The Gospel Is Demanding News

News reports and advertisements saturate today’s world. The average person gets bombarded with somewhere between 1,000 and 5,000 messages and advertisements per day! There is a lot of news vying for our attention.

That means a lot of competition exists between the good news of Christianity and thousands and thousands of other news stories. The gospel of Jesus Christ has similarities and dissimilarities with other news reports. However, most people will pay more attention to the people, places, and events of the nightly television news programs than they will the good news of Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected for their souls.

The gospel places demands upon every person ever born.

The gospel, like other reports, features particular people, places, and events. It’s the news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, taught about the kingdom of heaven, performed miracles, was crucified and buried, and resurrected to purchase forgiveness and eternal life.

However, the gospel is also unlike other kinds of news. Other reports may be pondered and put off as inconsequential or irrelevant. But the gospel places demands upon every person ever born. God “commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30). Moreover, everyone must trust or believe in Jesus. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. . . . Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:16, 18).

The gospel cannot be laid aside with yesterday’s newspapers. Whether or not a person responds to the gospel appropriately—in repentance and faith—has implications for this present life and the life to come.