“The time is fulfilled!” “The fullness of time!” History has an exclamation point! Here, finally, is the “Gospel”—meaning “Good News”—that the world needs so desperately. Much of human history dwells on bad news, the brokenness and misery of a fallen world in rebellion against its Creator. The famous historian Edward Gibbon (1737 – 1794) summarized what others also see, that, “History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, ollies, and misfortunes of mankind.” Think about the secular history you know. How much of it is about wars and revolutions, conquerors taking power at the cost of countless lives? How many seemingly invincible empires have fallen? Where is their pride now?
Even today, corruption reigns, morals decline, and humans suffer. Sure, there are inspiring examples. But where are earth’s heroes now? Sure, science advances and improves life expectancy. But death still dominates today as much as when David and Solomon wrote,
As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. (Psalm 103:15-16)
For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. (Ecclesiastes 3:19)
The world needs better news than the typical daily headlines. That is what Jesus brings: Good News! God planned all this for us “before the ages began.”
JESUS ABOLISHED DEATH.
[God] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. (2 Timothy 1:9-10)
The focus of the Gospel is Jesus—who He is and what He does for us. Jesus makes astounding claims about Himself:
I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. (John 8:12)
Before Abraham was, I am. (John 8:58)
I give [My followers] eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one. (John 10:28-30)
I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. (John 11:25-26)
“I AM THE WAY, AND THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE.”
I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)