31053 The Good News

For four hundred years, the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt.

Can you remember your family history over four hundred years?

Their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents—as long as they could remember, they were slaves. The people of Israel knew no other life than the life of slavery.

But the truth is that they were God’s chosen people. At first, they came to Egypt as honored guests. They were a family of Joseph who had become the second most powerful man in the Egyptian Empire.

The history of the people of Israel tells us the story of humanity, our story.

We don’t remember our true heritage and true identity as members of the family that was designed to live in the two realms and manage this world with God. We don’t remember the glory of the original creation because it was so long ago. Humanity has been slaves to sin and death for most of its recorded history.

The consequences of our sins are all around us. We suffer and cry out for help and temporary relief in life.

At the root of all of our problems in life is our sin, that is, our rebellious nature against God. For our crime against the Supreme Authority, we have been sentenced to death—permanent separation from God.

God Answers Our Cries

Just as God heard the cries of the people of Israel under bondage in Egypt, God hears our cries under the bondage of sin and death.

His answer is…Jesus.

Just as God through Moses led the people of Israel out from Egypt to the Promised Land, Jesus leads us from slavery under sin to freedom in life.

God does not require us to become good enough. It is impossible.

God asks us to trust Him and His solution, Jesus Christ.

Instead of trying to figure out yourself, to work your way out from under the power of sin and death, God wants you to turn your life completely over to Him. He wants you to trust Jesus as your Lord (King and Master) and believe in Him to be the Savior of your life from sin and death.

It’s like the people of Israel trusting Moses and following him into the wilderness under his leadership. God wants you to trust Jesus as the leader of your life and bring yourself fully under His rule and authority.

Through this act of faith, God will consider you righteous (right with God), forgiving all of your sins. Not only that but because of the resurrection of Jesus, you will also be spiritually born again to a new life in Christ!

God’s solution to our sinful nature is death through Christ and rebirth through Christ. If Jesus is your Lord and Savior, you are no longer your old self. You are a new creation in Christ. You are not a better version of your old self. You are recreated as new!

The most notable difference is that the Holy Spirit dwells in you when you trust in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. In the deepest part of you, you are united with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit now can guide and empower you to live the abundant life Jesus promises.

2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, 2:5 even though we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you are saved! — 2:6 and he raised us up together with him and seated us together with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 2:7 to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 2:8 For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; 2:9 it is not from works, so that no one can boast. 2:10 For we are his creative work, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we can do them. (Ephesians 2:4-10)

This is good news!