It is really difficult to appreciate the Good News unless we fully comprehend the magnitude of the bad news concerning us and our relationship to God.

Bad news doesn't sell well, so I suppose it seems easier and more likely to generate positive response to talk about nice news: forgiveness and heaven. After all, who doesn't want to be forgiven and then go to heaven when they die?

The redemption of God is far more than forgiveness of what we do wrong and a ticket to heaven upon our physical death. As gracious as God's forgiveness is, and as glorious as heaven promises to be, the problem created by Adam and Even is far more profound than either of these grand gifts.

What is the point of being a descendant of Adam and Eve?

It is this: Not only do I do things that are wrong, I am wrong. The strands of my spiritual genetics are irreparably flawed as a human being and descendant of Adam. Forgiveness will not fix this malady any more than spraying whipped cream on a mud pie will make it edible. When God considered my sinful state and consequential, irretrievable useless to Him, He concluded there was no other option than to simply start over.

Herein is the Good News! God took that which had no life and breathed into me life. He took that which was inherently rebellious toward Him and created in me a deep desire to follow His lead. He transformed that which was irretrievably useless to Him, and paid a ransom that won me back from the pit of hell.

In so doing, He fulfilled the old covenant of laws and regulations that had no life in them and through Jesus Christ ushered in a new covenant, ratified with blood, and dedicated to the unrelenting desire of God that we possess a growing and flourishing relationship. At the core of this rebel, He removed my heart swathed in darkness and replaced it with a heart filled with His light, love, joy, peace, and longing to walk with my Heavenly Father, God.