In order to truly appreciate the sun’s warmth, we need to know the way it feels to lack it. In order understand the necessity of the light, we need to know the way it feels to be in darkness. In order to truly understand and appreciate the good news, it must be set against the backdrop of the bad news.
Which leads me to think about my favorite new ritual; sitting in the sauna at the gym.
For some reason, I love it! I finish my workout, and I will go straight to it. It is a small room with wooden walls and wooden benches, and it is hot! 165 degrees of sweltering heat hits you in the face as you walk in. It fills your longs, and causes you to instantly perspire. Sounds fun, right?
Again, I don’t fully understand why I love it so much, but after 15 minutes I get up and leave the room feeling like a new man.
Earlier this week, there was a man in the sauna with me. He was an older man who just quietly sat on the bench starring ahead. We sat there together and cooked for 15 minutes, and both of us got up at the same time. As we left the sauna, I walked to the left toward the locker room, and he walked to the right toward the pool.
Surely this guy wasn’t just going to jump out of the 165 degree sauna into the freezing water of a swimming pool, right? Wrong… because that is exactly what he did. In less than 15 seconds this man left heat of the sauna to jump into the cool water of the swimming pool. I can only imagine the shock that was for him, and I was, by no means, brave enough to follow in his footsteps.
As this man jumped into the water, I was reminded of the gospel!
In the same way the pool was shocking because the Sauna was hot and the water was cold, the gospel is shocking because the bad news is bad and the good news is good. It’s the contrast is vital to understand it!
Here are our two tendencies…
One, we can downplay the bad news.
We can say things like, “well, I was a good person.” “God wouldn’t send good people to hell.” “There are great people in the world doing great things, irregardless of their belief in Christ.” “Sin is not all your fault.” “Sin is not that big of a deal.” All of this serves to downplay the bad news.
However, here is the reality; When you make the bad news “less-than-bad,” you will inevitably make the good news “less-than-good.” Is there any wonder why the good news of Jesus Christ doesn’t penetrate your heart? If you think you are just fine without him, can you truly be desperate for him? If you don’t believe yourself to be sick, is the cure really that big of a deal?
Or two, we can downplay the good news.
We can say things like, “I see no way out of this, and I have no hope.” “I am depressed, and I can’t fix this.” I am broken.” “My life is not going anywhere, and I what is the point of all of this?” “How can God want me?” “How can God love me?” All of this serves to downplay the good news.
But, here is the reality; when you make the good news “less-than-good,” the bad news becomes hopeless news. Where is the hope if the good news is not able to overcome the bad?
Both of these tendencies lead to a misunderstanding of the gospel. But, if we fully understand the bad news… that we are broken, lost, stuck in our sin, rebellious, dead, and with out hope in this world, and if we fully understand the good news… that we have been saved by the grace of God, completely forgive, adopted, redeemed, set free, given eternity, and made righteous through Christ… It is shocking! Like going from a sauna to a pool, it is rejuvenating, thrilling, and anything but mundane.
Let us never stop proclaiming the reality of the bad news from which we have been saved, the good news to which we have been saved, and beautiful shock of going from death to life!