Any good book sets the scene so imagine picking up a book and reading this: late at night the phone rings. I have waited up for this call and answer quickly. ‘We’re home, Mother,’ says the voice on the other end. My whole body sighs with relief and I exclaim, ‘Oh, that is such good news. I am so thrilled!’
You would ask yourself, what was so wonderful about news like that? What made the good news, good? If you did not know the bad news you could not appreciate the good news.
So let me start the book again for you. Read this first: my family set out to drive to their home late in the day. Traffic was heavy, a pea-soup fog came down and somewhere out there was a known gunman ready to shoot but my family arrived home safely.
So now you know why the news was so good.
There is another similar story and we get the bad news early on. The book says in the day you eat the fruit of that tree you will surely die, and the people ate. The awful certainty of it makes you long for the phone to ring and bring some good news.
Finally the phone rings and you run to pick it up. The voice on the other end comes through loud and clear, ‘as in Adam all die so in Christ all will be made alive’ and your whole body sighs with relief. The outcome is life instead of death. The good news is so good.” 1st Corinthians 15:22.
And it gets better! God will actually live with us, we will be His people and He will wipe away every tear, Revelation 21:3,4.
Aren’t you glad the whole story is in the Book?
Elizabeth Price