The apostle Paul, in recounting his ministry to the Christians of his day, said, “I have fully preached the gospel of Christ” (Romans 15:19). I believe that on this website and in my books and spoken ministry I have shared more than you need to know to live a successful Christian life and to maximise your potential for the glory of God.
Just what is this “full” or “complete” gospel of Christ. What is its foundation? I need to remind you that Jesus said He had not come to talk about Himself, but that He came to reveal the Father (John 14:9. The crux of the good news of Christ was actually good news about God. I, too, want to tell you about “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).
God is a good God
I believe the basic good news about God that I share is that God is a good God. “God is a good God and the devil is a bad devil. There is no badness in God and there is no goodness in the devil. God is totally good and the devil is totally bad, for God is a good God and the devil is a bad devil”, as Oral Roberts often described it.
Psalm 34:8 instructs us to “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” This is an invitation to get into a relationship with God, to test Him out to see if He is really good. In Psalm 100:5 we are also taught “For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting” (NKJV).
The one thing that Jesus came to prove to humanity was that God is a good God. I still find folk whose concept of God is that of a great policeman in the sky, ready to hit us over the head whenever we step out of line. They see God as a dictator. They blame God for everything that happens.
However, the Bible teaches that God is a good God: “You are good and do good” (Psalm 119:68). Not only is goodness a basic attribute of our God, but it is also the motivation for His acts. We need to share this good news about our wonderful God, for the foundation of Christian teaching is that God is good and does good.
God is a people-person
We seem to forget this all too often. God made people, God knows what makes people tick. God has a purpose for your life; you are a unique individual, for everybody is a somebody with God.
Psalm 8:4-6 states, “What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you visited him. For you have made him a little lower than God
Yes, God made man to have an exalted position in His universe. We are at the peak, the masterpiece of His creation. He made us “slightly lower than Himself” is how the Hebrew text handles that phrase. So everybody is a somebody with God. You are not just an empty floating by; you are important to God! You are important to His plan for humanity and this earth.
Not only did God make man, but He made us in His own image. Genesis 1:27 teaches that “God made man in His own image; in the likeness of God made He male and female.” Adam was made in the image of God (Genesis 5:1) and what can be said of the parents can be said of the offspring (Genesis 5:3). We are people who have a likeness to God and people whom God wants to act like He does! This is part of the good news of Christ. We are not just anybody; we are special because God made us in His own image.
In I John 3:2, talking about people who have become Christians, we read, “Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him,for we shall see Him as He is.” So the image of God is continued right through to the Christian believer. In that coming day, when we are all together in Heaven, we are going to be like God. Yes, God is a people-person, God is a good God!
Thank you for reminding me of the basics. Love, God, Christ and his teachings. I know who I am. PRAISE GOD.