with Rev Dr Chris Walker
What is the Good News?
When many secular people speak about Christianity, they think its message is one of rules and limitations. It is negative not positive, not good news but bad. Israel Folau got into serious trouble over his post: WARNING Drunks, Homosexuals, Adulterers, Liars, Fornicators, Thieves, Atheists, Idolators HELL AWAITS YOU. REPENT! ONLY JESUS SAVES. He thought he was offering a warning. He was taken to be expressing anti-homosexual hate speech and his contract with Rugby Australia has been terminated. Is the Christian message bad news? I believe it is meant to be good news. I will seek to explain what this is.
The gospel or good news is of and about Jesus. Mark’s gospel gives us this summary statement: “Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news’” (Mark 1: 14-15). The good news was that through Jesus God was establishing God’s reign. That reign is characterised by love, peace and justice in which all people, especially the least, are cared for. People could enter its sphere of influence through repentance, turning their lives around, and faith, believing this good news. They could enter God’s reign now though its full realization would be in the ultimate future.
In Luke’s gospel, Jesus went to the synagogue in his home town of Nazareth and chose to read from the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” He went on to say, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4;18-21). This is Jesus’ mission statement in Luke’s account. Jesus’ ministry was to proclaim the good news of God, heal and release people from what held them captive or oppressed them, bring sight and insight to people, and let them know of God’s love for them.
John’s gospel puts it succinctly, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God, the Creator and Lord of all, sent his son Jesus to heal and teach, to die and be raised again, that people might put their trust in him and find fullness of life. That life is a quality of life with God now that transcends even death.
What is the good news? It is that God has acted in Jesus to demonstrate God’s love and to call people into God’s kingdom. People are made ‘in the image of God’ as Genesis puts it but are also sinful and turn away from God and God’s good purposes. In Jesus God was calling people back to God and to participating in God’s desire to bring reconciliation, peace and justice to the world. Through Jesus forgiveness, reconciliation and new life was made possible. Joy and meaning in life could be found through having a right relationship with God and living for God.
This good news was offering a new start for people and has ramifications for all of creation. God was acting to bring reconciliation and renewal to the whole creation. The Basis of Union of the Uniting Church says it confesses Jesus as Lord over its own life and also confesses Jesus as head over all things, the beginning of a new humanity. It says people who respond to Christ receive the Holy Spirit which is a pledge and foretaste of “that coming reconciliation and renewal which is the end in view for the whole creation” (Basis of Union par 3). The Church’s call is to serve that end.
The good news is both personal and social, for individuals and for all creation. Jesus shows us that God loves all people even those who have turned from God and lived away from God. God longs for them to return in order to have them in God’s reign as loved sons and daughters. God intends the reconciliation and renewal of all things in Jesus Christ and God’s Spirit is at work to this end. We are called to participate in this mission of God as we wait and pray for the fullness of God’s kingdom to come. Jesus taught us to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10).
Jesus embodied the kingdom of God he proclaimed. He exemplified the good news he announced. Hence Christians and the Christian church point to Jesus and call people to follow and learn from him. Jesus is not just a teacher or prophet but God’s own son. He was prepared to give his life fully for us even to the point of an excruciating death on a Roman cross. Sinful, unjust people, however, did not have the last word. Jesus did not die a martyr’s death to be remembered as a person who died for his cause. Jesus was raised by God to be the living Lord. Jesus is now one with God, the second person of the Trinity. Christians had to expand their understanding of God to include Father, Son and Spirit, not as three gods, but bound together as one triune God.
Jesus has come. God’s kingdom has begun. This is the good news. We are called to respond to Jesus and his message of God’s reign by repentance and faith that we might receive forgiveness and the Holy Spirit. In becoming Jesus’ disciples, we are to join with others in God’s mission of bringing reconciliation and renewal to all people and to the whole creation.
Chris Walker
Chris is currently serving the Assembly of the Uniting Church as the National Consultant for Theology and Discipleship.
He has served in a range of positions and places in the Uniting Church including local church ministry in three congregations in NSW, as a regional education and mission officer, and consultant for evangelism and discipleship, in Queensland, as principal of Parkin-Wesley College in SA, and as a mission resource officer for Parramatta-Nepean Presbytery.
He has a passion for theology, mission and discipleship. His interest in writing has resulted in various publications including five books, most recently Peace Like A Diamond: facets of peace (Spectrum, 2009) and Living Life to the Full: Spirituality for today’s baby boomers (Openbook, 2005).