Good News! Bad News!

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ne Tuesday morning, I received a phone call which began, “Blake, I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news.  Which do you want first?”  Not exactly a swell way to begin the day, is it?  The voice on the other end of the line was my doctor.  It seems the results of a blood test who had come in and the report was less than stellar. 

When offered the choice of good news or bad news first, I opted for the bad news.  I figured it could only get better from that point! Ah, the eternal optimist in me came shining through!  The blood test showed that a family of unwanted bacteria had set up housekeeping in my stomach.  For the past two months, I had felt their effect in the form of strong heartburn.  Medications weren’t helping so we, my doctor and I, decided to delve further into the mystery.

He had given me the good news first!  The infection was not really what concerned him; it was the treatment.  In order to evict these unwanted and uninvited guests, a two-week regimen of eight pills per day would be required.  The medicine could also cause a little bit of an upset tummy but the outcome would be worth the coming forced march through the bacterial desert!

So, I went straight to the pharmacy, filled the prescription and started the long 14-day trek back to health.  I did some quick math and deduced that over the next two weeks I would consume 112 pills.  Man, I just love that!  But the medicine is necessary if I am feel better and get back to eating pizza, ribs, pie, cake, cookies, well, you get the picture.

Would it surprise you to learn that there is a message in the New Testament book of Romans that closely resembles the conversation I had with my doctor?  If the Apostle Paul had had access to modern-day technology, he could have called, faxed, or e-mailed his message to the church in Rome, telling them he had good news and bad news.  Instead, he wrote it in his letter to them and we still read his words today and draw strength and assurance from them.

Romans 6:23 is Paul’s good news, bad news conversation with us, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”   Notice here that Paul gives us the bad news first.  Sin equals death.  This truth echoes all the way back to Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve at the forbidden fruit and fell from relationship with God.  Adam had been warned that if he ate of this fruit, he would surely die.  While Adam and Eve physically died, they did not do so until many, many years later.  However, the death of their relationship with God came with the first bite!  From that point on mankind has lived in a fallen state, incapable of saving himself, unable to have a right relationship with God.

But now for the good news in Paul’s letter.  Notice the last half of this passage.  Paul tells us that eternal life is God’s free gift to us if we place our faith in Jesus Christ and accept him as Lord and Savior.  This is the good news of the New Testament and it doesn’t require a two-week regimen of 112 things you must do.  No, it is instantaneous!  Once we receive Jesus Christ as our Savior, then we regain the right relationship God intended for us to have all along.  We then can and should spend every day in His presence, reading His word, talking to Him, learning from Him, praising, and worshipping Him.

Tuesday morning, I would have indeed been disheartened had my physician stopped with the bad news.  There would have been no cure, no hope, no chance of regaining my health.  Paul offers us the same notion.  He states categorically that sin leads to death, but he does not leave us there.  He tells us that God has the remedy for our disease and He offers it to us free of charge.  It is His gift to us.  So, are you in the mood for some good news today?