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“The gospel is good news, not good advice.”

A thought by Timothy Keller (2016-10-25) from his book, Hidden Christmas: The Surprising Truth Behind the Birth of Christ (p. 21). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

I’m glad you stopped to catch a glimpse of what this thought really means.

Tim says, “Advice is counsel about what you must do. News is a report about what has already been done. Advice urges you to make something happen. News urges you to recognize something that has already happened and to respond to it. Advice says it is all up to you to act. News says someone else has acted.”

He then gives an illustration, “Let’s say there is an invading army coming toward a town. What that town needs is military advisers; it needs advice. Someone should explain that the earthworks and trenches should go over there, the marksmen go up there, and the tanks must go down there.”  That’s advice

He goes on, “However, if a great king has intercepted and defeated the invading army, what does the town need then? It doesn’t need military advisers; it needs messengers, and the Greek word for messengers is angelos, angels. The messengers do not say, ‘Here is what you have to do.’ They say rather, ‘I bring you glad tidings of great joy.’ In other words, ‘Stop fleeing! Stop building fortifications. Stop trying to save yourselves. The King has saved you.’ Something has been done, and it changes everything.”  That is good news.

Tim then says, “The biblical Christmas texts are accounts of what actually happened in history. They are not Aesop’s Fables, inspiring examples of how to live well. Many people believe the Gospel to be just another moralizing story, but they could not be more mistaken. There is no ‘moral of the story’ to the nativity. The shepherds, the parents of Jesus, the wise men— are not being held up primarily as examples for us. These Gospel narratives are telling you not what you should do but what God has done. The birth of the Son of God into the world is a gospel, good news, an announcement. You don’t save yourself. God has come to save you.”

That is not good advice, that is Good News!  You see, “Jesus is not a metaphor. He is real. This all happened.” 


So have you accept this gift?
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