We love good news. A medical test comes back clear. A child gets accepted into college. The loan is approved. The job offer arrives. Someone you love calls and says, “Everything is going to be okay.”
But good news only feels truly good when we understand the problem it answers.
If the doctor tells you, “The treatment worked,” your response depends entirely on whether you knew you were sick. If someone runs into your house shouting, “You’ve been rescued!” your first question is probably going to be, “Rescued from what?”
That is why the Gospel can sound strangely unimpressive to people who do not understand the Bible’s diagnosis of the human condition.
We tell people:
“Jesus saves.”
“Jesus forgives.”
“Jesus died for your sins.”
Those statements are absolutely true. But if someone does not understand what sin is, what it has done, why God takes it seriously, and what it means to be separated from Him, the Gospel can sound like a solution to a problem they do not believe they have.
So before we can fully understand the Good News, we need to understand the bad news.
And the bad news is much deeper than, “Sometimes people do bad things.”
The Problem Is Not That Some People Are Worse Than Others
Most of us instinctively measure goodness by comparison.
We look around and think, “I am not perfect, but I am certainly not as bad as that person.”
I have never murdered anyone.
I am faithful to my spouse.
I work hard.
I take care of my family.
I give to people in need.
I try to be honest.
Those are good things. The Bible does not require us to pretend they are not.
But here is the problem.
Other people are not the standard. God is.
Romans 3:23 says:
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”
Notice what Paul does not say.
He does not say we fall short of our neighbor.
He does not say we fall short of the worst criminal we can imagine.
He does not even say we fall short of the nicest person we know.
We fall short of the glory of God.
That changes the entire conversation.
Imagine several people trying to jump across the Grand Canyon. One jumps six feet. Another jumps twelve. An Olympic athlete jumps twenty-five.
One clearly performed better than the others.
But all three are still at the bottom of the canyon.
That is the biblical picture of comparing ourselves with one another.
Some people live more moral lives than others. Some sins carry far more devastating consequences than others. But when God’s holiness is the standard, all of us fall short.
What Does the Bible Mean by Sin?
The Bible uses several words to describe our condition because one word cannot fully capture what has gone wrong.
Sin describes falling short of God’s righteous standard.
Transgression describes crossing a boundary God has established.
Iniquity describes the crookedness and distortion within us.
Wickedness describes the pattern of life that develops when sin takes root.
Evil describes what is contrary to God’s character and good purposes.
Lawlessness describes the deeper rebellion that says, “God will not rule me. I will determine how I live.”
Put those together and you begin to see why the biblical diagnosis is so serious.
Sin is not merely breaking a religious rule.
It is a creature rejecting the rightful authority of the Creator.
That story begins almost immediately in the Bible.
The First Sin Was Really About Who Gets to Decide What Is Good
In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve were tempted concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The temptation was about more than fruit.
At its heart was a question that humanity has been wrestling with ever since:
Who gets to determine what is good and what is evil?
God had spoken clearly.
The serpent challenged God’s Word.
Then he challenged God’s motives.
Finally, humanity chose autonomy.
In effect, Adam and Eve said, “We will decide for ourselves.”
That same rebellion runs through every generation.
God says one thing about sexuality, but we decide another.
God says forgive, but we decide our resentment is justified.
God says tell the truth, but we decide dishonesty is acceptable when the circumstances seem difficult enough.
God says do not covet, but we convince ourselves we deserve what someone else has.
God says love your enemies, but we begin creating exceptions.
The details change.
The heart of the rebellion does not.
I want the right to define good and evil for myself.
That is lawlessness.
First John 3:4 says:
“Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.”
At the center of sin is not merely bad behavior.
It is the rejection of God’s rightful authority.
Israel Shows Us What God Calls Evil
When God entered covenant with Israel, He gave them clear instructions about how His people were to live.
And what did God repeatedly condemn?
Idolatry.
Sexual immorality.
Murder.
Violence.
Greed.
Dishonesty.
Pride.
Oppression of the poor.
Exploitation of widows and orphans.
Corrupt courts.
Occult practices.
Religious hypocrisy.
Unbelief.
Rebellion.
God was not merely concerned about whether Israel attended worship services.
He cared about how they treated people, what they desired, what they worshiped, how they conducted business, what they did sexually, what they said, and what was happening in their hearts.
At times Israel continued offering sacrifices while living in rebellion.
God was not impressed.
Religion never substitutes for righteousness.
But God Held the Nations Accountable Too
Someone might say, “Of course God judged Israel. They had the Law.”
But Scripture reveals something important.
God also judged nations that were never part of Israel’s covenant.
The Canaanites were judged for sexual immorality, idolatry, violence, and child sacrifice.
Sodom and Gomorrah were judged.
Assyria was judged for cruelty and bloodshed.
Babylon was judged for violence, arrogance, and oppression.
Amos describes God’s judgment upon surrounding nations for atrocities, slavery, brutality, and injustice.
These people were not Israelites.
That tells us something very important.
God’s moral character is not limited to one nation.
What God calls evil flows from who God is.
Romans 1 describes Gentile humanity exchanging the truth about God for a lie and worshiping creation instead of the Creator.
Romans 1:25 says:
“who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”
Wrong worship eventually produces wrong living.
When we remove God from the center, something else takes His place.
Sometimes it is money.
Sometimes sexuality.
Sometimes pleasure.
Sometimes status.
Sometimes politics.
Sometimes another person.
And sometimes the idol is simply self.
Then Jesus Takes the Issue Even Deeper
If we stop with outward actions, most people can still find a way to feel pretty good about themselves.
“I have never murdered anyone.”
Jesus says, “What about hatred?”
“I have never committed adultery.”
Jesus says, “What about lust?”
“I do not worship statues.”
Jesus says, in effect, “What actually owns your heart?”
Jesus moves the discussion from behavior to the heart.
Mark 7:20 says:
“And He said, ‘What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.’”
Jesus then identifies sins flowing from within the human heart, including evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lust, envy, pride, and foolishness.
That means our problem is not simply outside us.
It is inside us.
And that is why moral improvement alone cannot save us.
You can train behavior.
You can build habits.
You can establish accountability.
You can create consequences.
Those things can be helpful.
But they cannot create a new heart.
Christians Are Not Exempt From God’s Definition of Evil
Grace does not mean God suddenly changes His definition of sin.
The New Testament repeatedly warns believers about greed, bitterness, unforgiveness, sexual immorality, lying, slander, jealousy, hatred, pride, selfish ambition, drunkenness, divisiveness, and hypocrisy.
Ephesians 4:31 says:
“Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.”
That verse was written to Christians.
Why?
Because salvation does not mean believers never struggle with sin.
It means we no longer belong to sin.
There is a significant difference between struggling with sin and making peace with sin.
The Holy Spirit convicts us because God is transforming us.
Grace does not say sin does not matter.
Grace says sin mattered so much that Christ went to the cross to deal with it.
Our Biggest Problem Is Not What We Have Done
Here is where the bad news becomes even more uncomfortable.
We commit sins because something within fallen humanity is wrong.
David understood this after his sin with Bathsheba.
Psalm 51:2 says:
“Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.”
David does not simply say, “I made a bad decision.”
He realizes something deeper needs cleansing.
Later he prays in Psalm 51:10:
“Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
David understood something every one of us eventually has to understand.
I do not merely need God to change my circumstances. I need God to change me.
That is why Christianity is not behavior modification.
The Gospel is transformation.
And Sin Separates Us From God
This may be the most important part of the bad news.
Sin is not merely unhealthy.
It is not merely socially destructive.
It is not merely something that produces regret.
Sin affects our relationship with God.
Isaiah 59:2 says:
“But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
And your sins have hidden His face from you,
So that He will not hear.”
There is the real crisis.
The human race is not merely confused.
We are separated from the God who created us.
And because God is righteous, He cannot simply pretend sin never happened.
If a human judge looked at terrible crimes and said, “I am loving, so I am simply going to ignore all of this,” we would not call him compassionate.
We would call him unjust.
God is perfectly loving.
And God is perfectly just.
So how can a perfectly holy God forgive guilty people without compromising His justice?
That is the question the Gospel answers.
The Bad News Is What Makes the Good News So Good
Romans 6:23 says:
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Notice the contrast.
Wages.
Gift.
Wages are something you earn.
A gift is something you receive.
What has sin earned?
Death.
What does God offer?
Life.
And where is that life found?
In Jesus Christ.
That is why the Gospel is not:
“Try harder.”
“Become more religious.”
“Clean yourself up.”
“Be nicer than the next person.”
The Gospel is that God did for us what we could never do for ourselves.
Our sin made us guilty.
Christ provides forgiveness.
Our unrighteousness left us condemned.
Christ provides righteousness.
Our rebellion separated us from God.
Christ brings reconciliation.
Our spiritual death left us helpless.
Christ gives life.
Our hearts were corrupted by sin.
God gives new birth.
That is the Good News.
So What Is the Bad News?
The bad news is not merely:
You have done bad things.
The bad news is:
We have all sinned against a holy God.
We have crossed His boundaries.
Our hearts have been distorted by sin.
We have rejected His authority.
We have failed to love Him completely.
We have failed to love others perfectly.
And nothing we do can erase our guilt or repair the separation our sin has created.
That sounds severe until we understand what comes next.
Because Christianity does not leave us standing under the diagnosis.
It points us to the cure.
The Gospel is not good news because we are mostly good people who need a little spiritual assistance.
The Gospel is good news because we were sinners who could not rescue ourselves, and God loved us enough to come rescue us.
That is why the cross matters.
That is why grace is amazing.
That is why forgiveness is possible.
And that is why Jesus did not come merely to make us better people.
He came to save us.
GRATEFUL
These days I feel so, so grateful to God that He spared my life recently. I find myself relating to the Apostle Paul when he spoke of his own near-death experience in Philippians 1:21-24 “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live on in the flesh,...
