The Gospel for Every PersonSample

Have you ever received news that has significantly changed your life?

For better or for worse, news has the potential to alter the trajectory of our lives in an instant. Good news has the potential to lead us into a fruitful and wonderful season, whilst bad news can send us spiralling into dark, unhealthy spaces.

No news can change the life of someone more powerfully than the good news of Jesus of Nazareth.

There is no message more powerful, no story more significant, no account more life-changing, and no news story as transformative as the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The New Testament authors liked to describe the story of Jesus of Nazareth as ‘good news’, often translated in our Bibles as ‘the gospel’. These authors shared many reasons the gospel is indeed good news.

In Romans 10:9-11 Paul provides us with two reasons Jesus is good news.

First, it is good news that Jesus Christ is the Lord. For many living in democratic countries, lordship can be a difficult idea to grasp. Lordship refers to the rule, reign, power, and authority that Jesus holds. In Jesus' case, it refers to all power and authority in heaven and earth being given to him (Matthew 28:18). In other words, no other being in all the world is as powerful as Jesus. If any other human had to receive such power it would be disastrous, but the good news for us is that Jesus is unlike any human. He is perfect, gentle, and humble of heart (Matthew 11:29). To come under his lordship means to come under the care of the most powerful being in all the universe and to live in his way, which leads to life and life in abundance (John 10:10).

Second, he is Saviour. We were born into a bad-news story. All of us were born into a broken world, separate from God because of sin, which corrupted the human heart and left us spiritually dead. There is absolutely nothing we can do to save ourselves from ourselves. But Jesus came to do what we could not do, to lift us out of the pit of death and into a life with him.

The good news is news of a person who is for every person, news of a Saviour who loved all of humanity so much that he came to earth to die in our place, news of a Good King who rose from the dead and inaugurated a new kingdom in this world.

Application

Spend some time meditating on the meaning of Jesus being Lord and Saviour. What does it mean for Jesus to be your Saviour? What has he saved you from and what might he have saved you for? What does it truly mean for Jesus to be your King? What area in your life might the Holy Spirit be challenging you to bring under his lordship?