Real Good News

When last have you received real good news?

When that long-awaited promotion at work finally came through, good news.

When, after years of trying, the doctor says, “You’re pregnant”, good news.

When the office bully gets transferred to some obscure branch far from civilization, good news.

When your filthy rich great uncle who was kind to you passes away, bad news; then you get a call saying he left everything for you, that is good news.

Apostle Paul was commissioned to go into the Gentile world to announce better news than all that, he had real Good News to share.

“For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth; I am not lying), a teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth.” 1 Timothy 2:7

What was this news and what qualified it as real good?

Surely this news, being this good, would have already been known? But in those days and even now, many people had not heard of news so good that it is life transforming.

Something wonderful had happened and people were invited to be a part of this different way of life. This real good news would create a new and radical change in anyone’s situation. Apostle Paul was announcing that something had happened that resulted in the world and in particular, your world becoming a different place.

Paul was appointed to offer real good news about a God who was alive and active, a God who wanted to be in relationship with man. A God who, because of His love for all of mankind, Himself became a man, so that all mankind can know Him intimately.

Paul had first-hand experience, not that he had known Jesus when He was on earth but had surely experienced Jesus on the road to Damascus. It was an encounter that altered Paul’s, then Saul's, life forever. The light literally went on in Paul’s life and everything made sense, and after his transformation, he became eager and energized to share this real good news.

The real good news of Jesus Christ empowers us and enlivens us. It creates a whole new reality because we now see things in a different light. A light which brings things, once blurred, into focus. In the light of this real good news everything else is seen in a new way.

Jesus Himself put it this way, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” Jesus was talking about a reality of heaven right here on earth, life eternal (John 10:10), not to be confused with life in eternity. Jesus came so that we may experience eternal life, a slice of heaven, provided that we believe. And this life, in all its fullness, is not just for a select few but for whomsoever will believe.

It is a little scary when you first encounter Jesus present in your space, with you, personally, and realize that His sacrifice for you was real and you now understand that the Kingdom of God has come upon you (Matthew 12:28) in a tangible way.

Accepting Jesus and all that's been made possible by and through Him, makes us more in harmony with all of creation, and as we step into this new reality, the process of transformation begins by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2) and that’s when we are in the world but not of the world (John 17:14-16). Set apart, separated, with the ability to draw from heaven’s reality, to partake of something far beyond the world’s façade.

Now that is Real Good News!

Shelley Johnson "Real Good News" ©January 15, 2025