Thursday, September 19, 2013
Here it comes...
Mark Roberts:
And yet, I can see the eyes rolling in the pews when I bring this up. "There goes John again, all sackcloth and ashes, I want to be happy!" All I can say is there is no happiness like the happiness one can feel when one understands the depths of depravity from which Christ pulls us with His sacrifice.
THAT is the peace that passes all understanding.
bad news grace joy sin
We'll get to these questions soon. For now, I want to note that bad news is an essential piece of the Christian Gospel, the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. If we don't grasp the bad news, we won't understand the good news. And if we don't feel the horror of the bad news, we'll miss the joy of the good news. Too often these days, Christians downplay the bad news because we don't want to put anyone off. But, by ignoring the bad news, we diminish the amazing goodness of the good news.You know, the idea that we would be saved, when we really did not need saving that much is, I think, the very definition of cheap grace. But you know what gauls me most of all is how the "bad news-less" gospel that is so prevalent today trivializes the sacrifice of Christ. Of sure, we talk about worship, we sing our happy-clappy songs and dance our joy, joy dances, but what kind of worship makes the ultimate sacrifice in history into a sort of "oh that's nice" event?
And yet, I can see the eyes rolling in the pews when I bring this up. "There goes John again, all sackcloth and ashes, I want to be happy!" All I can say is there is no happiness like the happiness one can feel when one understands the depths of depravity from which Christ pulls us with His sacrifice.
THAT is the peace that passes all understanding.
bad news grace joy sin
