Good News or Good Advice
Good News or Good Advice?
Paul Harvey, radio personality extraordinaire, on January 15th 1982 reported a story from the American Medical News. A patient complained of an earache. The doctor prescribed eardrops (antibiotic eardrops). The patient got the prescription filled. The pharmacist wrote on the bottle: “Three drops in r ear.” “r” for right ear. However in the pharmacist’s instructions there was no space and no punctuation in them so they actually read: “Three drops in rear.” The patient said later: "I knew it sounded like a strange remedy for an earache but I dutifully applied the three drops to my rear for three days!"
Are you misreading Christianity? Are you misreading the Bible?
If Gallup polled the unchurched people in Waco, or say Dallas or New York and asked, “Is Christianity about good advice or good news?,” how do you think the majority of people would answer? Good advice would be things like: “5 Steps To Living The Victorious Christian Life,” “How To Do Hard Things For God,” “How To Kiss Dating Goodbye,” “How To Be A Man After God’s Own Heart Like David,” “Growing Kids God’s Way,” “Nehemiah’s Leadership Principles,” “How To Become A Sold-Out, Purpose-Driven, Passionate, Surrendered-All, Super-Saint, Fully Committed Follower of Jesus Christ,” and “1,000 Biblical Principles For Eliminating Stress.” Things like that.
No poll needed, the statistics are actually already in. Tim Keller in Prodigal God documents that young people are fleeing their Christian homes and Christian churches for refuge in the city (urban areas) because they are burned-out on “good advice.” Young people are fleeing the church today thinking they are rejecting Christianity.
The book of Romans says to the burned-out, burdened, and broken, “You are not fleeing real Christianity, you are fleeing ‘good advice.’” Welcome to Romans 1.16-17. Welcome to real Christianity. Welcome to good news: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’ (Rom 1.16-17).”
What is the gospel? The word “gospel” literally means good announcement, good herald, good report, or good news. In the Greco-Roman world it was used in a very specific way, as an emperor’s or king’s announcement of victory on the battlefield.
The late Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones illustrated the difference between “good advice” and “good news” this way: Barbarians invade your country (probably my ancestors the Vikings). The initial report is not good – death, destruction, desolation. Despair reigns in the land. The king assembles his army, meets the foe, and his army is obliterated. The king’s last act before a violent death is sending messengers back to the capital. What do these messengers report when they reach the capital? They herald, “Fight for your lives! They’re coming! Archers on the walls! Calvary at the gates!” The messengers bring good advice on how to survive a barbarian invasion, they bring good advice on how to save yourself.
Gospel news is different. In gospel news the king crushes the brutal invaders, slaughters them in a comprehensive victory. He then sends messengers back to the capital to announce the good news: “Victory! The King won! The war is over! It is finished! Peace! Freedom! Life! No more fear! No more desolation! We won!”
The Apostle Paul in Romans 1.1-4 says Jesus is the ultimate, universal, final King who won the war against the sinister power of sin (the enemy within) and its invading reign of condemnation and death. The Savior-King levels sin and death, no contest; it is a massacre by the surpassing power of the Savior-King’s perfect life of righteousness, his cross, and resurrection.
What is the gospel? The gospel is good news of a Jesus-victory, a Jesus-deliverance, a Jesus-salvation already won. Real Christianity is good news about what Jesus has done, accomplished, worked, or performed to save messed up people like us, not good advice about what we do, accomplish, work, or perform to try to save our selves.
This gospel changes everything. This gospel is what everyone most needs. This gospel is why Paul says he is “obligated” to preach it to those who are un-churched (verse 14), and why he is “eager” to preach it to Christians or the church in Rome (verse 15). The gospel is not the A, B, C’s of the Christian life or only what an unbelieving person needs to hear, it is the A-Z’s of the Christian life or what a Christian needs to hear. The gospel is both the power of God to become a Christian and the power of God to grow as a Christian. Are you burning out on good advice? Come back to real Christianity. Come back to good news.
Paul Harvey, radio personality extraordinaire, on January 15th 1982 reported a story from the American Medical News. A patient complained of an earache. The doctor prescribed eardrops (antibiotic eardrops). The patient got the prescription filled. The pharmacist wrote on the bottle: “Three drops in r ear.” “r” for right ear. However in the pharmacist’s instructions there was no space and no punctuation in them so they actually read: “Three drops in rear.” The patient said later: "I knew it sounded like a strange remedy for an earache but I dutifully applied the three drops to my rear for three days!"
Are you misreading Christianity? Are you misreading the Bible?
If Gallup polled the unchurched people in Waco, or say Dallas or New York and asked, “Is Christianity about good advice or good news?,” how do you think the majority of people would answer? Good advice would be things like: “5 Steps To Living The Victorious Christian Life,” “How To Do Hard Things For God,” “How To Kiss Dating Goodbye,” “How To Be A Man After God’s Own Heart Like David,” “Growing Kids God’s Way,” “Nehemiah’s Leadership Principles,” “How To Become A Sold-Out, Purpose-Driven, Passionate, Surrendered-All, Super-Saint, Fully Committed Follower of Jesus Christ,” and “1,000 Biblical Principles For Eliminating Stress.” Things like that.
No poll needed, the statistics are actually already in. Tim Keller in Prodigal God documents that young people are fleeing their Christian homes and Christian churches for refuge in the city (urban areas) because they are burned-out on “good advice.” Young people are fleeing the church today thinking they are rejecting Christianity.
The book of Romans says to the burned-out, burdened, and broken, “You are not fleeing real Christianity, you are fleeing ‘good advice.’” Welcome to Romans 1.16-17. Welcome to real Christianity. Welcome to good news: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by faith’ (Rom 1.16-17).”
What is the gospel? The word “gospel” literally means good announcement, good herald, good report, or good news. In the Greco-Roman world it was used in a very specific way, as an emperor’s or king’s announcement of victory on the battlefield.
The late Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones illustrated the difference between “good advice” and “good news” this way: Barbarians invade your country (probably my ancestors the Vikings). The initial report is not good – death, destruction, desolation. Despair reigns in the land. The king assembles his army, meets the foe, and his army is obliterated. The king’s last act before a violent death is sending messengers back to the capital. What do these messengers report when they reach the capital? They herald, “Fight for your lives! They’re coming! Archers on the walls! Calvary at the gates!” The messengers bring good advice on how to survive a barbarian invasion, they bring good advice on how to save yourself.
Gospel news is different. In gospel news the king crushes the brutal invaders, slaughters them in a comprehensive victory. He then sends messengers back to the capital to announce the good news: “Victory! The King won! The war is over! It is finished! Peace! Freedom! Life! No more fear! No more desolation! We won!”
The Apostle Paul in Romans 1.1-4 says Jesus is the ultimate, universal, final King who won the war against the sinister power of sin (the enemy within) and its invading reign of condemnation and death. The Savior-King levels sin and death, no contest; it is a massacre by the surpassing power of the Savior-King’s perfect life of righteousness, his cross, and resurrection.
What is the gospel? The gospel is good news of a Jesus-victory, a Jesus-deliverance, a Jesus-salvation already won. Real Christianity is good news about what Jesus has done, accomplished, worked, or performed to save messed up people like us, not good advice about what we do, accomplish, work, or perform to try to save our selves.
This gospel changes everything. This gospel is what everyone most needs. This gospel is why Paul says he is “obligated” to preach it to those who are un-churched (verse 14), and why he is “eager” to preach it to Christians or the church in Rome (verse 15). The gospel is not the A, B, C’s of the Christian life or only what an unbelieving person needs to hear, it is the A-Z’s of the Christian life or what a Christian needs to hear. The gospel is both the power of God to become a Christian and the power of God to grow as a Christian. Are you burning out on good advice? Come back to real Christianity. Come back to good news.
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