In the previous post, the attempt was made in explaining the goodness of the gospel. There are two more points that I would like to expound upon in regards to the gospel and why it is "good news".
Most Christians reduce Christianity and the gospel down to salvation--reconciliation to the Father and forgiveness of sin. Those are absolutely critical and are center stage in redemption, but there is more to the Cross. I think David F. Wells said it best: "Gospel truth, biblically speaking, is not a formula, not simply a relationship, not just about spirituality. It is about the triune God acting in this world redemptively, in the course of time, in the fabric of history, and bringing all of this to its climax in Christ. The message of the cross is the message that corresponds to what God actually did in space and time. And this is all part of a whole. The whole is all that God had unveiled of himself and of how he views the world." Did you catch that last sentence? God has unveiled himself [in Jesus Christ] of how he views the world. What Wells is saying is that there is a way that God intends for his people to view the world and do life in our place of inhabitance. This includes personal relationships, work relationships, child-rearing, finances, etc. Because of Jesus, we now can understand how God wants and intends for us to view Him (theology), how he wants us to do life with the people we encounter (ethics) and how he wants us to relate to things (cosmology). Since Jesus has made it possible for us to please God through his death (Hebrews 11:6), we gain from this that the cross also makes it possible to please God in all areas of our lives, not just in terms of reconciliation to the Father. It is because we are reconciled through Jesus that we can please God in every area of our lives. Without Jesus, you cannot have a worldview based on him or his word, and you cannot please him. So the conclusion that we can draw from all of this is that through Jesus we are able to do life and view the world in a way that is pleasing to God, in addition to the glorious gift of having our sins forgiven and having the assurance that we will one day be with our Saviour.
To put the icing on cake, metaphorically speaking, the gospel is good because it becomes our ultimate source of joy and satisfaction. Nothing will abate out longing for satisfaction on this earth except Jesus and his substitutiary death on the cross. It is because of the cross that we can have any joy whatsoever. Can you imagine the burden we would be bearing knowing that we have offended God and there was no help for us and that we would die in our condition? It is freeing to know that there is help for us--it is truly joyous! Because we don't have to bear that burden, we can enjoy the abundant blessings of God. His graciousness toward us cannot be measured. But his goodness and graciousness is not measured by the amount of blessings that we have--it is measured by his work on the cross. In understanding all of what the gospel entails, we are able to have infinite joy in Christ. John Piper took a small portion of the Shorter Catechism from the Westminster Confessions of Faith and changed one word that summarizes how we can have joy and be glorifying to God. He says "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." Having joy in Christ glorifies God. One whose heart has truly been transformed by the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, knows that He is the fountain in which all joy comes.
"Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail you, but God is the strength of my heart and y portion forever." (Psalm 73:25-26)
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