GOOD NEWS
We sang in our hymn, ‘Ne’er such news since time began!’ (Hymn 219). There never has been such news as God’s word in the glad tidings. There is so much information available in the world, it is so easily accessible these days, so much in the way of news, most of it bad. Nearly all of it has no relevance to us. Some of it might be interesting and we need to be informed about what is happening, but the news that comes from heaven has relevance to every one of us. Everyone needs it, for we all have a need and it is news from heaven having relevance to every man, woman and child. “As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country”. A thirsty soul needs water and you, dear friend, need the glad tidings concerning God’s Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. It is all about God making Himself known in the Lord Jesus, the good news of what the Lord Jesus has done. It is not about ourselves. Since the fall of man, since the craft of the serpent deceived Eve, and Adam through her, divine speaking has been related to the truth as to God. The serpent deceived the woman as to God. The enemy has been successful in deceiving persons about what God is like, about the truth as to God. That truth was fully made known when the Lord Jesus came here. Wonderful news, good news.
The angel in Luke 2 said “Fear not, for behold, I announce to you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people; for to-day a Saviour has been born to you in David’s city, who is Christ the Lord” (vv.10,11). What wonderful news coming to a nation. Jesus came to the nation of Israel, which was mainly far away from God, but the news was that there was a Saviour born to them. We can extend that to His being a Saviour for all. The word Saviour means that you can do nothing for yourself. That is the force of the word. You can do nothing to save yourself, so we each need a Saviour, and the good news is that this One, Jesus, came in. God manifest in flesh; God Himself came in the person of Christ to be a Saviour for sinners. How wonderful, what blessed news, just what each of us needs; “glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all the people; for to-day a Saviour has been born to you in David’s city, who is Christ the Lord”. How personally great He is; no mere man, but a real Man, come in as a Saviour.
Paul could say “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first”, 1 Tim.1:15. We all have to take our place as sinners. Jesus coming in as a Saviour would be in vain in your case, dear friend, if you did not realise that you need a Saviour. Each one needs a Saviour. The only way we can come into right relations with God is through this blessed Saviour, “for to-day a Saviour has been born to you”, “glad tidings of great joy”. What a wonderful thing it was at that time, and how blessed it is. Another hymn speaks about ‘Glad news from heav’n!’ (Hymn 123). The Lord Jesus is no longer here, He is now at God’s right hand as a Saviour for sinners. What blessed news that is. Do you realise you need Him? Do you realise you need a Saviour? We are all sinners, we have all partaken of that poison of the serpent, we are all on the same ground in that way, therefore we all need a Saviour. We can do nothing to save ourselves. Come to it that you are a sinner in need. The good news is that there is a Saviour who has been provided; “God will provide himself with the sheep for a burnt-offering”, Gen.22:8. God has provided Christ, God has delivered Him up.
How immense these things are. The Lord Jesus was here in His pathway, displaying God’s goodness to men, women and children. He did not turn persons aside, he was available to all who were in need. He did not immediately raise the moral question with that woman at Sychar’s well (John 4). He knew all about her, although she did not realise that to start with. He knows all about each one of us. Jesus, the Creator, approached her in wondrous grace, asking for a drink from a sinner such as she was. How lowly! He sat just as He was, weary with the way He had come, but able to draw alongside that woman, make Himself available to her and win her trust. That is the kind of God we have, as we sing, ‘God manifest in flesh, O wonder of His universe!’ (Hymn 400). That is how Jesus was here, and He is still the same. When the Lord was here, persons were attracted to Him because of the kind of Person He was, the grace that marked Him, the lowliness and meekness, the Spirit that marked Him. Persons were attracted to Him, followed Him and became disciples. There was found in Him what was never seen in any other person
Then He moved on to the cross. In His pathway here, He was entirely pleasurable to His God and Father. The Father expressed that pleasure; the heavens were opened on a Man here in whom God found His entire satisfaction (Matt.3:16). Jesus was therefore qualified to go on and do His work on the cross for God and for us. If there was to be salvation, forgiveness and blessing for sinners, the Lord Jesus had to suffer and die and shed His blood. He certainly suffered from men, but then He suffered from God. He was made sin (2 Cor.5:21); God’s righteous judgment of sin fell upon Him. He cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, Matt.27:46. What words of feeling these were from the One who was the object of God’s delight and pleasure in His pathway here, but then became the object of God’s unmitigated wrath. Think of what that meant to the Lord Jesus. What grace it was on His part. The Lord Jesus suffered there for my sins as though He had been the One who had committed these sins. You might say, I cannot take that in. Well, it is true. I can think of my sins; how horrible they are, but the Lord Jesus suffered as though it was Himself who had committed them, and He bore the judgment due to them. God’s righteousness demanded that Jesus, as made sin, would bear His righteous wrath and become the bearer of our sins.
But God’s righteousness also demands that the sinner who believes in that work of Jesus is set free. It is wonderful, dear friend, that it is righteous according to God that if you believe in the finished work of Christ, lay hold of it in faith, then you are free from the penalty that was due to you because of your sins. What God’s righteousness demanded, His love provided, and that is all from the divine side; we had nothing to do with it. That is what gives us stability, and God gets the glory; it is all on the principle of grace. What His righteousness demanded, God provided in Christ; “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all”, Rom.8:32. Think of it; God’s Son there on the cross, suffering as none other has suffered, gone lower than any other. He could say prophetically, “… why art thou far from my salvation, from the words of my groaning? … And thou art holy, thou that dwellest amid the praises of Israel”, Ps.22:1,3. He justified God in the action which God took against Him on the cross. That provides God a sound basis for forgiveness and salvation. The One who has been sinned against is God. Every sin is against God; it might be against someone else, but it is ultimately against God. The One who has been sinned against is the One who is entirely satisfied with the work of Christ, with the work of His beloved Son. The One who has been sinned against is satisfied, and so we can pin our faith on that work of Jesus. If God is satisfied, why cannot I be? I can place my faith in that finished work. God has been glorified and satisfied through the work and sufferings of His beloved Son, His going into death and the shedding of His blood, His going into the grave.
God offers a full and free forgiveness. It has been said that affection comes into forgiveness. I think that is attractive. God is looking for persons to forgive, He wants to forgive you so that you might be in right relations with Himself. That is God’s attitude, dear friend, but there can be no forgiveness known by you unless you repent and have faith in Jesus’ work. It is simple. You might think it is too simple, that you would like to do something yourself to prove yourself, but then there would be some failure in it, there would be glory to you in it. That is not God’s way. The whole thing has been done outside of ourselves, so that you have to place your faith in Jesus’ work to know the relief and joy of God’s forgiveness of sins. You cannot prove to other people that you have these blessings, because it is on the principle of faith. You cannot prove to someone that God looks on you as a justified person. It will be seen publicly in a coming day that you are justified. There will be no possible charge against those who come out with Christ; it will be manifest then. But now we can have these precious secrets in our hearts. Do you have that, dear friend? Have you placed your faith in that glorious finished work of Christ? It was wonderful good news at the end of the gospels, “He is not here, for he is risen”, Matt.28:6. That was the proof of God’s full satisfaction in Jesus. God was fully satisfied in that Person when He was here as a Man, and He is fully satisfied with the work He has done. God has raised Him to His own right hand, and Jesus is available as a Saviour for sinners.
When Paul went to Ephesus, the disciples there had heard about the baptism of John but they had not heard the good news that the Holy Spirit had come consequent on Christ going on high (Acts 19:2). The Holy Spirit’s coming was a wonderful movement from the divine side. All these things are divine initiatives. God gives His Spirit to those who believe the glad tidings and who repent, who are marked by faith. He would delight to give His Spirit so that you might be maintained in the appreciation of the person of Christ, maintained independent of the resources of this world. Everything on our side in the way of enjoyment, of formation, depends on the gift of the Holy Spirit.
I find it very attractive in Acts 26 where Paul describes the news coming to him from heaven. Paul received the glad tidings direct from Christ, as he says in Galatians (Gal.1:12). He heard the Lord speaking, and Paul replied “Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest”, Acts 26:15. This is the only scripture I know of where we get the glad tidings in the Lord’s own words from His present position. That makes it very attractive to me, that the Lord Himself, from where He is, told Paul about what is involved in the glad tidings. He said, “the nations, to whom I send thee, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me”, Acts 26:17,18. That is what the Lord said to Paul. And that good news from heaven is still coming from Christ where He is, and how full it is.
So “to open their eyes”; men need light about God, light as to the work of Christ, light about God’s great thoughts, and that causes them to “… turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God”. There is nothing in between in these things; it is darkness or light, the power of Satan or God. There is no middle way. You are either a believer in the Lord Jesus and have experienced this, or you are not. We were speaking in the reading about the power of Satan. Satan holds men in bondage in so many ways; he deceives them, but the gospel turns us “from the power of Satan to God”. What a blessed thing to know God, to turn from darkness to light and to have light as to God Himself. How wonderful is the light of Christianity. Light is very important, the light that you have received, the light of the free and full salvation all based on the work of Christ, with man not entering into it at all. The light that God has for you is not only that your liabilities are all dealt with, but that He looks on you as justified, reconciled for His own pleasure. He looks on you as a son. The light of these things is immense. We cannot behave as sons if we do not know we are sons. Our responsibility is to behave as sons. Oh, the fulness of God’s thoughts in the glad tidings; “…that they may receive remission of sins”. We have been speaking of receiving remission of sins; it is not only hearing about it, but you actually receive it. What a burden is lifted off your conscience. You become free in your spirit and in your relations with God as you “receive remission of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me”.
It is not simply that you are an individual set up here with faith in the work of Christ and right in your relations with God. There are others with whom we can enjoy divine things. These are the Lord’s own words, this is what Paul had to communicate: “remission of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified”. Deuteronomy says that “Moses commanded us a law, The inheritance of the congregation of Jacob”, Deut.33:4. The law was looked at as part of the inheritance, “The inheritance of the congregation of Jacob”. For us, that is not the Jewish law. What light we have in the epistles. How would we get on if we did not have the epistles to the Corinthians? It is like the inheritance of Jacob which we have in our collective relations as we go on in this scene which has rejected Christ. These epistles from Paul are part of our inheritance, all that “God has prepared for them that love him”, 1 Cor.2:9. Think of the epistles of Paul to the Colossians and Ephesians. Ephesians especially gives us our inheritance. It is not simply that our liabilities are met, which is wonderful, but enjoying with others the greatest things that God in His sovereign goodness has conceived. It is all part of the glad tidings. We can enjoy these things individually, and enjoy them together. Paul enjoyed them individually.
Think of the Lord Jesus in His present position as “the Beloved”, Eph.1:6. All His suffering and sorrow and loneliness are over for Him. He is there in the Father’s presence with the Father’s full love and complacency resting on Him and God has “taken us into favour in the Beloved”, enjoying the same unhindered favour of a blessed God and Father. Do you know that, dear friends? The way to it is coming to know the Lord Jesus as your Saviour and Lord, receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, coming to know God as your Father, enjoying your inheritance among those that are sanctified. They are not only for our enjoyment as individuals. What a blessed thing it is to have persons to enjoy these things with. An inheritance suggests that. The thought of inheritance is lovely because you have not worked for it; it is given to you. It comes from the glad tidings; you have not earned these things, you have not merited them or even sought them. God has planned these things for us from His own side, because of the blessedness of who He is in His love. They are for us to enjoy.
What good news this is, dear friends. You might not have another opportunity of hearing such good news. Accept the blessed person of Jesus into your heart. You need Him, He is the only One who can save and we need Him as Saviour in our Christian pathway. Peter said “Lord, save me” (Matt.14:30), and Jesus immediately saved him. Keep that link with the Lord Jesus strong and real. That is what the Lord wants. It is nothing heroic, nothing spectacular, just that simple going on in quietness, carrying that Person around in your heart wherever you go and whatever you do. Persons in the world do not understand the believer and the enemy does not understand the believer. He thinks, ‘I will trip this person up’. But we have the Spirit indwelling and Christ in our heart, we have these secrets which Satan does not appreciate or understand. Therefore believers can be preserved in the living joy of our links with our blessed Saviour. May we all experience these things.
Preaching of the gospel, Kirkcaldy
15 January 2017
G.B. Grant
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