The Good News - Your Daily Forward Devotional

The Good News

December 6

Read Galatians 1:3-5 (ESV)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Reflect

How does Paul summarize the Gospel in these verses?

People are desperate for good news. We long for peace and assurance that everything is going to be ok. The problem is, people look for it in all the wrong places. Deceivers and swindlers love to sell false assurances and make empty promises of good news. We often don’t discover that we’ve been taken for a ride until it’s too late.

Many in the Galatian church had bought into a lie. They had seemed to embrace God’s grace but they quickly turned from the Gospel of grace to a false gospel of works and legalism. In today’s verses, Paul reminded them of the true Gospel—that Jesus Christ gave his life in order to pay for our sins and deliver us from the wickedness of this present world.

That’s the good news! It was God’s sovereign and gracious will to send Jesus on a rescue mission to save us. But what did we need to be rescued from? We needed to be rescued because of our own sin. All of us have sinned and have fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). The prophet Isaiah said: “Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear” (Isaiah 59:1-2). Our sins severed our relationship with God! Even worse, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). The bad news is that, because of sin, we are doomed to die. Without a Rescuer, we will be separated from God in hell for all eternity.

But we do have a Rescuer! The good news of the Gospel is that “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Romans 5:8-11). Despite our sin, God loved us enough to send His Son to die in our place and Jesus willingly laid down His life on our behalf (John 10:18).

Paul said that Jesus delivered us from “this present evil age.” The world we live in is ruled by Satan, the Father of lies (John 8:44). Paul told us in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that the “god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Before we were rescued by Christ, we were blinded to the truth of the Gospel. We walked in darkness and followed the “god of this world” rather than the one true God.

But in Christ, even though we are still in this fallen world, we are not of the world (John 17:11, 14-18). We have been rescued out of this world. In Christ, we are citizens of heaven and our Savior is coming again for us (Philippians 3:20).

That is the Good News of Christ so why would we accept any other teaching about salvation? What could be better news than that?

Pray

Lord, no message is better news than Your Gospel. Thank You for giving Yourself in order to deliver me from my sin and to save me from this present dark and evil world. I didn’t deserve it but I am now a citizen of heaven and I am eagerly waiting for Your return! Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.

~ Pastor Nat Crawford

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