We Could use Some Good News!

At the root of all humankind's problems is sin, which has even impacted the natural world. (So climate change is a spiritual issue?) All of humankind's problems start as spiritual issues. Wars, diseases, broken families—all of humanity's woes start with each person's broken, flawed, and selfish nature. Broken people create broken societies.

It started in a garden when our first parents disobeyed God and believed a lie God's enemy told them: "Eat this, and you'll be just like God, able to determine for yourself what is good and evil." They believed the lie and plunged themselves - and us right along with them - into the darkness of sin.

Since then, every human being has been born with a nature that tends toward rebellion toward God and selfishness. Over the generations, we've turned to governments, science, religion, and philosophy in an attempt to make sense of our inability to live in peace with each other. History and current events suggest that those things aren't working.

In the first century, the Apostle Paul, a follower of Jesus Christ, said, "As it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one" ... "For all have sinned and fall short of God's glory."

But hey, this is supposed to be about Good News!

The Bible's most quoted and memorized verse is John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Here's what that looks like.

Just over 2,000 years ago, God sent his Son, Jesus. He was born in a barn, grew up, and began His mission: reconciling humanity with its Creator. Jesus taught a group of misfits about God and God's love for each one of us.

Reconciling us back to God cost Jesus his life. The very ones he came to save nailed Him to a cross. But something bigger was at play - more than a religious teacher dying on a cross. He died for you. God's anger and judgment for your sin were poured out on Christ 2,000 years ago so that you could have peace with God and become God's child.

Jesus rose from the grave. He conquered the enemy that duped our first parents into sin. The gift of forgiveness and reconciliation with God is available to you now.

You can't earn God's gift; you can only accept it. That's the Good News! God is ready to forgive all your sins. He's the only One Who can clean your slate and give you a new beginning. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!