The Good News that Never Gets Old
It keeps happening.
It happened last night again. I heard Tullian Tchividjian tackle the question, “How can I know for sure that I’m a Christian?” He reminded us not to look within. “Looking within is never going to give you the assurance that you crave,” he said. He told us of the standard: “Progress won’t elicit a ‘not guilty’ verdict from God. Only sinless perfection will.” And then he pointed us to Jesus. “Don’t look at the blood, sweat, and tears that you shed for Jesus; look to the blood, sweat, and tears that Jesus shed for you.” He bombarded us with the good news of the gospel once again:
Well may the accuser roar
Of sins that I have done
I know them all –
And thousands more –
Jehovah knoweth none!
It happened a couple weeks ago. My friend Dan MacDonald was giving a few of us a preview of the message he’ll be delivering at our upcoming Good Friday service in Toronto. As he spoke of the gospel, I found my heart moved. I know it; I never get tired of hearing it. It continues to amaze me no matter how many times I hear it again.
It happens quite regularly as I come to communion and hear the words: This is the body of Christ broken for you; This is the blood of Christ shed for you.
J.D. Greear got it right yesterday when he said, “The gospel isn’t the diving board of Christianity. The gospel is the pool itself.”
I’ve never found the bottom of that pool.
I pray that God will keep raising up preachers who major in the gospel. And I pray that I’ll continue to be amazed by the gospel, the good news that never gets old.