For the Good News to Be Good, the Bad News Must Be Bad
By Michael Kelley
If you go to your refrigerator right now, chances are you will find at least one bottle of something that has two important words on it. The words are “Shake well.” Have you ever tried to use whatever that thing is without shaking it well? What comes out is a watered down, liquidy version of the real thing. But when you shake it well, you stir up all the things that have the tendency to settle down at the bottom.
When it comes to our sin, we all have the tendency to let it settle down at the bottom of our hearts. It becomes like a layer of sediment down there. And sometimes, if left alone, it actually starts to harden at the base of our hearts. Perhaps one of the reasons why the gospel ceases to be such good news is because our hearts haven’t been shaken up in a while.
Maybe the reason the good news doesn’t seem all that good is because we’ve forgotten how bad the bad news really is.
So how do you get your heart shaken up? How do you remember just how bad the bad news really is?
This is one of the reasons why it’s important for us to read the law of the Old Testament. Sometimes, as Christians, we have the mistaken notion that the New Testament is really the only part of the Bible that should matter to us. It is, after all, the part of the Bible that deals with the cross and resurrection of Jesus and the implications that has for us. Other than some interesting historical background, why even look back to the old part at all?
Lots of reasons actually, but at least one of them is to stir our hearts. That’s one of the reasons we have the law in the first place.
This is the same sort of question Paul was answering in Galatians 3. In that book, Paul was countering a group of false teachers claiming that salvation was not by grace alone through faith alone, but instead also included any number of works we do to make ourselves right with God. But if salvation only comes through grace, then why do we have the law?
The answer Paul gives in Galatians 3:19 is this: The law was given for the sake of transgressions. Now what might that mean?
Perhaps as a parent you’ve been in a situation when one of your kids does something that is clearly wrong. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that your child spraypaints stripes on the dog. Then they hide the spraypaint and do their best to wash it off. When you see the dog, you confront them about it, and with all the seriousness he can muster, he responds like this:
“You never said I couldn’t spraypaint the dog.”
When one of your children says something like that, and you think to yourself, I didn’t think I HAD to say such a thing. So the question is, was it wrong? It absolutely was. He knew in his heart if was wrong; that’s why he tried to clean up after himself.
Yes, it was wrong, but it wasn’t yet explicitly articulated as being wrong. This is why the law was given because of transgressions. It does not mean there wasn’t sin prior to the law - it does mean that once the law was given, that same sin is documented. It is explicitly stated. And consequently, there is no loophole, no claim on not understanding, no lack of clarity. It is by the law we are proven to be sinners. Sin is inescapable.
And this, then, is how the law and the grace of the gospel work together. The law forces us to our knees. It removes any delusions of self-righteousness. It stirs up the sediment of sin that so easily settles in the base of our hearts. And then we see how good the good news is again and again. We turn to Jesus with renewed awe and gratitude.
Michael Kelley is a husband, father of three, author, and speaker from Nashville, TN. His latest book is a year-long family devotional guide called The Whole Story for the Whole Family. Find his personal blog at michaelkelley.co.
