The UTMOST Good News

When you hear the phrase,  “the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ”, what immediately comes to mind??  What does it mean to you?  The first thing that comes to my mind is how, in His deep love for His children, the King of kings, the LORD of lords came down from His heavenly throne to take the form of a man in order that He may save and cleanse us from our sins and give us eternal life. (John 3:16, Romans 5:8-11, Titus 2:11-14).  This is good news indeed, for without the gift of Jesus Christ, we would all perish in our sins.

BUT my eyes have been opened to something deeper about the gospel.  For so long in my Christian walk, I have not feared or reverenced GOD enough.  I realize there are many factors that have contributed to this in my life, but one thing popped out at me the other day in my devotions.  It wasn’t a brand new revelation, but rather a revealing of a perfect example of something I have struggled with —- my perspective of Christ.

” For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it {the} righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; …”  (Romans 1:16-17a)

These verses state that within the GOSPEL,  the righteousness of GOD is revealed.  What does this mean??   The good news is so much more than what Christ has done FOR us!  It reveals GOD’s RIGHTEOUSNESS.  In other words,  it reveals an important ATTRIBUTE of who He is.

So much of how I viewed Christ focused on His blessings towards me.  In other words, I focused on what I would get from Him.  This perspective is a self-centered focus, rather than GOD-centered! I see now why I have struggled truly fearing and reverencing Him — I did not have a proper focus of Him and His glorious and holy attributes!  How can we really reverence GOD if we don’t really know who He is — His nature???  I don’t want to lessen the importance of His powerful works and gifts that He has demonstrated and bestowed upon us.  But if that is all that we focus on, we will clearly miss knowing Him in a more intimate way  — a way that will bring about awe, reverence and Godly fear of Him.

So this CHRISTmas (and throughout our Christian walk), may our perspective change to one that is FIRST focused on who CHRIST is, not just on what He has done!  This is the UTMOST good news — knowing Him and Him alone!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!  Glory to God in the highest!

Soli Deo Gloria!