By Pastor Yomi OGUNTUWASE
(yomioguntuase@gmail.com, +447946506659)
Paul said in Romans 1:16,
“I am not ashamed of the gospel [the Good News] of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.”
The good news of Jesus is the power of God. Without good news, there is no power.
The Good News is not life for everyone—only for those who believe it.
When Jesus began His public ministry, He proclaimed the purpose for which the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him—to preach good news (Luke 4:18). He had good news for the poor, the brokenhearted, the captives, the blind, and the bruised.
The Good News is found in Luke 4:19:
“To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”
What could He possibly have meant by that?
“The acceptable year of the Lord” is the Year of Jubilee.
Every fifty years all debts were canceled. Regardless of how legitimate a debt might be, it was canceled. The individual was free from the debt without any effort or merit on his part. The debt was canceled. By the debt being canceled, the penalty of the debt was also canceled.
Every good Jew knew the penalty for breaking the law was the curse, as described in the old covenant. When those curses came, he knew he deserved it. He could in no way hold God responsible for the curse of the law, “The debt is now canceled.” That is the Good News to those in need. The debt of the law is canceled. You can now be free from the penalty of your sin.
Jesus repeatedly proved that this applied to the forgiveness of sins as well as to the curse of the law.
At the cross, Jesus paid the price to deliver us from the consequences of breaking the law.
Yet we still look to the law and assume our standard of conduct will protect us from the curse.
Unfortunately, we have abandoned the cross. Even though the cross is the central message of the gospel.
Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:17 (KJV):
“For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.”
We talk about Christ but we don’t preach the cross of Christ.*Oguntuase, a nutritionist and a reflexologist, is a Pastor of Christ in Me Ministry, Windsor UK.
