:4 says, “Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will not count against them.”
When we put our faith in Christ, our sins are removed. There is no TV screen or record against you. It has been deleted and expunged.
We’ll unpack more of what the good news means for us today in Part 2.
For further reading:
How Can Christians Knock Down Fear of the Future? Part 1
How Can Christians Knock Down Fear of the Future? Part 2
3 Truths That Christians Can Cling to in Confusing Seasons of Life
What Does ‘The Good Life’ Really Mean for Christians? Part 1
3 Ways to Remember God’s Presence When He Feels Absent to You
6 Ways to Help Children with Big Feelings
6 Ways to Honor Your Pain When Grief Catches You by Surprise
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