Apologetics

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Hi, today (11th July’09) I’ll be writing on a topic of my own after a very long time, well it is “Why the message of the Bible is called Good News”. This is something I was explaining to a colleague of mine yesterday & I thought, why don’t I let what I said go through my finger tips.

Now to answer this question, I would like to tell you that the message of the Bible says that we are saved purely by grace.

John 1:17
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Romans 3:23-24
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

The most common notion of God is that you do good and impress God and you are rewarded with eternal life. So man through out the ages man has tried everything he could imagine to please God. Man has tried offering sacrifices, praying as often and possible, charity, performing lengthy rituals, fasting, bringing pain in different sought of ways to oneself to show selflessness & devotion to God, making a personal sacrifice in one’s life to please God, making pilgrimages & the list goes on.

So you see when God was preached to people, the most common thing that occurred to people was will I ever be worthy to set foot in heaven. People who did all of the above, still felt unsure of heaven, many did all of the above out of fear of punishment or hell. All who wanted heaven did all the good possible with the purpose of going to heaven but with all that they did, they could not keep sin out of their lives.

Now when the Bible/Gospel was preached, it was preached that God was an unconditional lover. A God who loves us so much that he does not keep track of wrongs.

1 John 4:16
16 ….God is love, ……

1Corinthians 13:5
5 ….; love does not keep a record of wrongs;

Now you all know that God is just & knowing this you will ask me that how can the Bible says that God does not keep track of wrongs when he is just. Well the very same just God also happens to love us unconditionally and it is this love for us that made God pay the price of sin, which was death by Himself dying for our sin.

So you see when the Bible was preached, the people were told that the Kingdom of heaven was now at hand because there was no question of sin for those who believed what Jesus had done for them. Let me give you some scriptural support.

Mathew 10:7
7 And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'

Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As you can see from Romans 6:23 was that God gave us the eternal life for FREE in union with Christ. The FREE mean it does not require work from the believer, for his salvation. Here is some more support.

Titus 3:4-6
4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

So you see eternal life was at hand just by believing in Jesus because when you believe in Jesus you believed that your sins had all been paid for on that cross. So for every believer it was “Heaven here I come”. Here is some supporting scripture.

John 3:16
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

So this is what the Good News (Gospel) was all about, salvation is yours all for free in Jesus without you requiring to do any obligation. Now I know you will ask me that, is not God pleased when you do good? Well my answer is yes he is but I don’t feel God or take for matter anybody would be impressed if someone were to do good, either out of obligation or to get good in return (eternal life). The good the Bible talks about comes this way,

• you may be a wretch,
• you come to know Jesus,
• you become sorry for your sins,
• you trust Jesus & you are saved.
• You then come to understand God’s love & you accept it because it is so irresistible.
• You then start loving God in return because of what he did to save you.

It is because of this love relationship that you then start enjoying worshiping God because you know you are already saved in Christ & your worship is through no obligation at all but out of pure joy for what God has done for you. That is why all the Churches include singing in their worship & many even dance.

I don’t know how many of you will agree with me but when there is a love relationship between …..let us take an example of a good & bad person, then even the wretch begins to change because they both love each other. The good person understand the bad persons shortcomings and the bad person begins to change to become more like the good person & that is exactly what happens with Jesus and you/me. God saves us and then changes us into the good people all through love. Here is some support.

Colossians 1:28 (Him refers to Jesus and we refers to the disciples)
28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

It is after we are saved that we are called into mission to help fellow men (physically and also tell them of the salvation that is in Christ).

Proverbs 14:31
If you oppress poor people, you insult the God who made them; but kindness shown to the poor in as act of worship.

As for prayer, the prayer the Bible talks about is one where you come to know God & learn of His sacrifice, which was just to save you. You are swiped off your feet & fall in love with God because he loved you first. It is with this love that you enjoy talking with God, sharing your joys and your troubles. As you may already know talking with God is prayer. So Christian prayer according to the Bible is made, not because you have to, not because you are bound to, or even forced to but it is because you love to. Don’t we all enjoy talking to someone we love?

1John 4:19
We love because God first loved us.

Another thing is that this Good News was preached by the disciples without using any force of any kind. The only thing they had as back up was the authority of God that was with them to work miracles of healing and to cast out demons, all in Jesus’ name.

Matthew 28:18-19 (Jesus send his disciples on a mission, after his resurection)
18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

It was all these miracles that convinced people that God was with the disciples & this exactly what made the people put their trust in Christ. You will notice that it was making disciples of the nations. It is easy to interpret that every culture, people and language was included in God’s saving plan through Christ.

I would also like to say that it is for this very reason the Bible is the most widely read book in the whole world, having being translated in so many languages. According to the Bible there is no one holy language because all thing seen and unseen including people, cultures & languages are from God himself.

This is the Good News, salvation for any man, for free in union with Christ.

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