Editorial—Gospel
Last week I got a phone call from my sister. “I just met with my Oncologist,” she said. “He told me the results of my bronchoscopy test—I have cancer in my right lung. He offered three therapy options: surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, or oral medication. I’m confused about which option I should take. I’m old, and I can no longer stand chemotherapy. Please pray for me.” When she hung up the phone, I cried. I called upon God for His mercies and to heal my sister. It’s hard to receive such a message from someone we love and who is so dear to us; it is bad news indeed.
We’ve also learned some bad news from the Bible—that we are all sinners. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (KJV). This state of humankind is the result of Adam and Eve’s fall in the Garden of Eden. Ever since our first parents ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, every one of their descendants, including us, has been corrupted by sin; our flesh, body, intellect, spirit, minds, and emotions are depraved. And the bad news is that the penalty for sin is death. “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23, KJV). It means that all of us must die; no exceptions, no bargaining. This is the bad news.
However, if there’s bad news, there’s also good news, as well. The good news is that Jesus died for us. Romans 5:8 says, “But God commandeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (KJV). This is good news. This is the GOSPEL. Even though we have to die the first death, we will escape from the second death, if we die knowing Him. To fully understand how good this news really is, we must first understand the bad news.
The word “GOSPEL” comes from the old English “god,” meaning “good”; and “spel,” meaning “news, a story.” So GOSPEL means “GOOD NEWS,” and the story referred to Jesus—about His birth, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and His second coming. That is the true GOSPEL. We’re now awaiting His coming to resurrect His children who died in Christ.
My sister said to me, “If I have to die because of this horrible disease, I am ready because I know whom I have believed. He is able to raise me up when He comes.” My sister and I got the bad news, but at the same time, the Bible gave us the good news—that Jesus paid it all, our wages of sin, with His own life so that we can have everlasting life.
That is why Ellen White exalted Jesus so highly. She wrote, “No discourse should ever be preached without presenting Christ, and Him crucified as the foundation of the GOSPEL” (Gospel Workers, p. 158). Ellen White penned in her diary on July 19, 1892, “Jesus is everything to me.”
WHAT DOES JESUS MEAN TO YOU?
Hiskia Missah
Editor
