Brian Onstead

How good is your best news?

What is the best news that you could ever receive? Perhaps it is that you are expecting after years of being infertile. Or maybe it is being acquitted in court of false charges against you? Or, if you have a cancer diagnosis, the best news you could receive is that you are cancer free. Whatever the case may be, how good is the best news you could receive? How bad of times would it be able to get you through? Could it get you through the worst of times? Would it be able to get you through the worst news you could receive?

How about this? Would it be able to get you through the end of the world? Sometimes when we or someone we love is going through a minor difficulty, we say, “the sky is not falling” or “it’s not the end of the world.” We say this to remind ourselves or them that it is really not as bad as we think. 

But let’s say that it is truly the end of the world. Would your best news be able to carry you through that? Before you say that it is not something that you have to worry about, take a second to consider what the word of God says, “the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.” (2 Peter 3:7)

The end of the world is truly coming. One day God will destroy it with fire. What sort of news can get you through this? Is there any news that can outweigh this very bad news? There actually is! It is the best of news that anyone could ever hear. It is the news that God became a man without ceasing to be God. He came down to earth, born of a woman. He lived a perfect life in accordance to the law of God without failing at any point. This is so that all who believe this news would be considered as having lived this perfect life. And then he died on that awful cross to pay for sins. He received credit for the sin of all who believe. He was then buried, but on the third day he rose again in victory over sin, death, and the devil. He is now seated at the right hand of God from where he shall come again to judge both those who are living at the time of his coming and those who have already died.

This will be the end of the world. But it is good news to those who believe this news — to those who are relying on what Jesus, the son of God, did in their place to deliver them from eternal judgment and bring them safely to the new heavens and new earth which will never end. All who simply trust Jesus and what he did for them in dealing in full with their judgment have no need to fear, even when it is the end of the world. In fact, it is the thing that all who believe long for! Only this news can carry us through the worst of news — even when it is truly the end of the world!

(Brian Onstead is the pastor at Trinity Bible Church.)