The gospel means "good news". The good news of salvation is only good to the level we understand how bad the bad news was of being lost and a slave to sin. We were so utterly lost without Christ and are so completely saved with Christ. Ephesians 2:1-3 tells what it is like to be without Christ. We were dead. There are no degrees of dead. Just like you can't be kind of pregnant--you either are or are not. Ephesians 2:11 says we were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship, foreigners to the covenant of promise, without hope and without God. What a bleak picture. But God has rescued us! To rescue implies there was a captor, someone who held us prisoner. It was the devil and his domain is a dark one. We are rescued into His kingdom of light, and that is joyful news!
Malachi 4:2 gives a good word picture when it says, "You will go out and leap like calves released from the stall." Picture in your mind the scene on a ranch when they are working the cattle, guiding the calves into the stall to be vaccinated or dusted. The calf is hemmed in and scared. Then when the door opens, he runs out, leaping in excitement at his release. God has rescued us!
We are brought (NIV) or transferred (NAS) into Jesus' kingdom. The practice of the day in Bible times was for a conquering nation to go in to the defeated city or nation and take all the possessions and people and bring or transfer them to the conquering nation. That's why Daniel and his friends were in Babylon. By His death and resurrection, Jesus defeated Satan and provided a way for us to be brought into His kingdom of light. I have a friend who works for Morton Salt, and occasionally his job takes him down into the mine. It is deep and dark. The air is different, and there is a sense of captivity and enclosure down there. How does he get out? He can't climb out or walk out. He can't evolve out or intellectualize his way out. He can't buy his way out. There is only one way. He calls out to the hoist operator who sends down the elevator, and by an act of his will, by choice, he steps into the elevator and is transferred, brought, to the surface. On the surface everything is different. There is light. The air is fresh. There is a sense of freedom and liberty.
When we make the choice to call out to Jesus as Savior, He rescues us from the dominion of darkness and brings us into His wonderful kingdom of light. And unless we've been turkeyized*, we know that's where we are!
Becky
Back to our home page!
*see Monday's page