22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:22-24 (NIV)
All have sinned. All fall short of the glory of God.
What is sin? Sin is anything that keeps us apart from God. It is anything that is against His will, or puts us higher than Him in our lives. Some are obvious, like murder, robbery, violence, infidelity. But there are less concrete sins as well, like pride, jealousy, laziness, anger and more. In fact, anything that puts ourselves first is technically a sin.
So we have all sinned, and we all continue to sin daily. What does this mean for us? Is this a negative situation, where we are all doomed as being “bad”?
Not at all. This is the great news of the Gospel of Jesus.
There is none good enough that they don’t need God’s love, but conversely, there is none so bad, that God’s love can’t save them. Even if you do feel down because of the negative things in your life, Jesus died for your sins, and He would have done so, even if you were the only sinner ever to live.
The Gospel of Jesus begins in Genesis as God created the world in all his beauty and perfection. He gave man free will to choose his own path, because God didn’t desire the worship of robots who have no choice. Unfortunately, man chose to walk his own way, turning his back on God. And so, sin entered the world, bringing with it death – the punishment for sin.
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—
Romans 5:12
Fast forward 4000 years, and God sent Jesus to earth to pay the price for the sins of every person who had ever lived or who would ever live. Through one man, Adam, sin and death entered the world. Through one man, Christ, the last Adam, sin was defeated and the price paid. So all who accept the gift of God’s forgiveness through Christ no longer must die (in the spiritual sense), but will live eternally.
“We are all sinners” is actually great news. It means we are all in the same boat, and all can be saved, despite our failings and weaknesses, and that Jesus offers us all the gift of His forgiveness.
The Gospel: creation, fall, crucifixion, atonement, resurrection, redemption, reconciliation.
That is indeed Good News.