Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
The Lord Jesus commanded us to "go into all the world and preach the Good News to every creature" (Mark 16:15). But can we make it too good? God Himself is a Specialist in devising what is Good News; in fact, it is He who invented it. And it is He who made it Good, like it is.
But can we take a cue from Him and devise a version that is more good (that is, better good news) than He has invented for us? If so, are we in danger of giving people a false hope so that they will someday end up at the Pearly Gates and find they can't get in?
(1) John 3:16 says that the prerequisite for eternal life is to "believe," that is to have or to exercise faith. God has given us no right to tack anything else on.
(2) Therefore we must learn what is faith.
(3) It's "heart-work" as one writer often says (cf. Rom. 10:10). Thus it's the end of arrogance, pride, and love of self.
(4) The miracle can happen only as we lookat Christ on His cross like the Israelites looked at the serpent of brass on Moses' pole. It's to contemplate Him, sense what it cost Him to save this hell-bent world and how He actually went to hell for us rather than see us be lost; it's not a "work" that you do, no list of prerequisites. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whoever believes in Him should not perish" (John 3:14, 15). There it is simple and clear: (a) He is "lifted up," (b) you see Him, (c) you "believe."
(5) "Henceforth" you are "constrained" by the love revealed there (agape) to live not for your own selfish pleasure, not for your lust, but for Him. People use a long word for that--sanctification; but it's simply living for Him as a bride lives for her bridegroom--a new center of reference for one's life.
(6) Jesus says that to resist the "constraint" of that love is "hard," the most difficult life we can live (cf. Acts 26:14; 2 Cor. 5:14-21).
(7) He also says that to let that constraint move you to such a life is the easiest life you can live "henceforth" (cf. Matt. 11:28-30, King James Version).
No need for us to invent a version of "good news" more good than that one! The ticket for entrance into the Pearly Gates is the capacity to enjoy the life that is there forever.
"Come"!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: January 13, 2007.
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