The Gospel

Do you remember the Pearl Jam song "Wishlist" from the album Yield? Well, it's one of my personal favs, and in it Eddie Vedder sings a very profound line, I wish I was a messenger and all the news was good. I don't know about you, but in the past I used to find myself in complete agreement with Eddie. I wished I had good news to share. Most of the time, I felt like what I had to say about Christianity was not very good news at all. I thought the Gospel was actually about exhorting people to improve and live better lives for Jesus, but I was very wrong.

The Gospel – is the second of the two types of Words from God. It is the answer to the accusation of the (previously defined) Law. In our context, it is always in reference to the “good news” of salvation as revealed in the Gospels in the Christian Bible. Namely, that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died on the cross becoming our sin and took our punishment before God and rose again on the third day having conquered death on our behalf. As Dr. Steven Paulson puts it, “Christ died for our transgressions and raised for our justification.” (Romans 3:21-26, 5:6-11, 7:4-6, 8:1-4, Galatians 2:15-21, 3:10-14, 5:1, Ephesians 2:1-10, Colossians 2:11-15, etc.) The Gospel is all about what Christ has done as opposed to what we do. It is the news of His completed work for us. "It is finished." (John 19:30)

As a result of this Good News we can rest and know that we are free. Nothing depends on us.

This truth informs everything that we do here at Mockingbird. It is the song that was sung to us that changed our lives, and it is the song that we cannot help but sing again and again. We are messengers and all the news is indeed good!