The impact of the Gospel (Good News) of Christ

Romans 1:16 – For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

What kind of impact does good news have on you when you receive it? From personal experience I know that good news refreshes, rejoices the heart, and gives a sense of fulfilment and happiness. It makes you feel good and great at the same time. Good news spurs you on. It motives you to perform better. You feel like you have entered into an elite group of people. You feel like a winner. You feel relieved and energised at the same time. There so many other ways to express the impact that good news has on people but time and space will not allow us. The bottom line is good news makes you feel good because of the goodness it brings with it.

We have been chosen by God to enjoy and share the good news of Jesus Christ. Note, we are not only to share it but first enjoy it by experiencing it first hand and then become witness of the gospel of Christ. The question now is have you experienced the good in the gospel in the light of God’s word. If the good news of Christ was given to you in the right way, it should create the kind of experience highlighted in the above paragraph. As a matter of fact that experience should be so powerful it should stay with you for the rest of your life. Furthermore, the experience should be refreshed every time you fellowship with God either by yourself or with other Christians.

The good news of Jesus Christ brings with it an experience and impact every time it is properly presented. Anytime the good news is preached and the joy or sense of freedom is missing, the problem is not with the message it with either the messenger or the receiver. People don’t have a problem with the product they have problem with the salesman. In the 1980s when I started my journey in Christ, the majority of Christians I knew then were not happy people. At the time, it appeared that you had to look morose or like a person who was disinterested in his environment or the people around, especially if they were not Christians to prove that you had the salvation of Christ. There was an attitude of ‘I am better than you, I am too good for the world around me and I want to go to heaven right now’. Quite a number of the Christians then were so heaven minded that they were of no earthly use to the people around them. But in actual fact they were not really heavenly minded because, from the Bible’s description, heaven is a happy place. They were misguided and wrongly taught.

Paul, in above scripture in Romans 1, said that the good news of Christ is the power of salvation for everyone who believes. As I told you in the past, the word ‘salvation’ in Greek is ‘soteria’ meaning ‘deliverance from temporal and permanent danger, healing, blessings, prosperity and fullness of all blessing’. In other words, the gospel of Jesus Christ brings the saving and delivering power of God on the scene. T

In Mark 16 the disciples went everywhere to preach the good news and the Lord worked with them and confirmed the good news with signs following. Sometime back, the Lord impressed in my heart that if I want the people in the church to be prosperous, then I should preach prosperity If I want them to be happy then I should preach happiness. If I want them to be healed then I should preach healing. If I want them to live justified then I should preach justification. If want them to be great I should preach greatness. If I want them to be liberated from sin then I should preach forgiveness and the gift of righteousness. The bottom line is teach them what you what them to manifest. Friend, the soldier matches on his stomach. You are what you eat both physically and spiritually.

All the messages of Christ are good news. No aspect of the gospel should leave anyone condemned, hopeless, rejected and depressed. Jesus Christ said in John 6:37 and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. He said in John 10:10, I am come that you may have life and have it more abundantly.

How good is the good news that you have? Have you experienced the good in the good news in a real way? Friend, the greatest gift that Jesus gave us is not heaven; it is eternal life so that we can create heaven everywhere we go. He has given us his kind of life so that we can create a place like his place on earth. The good news brings heaven on earth.

Further reading

Mark 16:15, 19-20, Proverbs 25:25

Personal declaration for the day

God has given me the assignment to give the good news to my world; therefore I am anointed for the task. I am a bearer of good news.

Questions for you to reflect on

How does good news make you feel?

How can you communicate the good news of Christ to create an environment of joy, hope happiness, delight and motivation?