What is the Good News about Jesus, really?
Sometimes we use transactional language to describe atonement, what Jesus accomplished on the cross. But the Good News is much more like a wedding than a business transaction. It’s not two-dimensional “barcode faith”—getting scanned the right way so you go to the right destination. It’s an announcement about what God is doing in the world, and how anyone can enter into it and experience it.
Scripture uses a variety of images to describe the Good News. Jesus’ dominant metaphor is the kingdom. Paul writes that Jesus’ death and resurrection is “of first importance” (1 Corinthians 15:3 ESV). Even in the Bible, there’s not just one right set of words or images to describe the Good News; the beauty of the Gospel needs multiple angles to explore its different facets.
But definitions are helpful. Here’s one way to phrase the Good News that keeps the kingdom and the cross together:
The Good News is that whoever puts their faith in Jesus as Messiah can be forgiven of their sins and enter into life in the kingdom of God, because of his death and resurrection.
The kingdom of God is at hand; we’re representatives of that kingdom in our workplaces. Our coworkers are future citizens. We’re the ones who can tell them: The time is fulfilled. Repent and believe the Good News!
Sources: Mark 1:14-15 (ESV) 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 (ESV) Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God (New York: HarperCollins, 1998).
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