Tonight at Kairos, we talked about what the Gospel is and what it is not. We talked about the dangers of adding to it as well as of taking away from it. There are some out there who say we can never know what the Gospel is. I say we can, and here is what the gospel is: good news. Like my favorite radio host said, it’s not advice or self-help, it’s news and news is something that’s already been done.

The news starts off not so good. We are all messed-up sinners born crooked and wandering away from God the moment we can move. We are enemies of God and selfish. We need help and we can’t help ourselves or each other. It has to come from somewhere outside of us. It has.

The news gets a whole lot better. God came down and became a helpless infant, born of a virgin and without the sinless nature that the rest of us carry. He grew up and lived a sinless life and perfectly fulfilled the law that we could not even begin to keep.

He took our sins and died on a cross, punished even though He was completely innocent. He rose again, forever defeating death and and force that would seek to destroy us or hold us down. All disease, sickness, failty, death, addiction, stronghold or any other powers were defeated by Jesus on the cross and that defeat was sealed for ever when He walked out of the tomb three days later.

The best part is that no matter what you’ve done or how badly you’ve screwed your live over, you can start over. If you admit that you are a sinner who can’t save yourself and deserves at eternity in hell separated from God, believe that Jesus died for you and took all your failures and mistakes on Himself and paid for them, and confess that He’s the only One strong enough to save you and that you are His forever, He will save you.

Being forgiven is the best feeling in the world. To know that God sees you now as pure and righteous and holy and blameless, as if you had never sinned. This news is so good, in fact, that you and I should be beating down people’s doors to tell them about it. To love and forgive people radically because we’ve been radically loved and forgiven.

This is the Gospel, good news. It’s the best news the world has ever heard or will hear and I for one can say that it has changed my life and set me free and made me alive! I hope and pray it will do the same for you.

Amen and amen.