Have you heard the good news/bad news jokes?

For example, there was the doctor who called his patient and said, “I’ve evaluated your condition, and I have some good news and some bad news.”

The patient said, “Well give me the good news.”

The doctor replied, “You have only 24 hours to live!”

“If that’s the good news,” the patient gasped, “what is the bad news?”

“The bad news,” the doctor said, “is that I couldn’t get ahold of you yesterday.”

When it comes to the topic of sin-
– the Bible also has some good news/bad news.

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” Romans 5:12.

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”Romans 3:23-24.

“But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:21-23.

Have you taken the bad news seriously?
Sin is a killer.

First, it kills you spiritually.
Because we are born in sin, we are born with the part of us that makes contact with God dead–unresponsive to God’s spiritual presence.Colossians 2:13.

Eventually, it kills you physically.
Read Genesis 5 and count the number of times it says, “and he died.”

But the bad news is not intended to breed despair.
It is meant to point you to Christ.

Romans 6:23 not only gives us the bad news that sin brings death-
– it also gives us the good news that God has given us a gift (the word there means a “free gift.”
– and that gift is eternal life in Christ Jesus.

If you recognize that you are a sinner and face death-
– don’t wait another moment to accept God’s free gift,
– the eternal life in Christ Jesus.

(PR)