Good Advice or Good News?
One of my favorite theologians is N.T. Wright. I don’t always agree with what Wright says, but I’m always challenged to think it through.
In his book, Simply Good News, Wright distinguishes between what he calls good advice, which is often the emphasis of Christian churches and pastors, and the good news, which is the primary and ultimate message of Jesus and the New Testament.
Here’s an example of good advice - Jesus is God’s Son who died for your sins. Place your faith in Him, and you will go to heaven when you die.
Now, that is good advice! But the problem with this being the primary message of the “gospel” or “good news” is two-fold. First, it is distinctly individual, and second, its focus is more on a future event than a present reality.
Contrast this good advice with Jesus’s message, “The time has come, the Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Here’s how Wright explains the difference —
“The whole point of advice is to make you do something to get a desired result. Now, there’s nothing wrong with good advice. We all need it. But it isn’t the same thing as news. News is an announcement that something significant has happened.”
Wright continues, saying that the message of early Christians and the first-century church was that “something had happened because of which everything was now different.”
The conquest of sin and death through the cross and resurrection confirmed and established what Jesus had said all along about God’s Kingdom: it’s here, it’s among us. And someday that Kingdom will be established fully on earth. Consider these words from the last chapter in our Bibles —
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look, God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. (Revelation 21:1-4)
Our calling and responsibility as followers of the King is to live in the awareness of that Kingdom now, anticipating the Day when Eden is restored and our world once again becomes what God planned for it to be all along.
Yes, we live in a broken, fallen world, a world where injustice, heartache, and pain reign supreme. Just watch the news. But when and where we come together acknowledging King Jesus and the Good News of his present Kingdom, we experience the healing and hope that only he can bring. And we eagerly await the coming of that Kingdom in all its fulness and glory.
Now, that’s Good News!
In Christ,
Dan
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