In Bethlehem, the angels reached the shepherds with the Good News of the birth of the Saviour in David’s city, with the news of peace and joy. The identification of the child was also unusual, to find Him wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. The shepherds left everything to go and witness this blessed Child and finding everything the way they were told, they became exceedingly glad. In today’s life at such a fast pace, does the meaning in any way change?
What really is the Good News? God formed man from the dust of the earth and gave him life by breathing into his nostrils (Genesis 2:7 &17). Man is connected to the earth and to the Divine and for this he has a spirit, soul and a body. The spirit connects him to the heavenly and the body, through the five senses to the earthly, while the soul with all feelings and longings connects the two. The prohibition of not eating from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil was to prevent his being dominated by the earthly knowledge or be controlled by the five senses.
The woman first saw the fruit, felt and smelled it and considered it good for food and then ate it. Since then, mankind is governed by the five senses leading to all types of sin. The curse on the serpent used by the devil and devil himself was about enmity between the woman’s seed and the serpents. The final part was ‘He shall crush your head, and you shall bruise His heel’. This is known as ‘proto-evangelliun’, the First Gospel, preached on the earth by God Himself to the two first sinners and with them to all of mankind to come through them and the prince of darkness, their tempter, as the audience. This ‘Seed of the woman’ also revealed the Redeemer, the Messiah, will be born Divine, and not through any human being.
God knowingly permitted all this to happen and His plan of creation was not defeated, for He desired something greater than the innocence of Eden. He desired a redeemed man, one better than innocence, for he had to be redeemed from something and that with full realisation of this undeserved blessing. For this the Redeemer became Man, born of a woman, of the Holy Spirit, sinless, God, the Immanuel, to dwell with mankind. There are supposed to be more than three hundred prophecies about salvation through the Messiah in the Old Testament. During His ministry here on earth the Son of God fulfilled all these absolutely and in totality.
On the day of His resurrection from the dead two of the disciples were travelling from Jerusalem to Emmaus, about seven miles away (Luke 24:13-27). Lord Jesus joined them but they could not recognise Him due to the turmoil in their hearts. Our Lord in His mercy, ‘beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures concerning Himself’. They could recognise the Lord only when, at their request, He joined them for the meal and broke bread. ‘Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to You’ is the blessing of the Lord, who found peace even in extreme suffering on the cross (John 14:27).
The Jewish people expected the Messiah to bring external and not internal peace, as a military leader and establish His kingdom by defeating the Roman Empire.
The prophetic covenant of God with David was, ‘I will appoint Him to be My firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth. I will maintain My love to Him forever, and My covenant with Him will never fail. I will establish His throne forever, His throne as long as the heavens endure’ (Psalm 89:28-28). This kingdom of the Saviour is in two phases, just like it was for the Israelites as they were led out of the slavery in Egypt. They first had to receive the Word of God, the Torah, to learn to live a life, reconciled to the LORD God. It was only after this that they were to enter the Promised Land, the land of abundance, flowing with milk and honey.
The first verse of the New Testament starts with this promise, ‘This is the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham’ (Matthew 1:1). This is not a historical detail but fulfilment of God’s promise in His Son who came to set up an eternal kingdom. He was repeatedly referred to as the ‘Son of David’. As the Messenger of blessings from God the Father, Lord Jesus preached in the Synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:18-19). He read out the first part of the prophecy, ‘The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind; to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord’.
This was the prophecy from the Prophet Isaiah and in addition to what the Lord read and declared its fulfilment, it had a second part, ‘and the day of vengeance of our God’. With various blessings listed, the end result must be that ‘He (The LORD God) be glorified’.
God as ‘I AM’ is a Living God who has no beginning and no end and anything that comes from Him also has life. The Jewish people missed the Messenger for their focus was on the message. Lord Jesus brought the good word of victory in the battle scenario of spiritual warfare with the forces of darkness. He has first set up His kingdom in us and on His second coming, the earthly kingdom will also be established. Then, no one will have any doubt about His Divine status, when He comes riding the white horse with His saints and the heavenly armies.
Lord Jesus is ‘life and this life was the light of men’ (John 1:4), while John the Baptist identified Lord Jesus as ‘The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29). We receive life from the Lord through forgiveness of our sins and restoration of our relationship with God, who has become ‘Our Father in heaven’ and we His children, through faith. The Word of God gives us the way to live in righteousness and the pattern acceptable to the Lord God. Lord Jesus said of Himself, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’ (John 14:6). The aim of our life is to be with God always, here on earth as well as after this life. The Good News is the Son of God who first shows us the way, opens the door for us to enter, strengthens and guides us to walk on that path, all along interceding for us in heaven before the Father, confirming and ensuring our salvation. Until we receive Him, we may have any amount of knowledge of the Scripture but that does not lead us to salvation and eternal life.
Changes in life due to the Good News – God created the Garden of Eden first and put Adam there to ‘tend and care’ for it by subduing the forces opposed to His work and dominate them (Genesis 1-2). The All-Knowing God was well aware of the loneliness of Adam before creating Him, but He first ensured his dominion authority by giving him the wisdom to understand the capability and traits of each animal, beast and bird and name them. The father who gives a name to the child is supposed to be the guardian also. After giving him a job to do and ensuring the availability of the means to do it, God acted to provide him a life partner, the woman. God is involved in every aspect of our lives, both small and great, for He cares for our whole being.
To restore us to our spiritual life, the impediment of sin had to be removed first. This was done through the crucifixion of the Son of God. In the Old Testament the animal sacrifice was about transferring the sins of the repentant person to the animal. God provided the way of atonement through the shedding of blood, ‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood’ (Leviticus 17:11). The sacrifice of an unblemished, without spot or defect animal, fulfilled this temporarily. Thus, only a sinless man, unblemished by the dark spots of sin, could make atonement for the whole of mankind.
Apostle Paul shows us the way this was done, ‘He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross’. As a result of this our relationship with God and spiritual life is restored and the first blessing of this is the indwelling Holy Spirit, our ‘Helper’ to teach us all things, while reminding us of the teachings of the Saviour (John 14:26). We receive Him only due to the finished work of the cross and we are filled with ‘power, love and self-control’ (2 Timothy 1:7. In addition, we have the Word of God, but the Israelites failed to live right, for they continued to be governed by the earthly five senses. We have God in us helping us to live under the control of the spiritual rather than the sensual. Anyone who has the Word but not the Source of the Word, God Himself, will always falter.
We need the Saviour, the Good News of our redemption and only then can we truly repent. John the Baptist preached, ‘Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ (Matthew 3:2). Lord Jesus also preached the same message, ‘Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’ (Matthew 4:17). The message was about heaven and not about hell being near. The Greek word ‘metanoeo’ translated as repent has two words; ‘meta’ meaning ‘change morally’ and ‘noeo’ meaning ‘mind or think’. Thus, repent is not a curse or a bad word but about thinking differently from then on.
As a believer, one must think differently about God, who is love and desires all to be saved (John 3:17). He sent His Son to be our Redeemer for this purpose and we think about Him as a loving Saviour, who is not out to ‘steal, and to kill and to destroy’ like the Satan (John 10:10). He desires everyone to be close to Him and in this ‘have life, and that they may have it more abundantly’. We must think differently about ourselves, sinners, whose sins are forgiven and that ‘there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 8:1). The past, present and any future sins are forgiven and forgotten by the LORD God. The Satan may say anything but we are God’s children
Third, we must think differently about sin also. Apostle Paul encourages all believers, ‘No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it’ (1 Corinthians 10:13). Once we change our thinking, God starts working from within us to desire what is good, with deep longing in the soul to be obedient to His Word. We receive Lord Jesus as our Saviour and all the other changes start happening in us.
Why do we find difficulty in our transformation? The Israelites were freed from the slavery of Egypt, received the Word of God, yet failed to follow God. Along with them, we are cautioned to look ‘carefully lest anyone fall short of the glory of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled’ (Hebrews 12:15). God desires us to be right with Him in our spiritual state and that will then start acting in our material sphere. However, we, rejoicing in our worship, Bible study and meditation look forward to the change in the physical realm. Many go to a Church, find some joy for some time and then move on to the next place, looking for that great experience.
We must not ‘be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God’ (Romans 12:2). God desires to have a close relationship with every one and the presence of the Holy Spirit in us is the seal of His wish. God’s visits every evening in the Garden of Eden were to help them be connected and filled with the Divine knowledge and wisdom. As a result, we say, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ’ (Ephesians 1:3). Lord Jesus is the source of life for us and everything we need to live a life of obedience to His will, is already provided to us in the heavenly places. We receive Him and with Him and Him alone, everything else also.
We need to understand and believe that God, the Father, ‘did not spare His own Son but gave Him for us all, how shall He not along with Him freely give us all things?’ (Romans 8:32). This is the Gospel of Christ who revealed God to us in Himself, brought us to Him as His children, dwells in us to help us live right and then take us to be with Him forever. And for this we are not required to do anything extra-ordinary but in faith, receive Him. This renews our minds, transforms our thinking and leads us to be a blessing for others. Then we learn to be patient with others who are suffering, for He is always with us, though we may not feel His presence
A friend of mine in Jalandhar, a devout and God loving couple, while watching a worship and preaching program on TV, suddenly felt a wonderful fragrance around him, something beyond imagination. God blesses His people who love Him by assuring them with His presence, His Shekinah glory. I rejoice that God is with them, blessing them and they can experience His presence and we also can.
Lord Jesus, the Son of God is the Messenger and the message of peace, joy and salvation from God the Father. By submitting to Him we ensure our life of abundance here on earth and then live eternally in His presence. The joyful part is that we were chosen and predestined for this blessed state before creation itself. Lord Stands, with outstretched arms, looks forward to our turning to Him and recognising His authority over us as our Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer.
