The record of Jesus has been the attention of countless for 2000 years, and there is no sign that the attention is waning in our day. The most current treatment is from modern scholarship of the last 200 years. Strangely, while there had typically been widespread agreement that the biblical account of Jesus is not true, there was very little agreement on what Jesus was actually about. Interestingly, things are coming full-circle. Certain modern scholars have come to a point of finding good reasons and grounds for accepting the basic statements about Jesus from the New Testament, leading to a revival and an increase of believers in Jesus in the world of scholarship.
Jesus, as we read him on the pages of the Bible, is back in business ... also meaning the gospel, that is the good news, attached to his name has found new credibility from the very scholarly disciplines that once sought to show otherwise.
Concerning that good news - it’s critical to know that second best news falls dreadfully short of what God has in mind for people like us. Further, his gospel is not what we would expect. God is about persons and relationships, which is why his “good news” is about a person: Jesus Christ. What makes Jesus such good news is that he alone can bring us into a personal relationship with God. Coming into this relationship is about forgiveness and reconciliation. It is about a spiritual change within, and an on going spiritual transformation that culminates in a new world and life to come where evil, suffering, and death are not. It is about putting a complete end to unrighteousness and injustice. It is for those who are “done” with the choice to go their own way without God. This opportunity of good news is part of that for which Jesus gave his life. He bore the penalty for our sin on himself at the cross, and having rose from the grave, offers each one of us the pro-life choice of knowing God.
How does this picture of God’s love and gospel affect your view of God?
Your life is part of God’s meta-narrative. You have come into the world as everyone else has and have made the same basic choice concerning God as everyone else. God offers you a new choice for a new beginning, an opportunity not found among the second rate, short-lived options we have come to settle for.
Do you sense the possibility of God beginning a new chapter in your life story? If so, how?