Truly Good News
Preached by Jason Abbott
October 22, 2017
We think we know good news when we hear it. I’m, however, not too certain about that. I’m not entirely sure we do.When my brother-in-law and I were starting seminary, he took an exam to see if he could test out of basic Biblical Greek. He took Classical Greek while at Mizzou and, if he passed an entry level grammar test, he could save a little money and time in a program which costs students a lot of money and time.I still remember going with him to the New Testament department at Trinity to find out if he’d passed. The results were posted on a wall in the faculty offices. You had to go down a list of student ID numbers until you found your own number then move across the sheet to locate a pass or fail mark. I watched Charles do this then watched him smile in satisfaction. He passed—good news, right? So, as we left the building, I began to congratulate him on how much work he had just avoided. Then, from behind, we heard a voice interject—Nope, your work has only just begun. When we turned, there was one of the New Testament professors exiting the building after us. He smiled and waved then headed off to his car. No more needed to be said. It was only good news if, in the future, Charles cleared a bar which was still higher than this one.We each felt the weight of the work ahead. And our good news celebrations, consequently, were put on hold.Up to this point in Luke, Jesus has been preaching good news in his ministry. And, indeed, his ministry is going to be the best news ever. But, I wonder if he isn’t preaching good news, to this point, with a sense of irony—with a twinkle in his eye. I wonder if the disciples, like me and my brother-in-law, aren’t celebrating too soon when they hear the good news Jesus has thus far proclaimed.What do I mean? Well, this is the first time Jesus speaks about his crucifixion in Luke. This is the first time he’s pointed to his work of atonement for human sin. And, friends, without that work, everything which Jesus has preached so far in Luke is bad, bad news. It’s not a message of celebration; it’s a message of lamentation without the cross and resurrection of Christ.Let’s read the passage together, then I’ll show you what I mean.
Luke 9:18-22
18 Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” 19 And they answered, “John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen.” 20 Then he said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answered, “The Christ of God.”21 And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, 22 saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
When we pause and look back on Luke’s gospel at this point, we begin to see (1st) that righteousness is beyond us and (2nd) that Jesus Christ is for us. In short, we learn we can’t earn God’s favor, and, so, we must trust that Christ has earned it for us. Only this is good news worth celebrating. Let’s see how.
1. Righteousness is beyond us.
What does Jesus preach if there’s no cross? In other words, if we take the cross out of Christ’s ministry, what would the message of Christianity be? Allow me to go through the gospels—just scratching the surface—and show you.Let’s begin with Matthew’s gospel. Jesus says:
You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire (5:21-22).
Does this sound like good news? Or does this?
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell (5:27-29).
What about Mark’s gospel? Maybe it offers us good news without the cross. There Jesus says this:
Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother (3:35).
How are you doing? Would Jesus call you family? Or, let’s try another:
Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea (9:42).
How do we do without the cross in John’s gospel? Would it still be a gospel without the crucifixion? There Jesus says this:
If you know these things [of God], blessed are you if you do them (13:17).
Do you do all you know you should do? I know I don’t. Or again:
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you (15:12-14).
Finally, we come back to Luke’s gospel and find what we have already found in the other gospels. In Luke, Jesus says things like:
…love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High…. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful (6:35-36).
I don’t look at my performance and find it to be good news. Or:
Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given you…. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you (6:37-38).
Friends, there’s no good news in Scripture, there’s no gospel in Christianity, without the cross and resurrection of Jesus. There is simply the passing of one test to get to another harder test to get to another harder test still. There’s simply a frantic and futile accumulating of good works to convince ourselves that God will love us, that we’ve done enough to earn his favor. Yet, we can never be certain we have!A gospel of works is not good news, at all—in fact, it’s the worst news ever. It either crushes or deludes us. Let’s sit with this for just a moment.When we pursue good works as gospel, we can quickly begin feeling crushed. Most of us can easily see how this might happen. If we’re living this way, we always have nagging questions before us. Questions that spawn from the kinds of teachings from the gospels, which I listed above—Did I just now commit murder or adultery in my heart? Have I done all Christ commands? Have I loved others as he loved me? Will I be judged the way I just judged that person?If we take the cross out of Christianity, we open the door to Satan’s nagging. This is what Martin Luther found out some 500 years ago. He would wrestle all night with such unsettling questions before he discovered the good news of grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The devil kept crushing him over and over again with a gospel of works. You’re not good enough or obedient enough or meek enough for God to accept you, Martin! And this is all true—without Christ’s sacrifice for us, without the pardon of his cross for us.Luther, however, found the truly good news of the crucifixion. And he, thus, celebrated it in his song “A Mighty Fortress” where he wrote:
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, / We will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us; / The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him; / His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure, One little word shall fell him.1
Friends, the “little word” which will stop Satan in his tracks is the word: Liar! Martin Luther made this clear before he died.2 Yet, this designation for the devil only proves true when we look in faith to the cross of Christ. For, without the cross, all Satan’s accusations against us are true. But, when we point to the cross of Jesus, to his righteous sacrifice for our sins, the devil is proved a liar.I don’t know what accusations Satan levels against you, but I do know a word which, when spoken by faith in the triumph of Christ’s cross, will send him running in defeat. Call him liar! Tell him Christ died for you! Be crushed no more!Well, all who pursue a gospel of works are not inevitably crushed by guilt. Many of us feel we’re doing just fine when we’re not—when we’re actually deluded! We’ve bought a lie without even knowing it. We either believe we aren’t that bad, or we believe God isn’t that good. We either believe we’re approaching true holiness, or we believe God isn’t terribly offended by our sin.When we believe we’re not that bad, when we don’t see our own sinfulness, an ugly sense of pride and arrogance is cultivated in us. And we become legalistic like the Pharisees in the Bible. We will constantly go around pointing out all the sins of others because it reinforces our own self-righteous delusion. We easily discern it when we see it in others—like the members of Westboro Baptist Church. And, yet, we can subtly manifest the same ugly pride in smaller ways—like when we dwell on areas where we’re spiritually strong and are quick to critique and condemn those who are weak there. Think about it! Beware of this tendency! We all have it.On the other hand, when we believe God isn’t all that good, we become quick to justify sin—especially the sins with which we specifically struggle. In this case, we simply accommodate God to our own views. We bring him down to our level. We think, God doesn’t really care when I sleep with my girlfriend or look at porn. God doesn’t really care if I skip services at church but never an opportunity to go out with friends. God doesn’t really care when I’m cold to that person who hurt me. But he does care. Remember two weeks ago—Jesus cries Mine! to every square inch of this world and your life.3 Don’t misjudge the offensiveness of your sin to God! Don’t underestimate the utter holiness of God!So, what have we learned thus far? Well, all of this discussion shows, I think, that holiness is beyond our grasp—that human efforts to merit the Lord’s acceptance and favor will ultimately fail, that a gospel of works will either crush or delude us. I’ve tried to demonstrate that, to this point in Luke, the good news has been hidden because Jesus hasn’t yet spoken of his sacrificial death and victorious resurrection. In fact, so far, the news is bad news for us. And, we should feel the terrible weight of that realization—like when you have a dream where you do something terrible and irreversible. Perhaps, you murder someone or maybe rob a bank in the dream then you realize what you’ve done and the punishment you face. Horrifying!Waking up from those dreams is the best. The relief comes slowly over you. I’m not going to prison for life! I’m free! Sometimes when I have this kind of dream, I feel like George Bailey in “It’s A Wonderful Life”—Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter! I’m relieved because judgment no longer hangs over me.Friends, that’s precisely what should begin to dawn on us at this point in Luke. The weight of this judgment should begin to lift because, at this point, Jesus begins to reveal God’s solution for us—the Son will offer himself for us.
2. Jesus Christ is for us.
Look again at how Christ begins to reveal this truly good news to the disciples. After Peter rightly confesses him to be God’s Messiah, Jesus says:
The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised (v. 22).
There’s a law that always operates with sin. Someone must always pay for it. We may like to think that’s not so. We may argue that’s not so. But it’s always true. If you steal my credit card and purchase $100,000 worth of lawncare machinery, then begin using it to sculpt your lawn, which happens to be right across the street from me, I’ll find out because that’s just really, really dumb. Now, when I bust you, I have a choice: I can turn you over to the police who will then throw you in prison, or I can choose to forgive you and not press charges. In the first scenario, you pay for your sin in prison. In the second scenario, I pay for your sin in lawn equipment. But, in both scenarios, someone must pay for the sin.Every Israelite would have known this lesson. It was learned through sacrifice. When you sinned, you had to pay with an animal sacrifice. Your sin was expensive; it cost you property. And, more than that, you recognized that that animal sacrifice stood in your place. In other words, you didn’t die because it did. But, as the author of Hebrews makes clear, these sacrifices couldn’t really take care of our sin problem. Rather, they pointed forward to the ultimate Sacrifice who could and who would—Jesus Christ for us.Friends, that’s the truly good news Jesus is beginning to reveal to the disciples. God the Father has sent God the Son, in the flesh, to pay for your sins on the cross. He was crushed for you. He’s paid the price. Trust him!
1 Martin Luther, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, c. 1529.2 See this article from Desiring God.3 You can listen to Kingdoms Interrupted here.
