The right source of ‘good news’?
The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of news, disasters and drama: from the energy crisis to a new Prime Minister, the death of HM the Queen and economic chaos. It’s difficult to know which reports to believe and experience teaches all of us that WHERE we get our information from matters a very great deal!
Indeed, when it comes to the MOST important questions of life, death and eternity, the source of our information is absolutely crucial:
We saw on Sunday morning from Galatians chapter 1 that the Galatian churches had been inundated by people with information they called ‘good news’ but it involved ‘adding’ rituals and rules to what Jesus had done on the cross to save them and it wasn’t good news at all!
Any kind of news that involves ‘Jesus+’ is dreadful news, because the ‘+’ becomes the big thing we end up trying to add ourselves and we always fail to add enough.
The apostle Paul reminded them that he had been a zealous expert in all of the rules & rituals they’d heard about, but that they could only know God through faith in Jesus and what He has done.
Most importantly, Paul’s source of information was Jesus Himself: Only Jesus’ gracious activity in Paul’s life could have convinced him. Only Jesus’ message of grace through faith in Him alone can change lives and Paul was a living example of what only Jesus can do that rules & rituals can’t!
The great news for us is that Paul and the other apostles wrote down what Jesus taught them so we can read it for ourselves! For the most important matters of life, death and eternity, there is no better source of information!
Spencer Shaw