The good news that is actually good

So what is the good news of God in Jesus?

It is that the life that was lost in Adam in the garden of Eden and the resulting sin that was brought into the world has been handled.  

Jesus came into the world, died for our sins - all of them, past, present, and future - and after the resurrection, sent the Holy Spirit, so the life that was lost has been restored.

Anyone who trusts in what God has done in forgiving all sin through Jesus can have him come live in them through the presence of the Holy Spirit and he will, forever.

And that's it.

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What does that mean for us?  

It means that God has reconciled us to himself.  We can simply acknowledge what he's done, accept it, and live in the peace with God he has provided.

For the first Christians, mainly Jewish people by background, it meant they no longer needed to have a priest offer sacrifices on their behalf for forgiveness of sin or anything like that.  

Jesus was the final high priest and the last and only sacrifice that took away all sin and made it possible that the Holy Spirit would never have to leave again.

For Christians from other, non-Jewish backgrounds, it meant some of the same things - no longer going to a pagan temple to offer sacrifices to make other gods happy, etc.

The divide between God and man was and is taken care of.  There's no more list of commandments to keep like the Jewish people did.

We are free to be loved by God and to love others with the love he has given us. Ditto with grace, forgiveness, etc.  

He's not mad at us.  He doesn't count sin against us, so we can stop thinking about that and quit asking for what he's already provided and done, permanently.

He doesn't require that we do a bunch of junk for him.  Like, at all.

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He's also given us a lot of gifts of guidance through the Holy Spirit.  He provides those in different ways, but mainly through his people, where His Spirit lives.

He gave us a lot of what we need to know - the basics - by having some of his early people write down different things about Jesus, what God has and is doing, how we can live fully in this new way, etc.

In basic terms, he gave us himself, each other, and a lot of information to digest over time.  We're fully equipped, even if we don't know about it all just yet - we lack nothing to live in peace with him and each other.

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We can get together with each other as often as we can or like, mainly to teach what we've learned, encourage and strengthen each other, and be reminded and "spurred on" or re-excited about the good news!

We can take care of one another, especially when someone is having a hard time with something in life.  If we feel led to, we can pool our financial resources to do things to serve other people.  

It's not a requirement from God, but a blessing we can access out of our gratitude to God.  And if it's not out of gratitude, we shouldn't do it - like, at all - it's not a requirement.

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We are actually not commanded to "do church" or "do temple" or anything formal like a lot of people do.  It's probably inevitable that, over time, people do formalize things, but it's not required by God - usually it's something people turn into a requirement and then say it's required by God.  That's not true.

Anything we do when we get together is to remind and encourage us of the good news - and that's it.  It's not a spotlight on people or anything like that.

We're not required to sing to God - what can we tell him he doesn't already know?  We're not required to sit and listen to someone's speech and pretend it's great.  We're not required to do most of what people have been led to believe is required - church kinds of stuff.

Gather together and remember Jesus?  Sure thing!  Encourage each other?  100%.  Share what you've learned or gotten from God?  Always.

Show up every Sunday morning in clothes you don't normally wear, putting on a smile that you wouldn't give to the average person at the store, engaging in things that are potentially only remotely connected to your everyday life?  Sure, if you want to - go for it.  

But that's your choice.  It's not something from God that you have to do.  Enjoy it, have a good time with it, but don't go around telling people that it has something to do with God's good news as a kind of requirement that he made after Jesus did all the work already.

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There are some who will read this and rejoice because it is good news!

There are some who will read this and think I've lost my mind because they're unable to separate all the things that humanity added to the good news of Jesus that is not from God, but they think it truly is.

Whichever camp a person may be in, I'm just glad you have read it and know it.  

And if you share it with others, even if it's only to critique or criticize it, at least other people will hear it through your critique and that's a win to me!  I'll take it.

May you be blessed by God and the good news he has brought through Jesus.

Grace and peace.