'Many people seem to embrace the good news without embracing God'. Wow - Piper is right, I'm sure. And the more I think about that, the more it explains why there is so much that is wierd, unnatural and inhibiting about church life. This observation of Jesus' springs to my mind: "You yourselves do not enter [the kingdom of heaven], nor will you let those enter who are trying to" (Matthew 23:13). Have I ever done that to others? I hope not.
I can scarcely recognise my old selves in all the repenting and changes God has steered me through over 40 years as a Christian; but I think, because of the way He first drew me to Himself, that I haven't got sidetracked in the way Piper describes. Wounded at 14 by my family bereavement, He drew me to Himself to comfort and heal me. His love has always been the good news to me. I've always treasured in my heart these words He gave to Hosea: "I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them" (Hosea 11:4).
We can wrap so much into what we think of as the "good news" - all the testimony of the New Testament, then the theologies people have developed on the back of that, then the customs and traditions of the church we've chosen. It's easy to miss the wood for the trees. But there is a wealth of wisdom out there about prayer, spiritual formation and personal self-disciplines which will enable us to re-centre ourselves on Him, on Truth, on the Ultimate Reality towards which words can only take us some of the way.
I find that if I keep going there, then when I return to think about things, I can see what hangs from what so much more clearly - I can better identify what I've previously called those 'high level truths'. Regarding the good news, it's not surprising that they'll be found at the very beginning of things. The angels announced to those rough, uneducated shepherds: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests" (Luke 2:14). The good news is first and foremost about Who God is - but we hadn't realised. He is a God who always looks upon mankind with love and favour. Going back even earlier: "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good" (Genesis 1:31). We see it in the boyish Jesus' natural comfortableness with His Father: "Didn't you realise I was bound to be in Daddy's house?" (Luke 2:49). We hear it in the first words Jesus chose to read out in that Capernaum synagogue (Luke 4:18-19):
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight to the blind;
To release the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour."
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