Good Medicine

I’ve spent five months researching and writing an article on Adventist Revelation Seminars, five months immersed in darkness. That’s a large dose of bad medicine. As I confided to some close friends, I feel old, worn out. What I need now is some Good Medicine. What I need more than anything is the real Gospel, the Good News.

First, I need to embrace the bad news to understand just how good the Good News really is. It’s like this. I was dead in my sin. Not just metaphorically “dead”, but literally and truly dead. That immaterial part of me, my spirit, that can commune with God who is Spirit, was dead and separated from him. I walked in sin, going along with the worldly system that Satan has set up. The truth is, Satan was at work in me, and I was continually disobedient to God. I was just like everyone else in the world, trying to be my own god and do things my own way, the way I thought was best. In fact, as a dead man, that was my very nature. That was who I really was. I rightly deserved nothing but the wrath of a Holy God, just like everyone else. That’s the bad news.

Here’s the Good News. God’s mercy is mind blowing. He has such great love that He loves me despite who and what I was. Even while I was still dead, He sovereignly chose to pay the price for my sin, to bring my spirit to life, and to place me in communion with Himself. It was an act of pure, unmerited favor. God saved this dead sinner and raised me up with Jesus so that I am with Jesus in the heavenly places. I am alive and with Him!

Why did God do this? The only answer is that He did it so that through all eternity He will be glorified because of the riches He’s showered upon me. He did it so that His unmerited grace and kindness to me through Jesus are displayed to all.

My salvation is completely by unmerited, undeserved grace through faith, but that faith doesn’t come from me. Even faith is God’s gift to me. None of this is based on anything I’ve ever done or ever will do. If I had done anything, then I would have some bragging rights, but all the credit goes to God.

See, I’m God’s masterpiece of grace. Like an artist, He took the raw mess that I am and crafted something completely new in Jesus. God had a purpose for His art. Since before time began God was preparing good things for me to do. He’s the artist, and I’m the medium He works in.

God chose to take a dead man, deserving of wrath, brought me to life, gave me faith, transformed me, and is now doing good things through me. I’m a product of His craftsmanship from start to finish. It’s all about Him, all by Him, and all for His glory. In that assurance I am refreshed and healed. God’s sovereign grace is Good News.

If you need a little dose of the good stuff, try reading through Ephesians 2:1-10 and making it personal. That’s what I just did, and I can tell you, it’s Good Medicine. †

Chris Lee lives in Lincoln, Nebraska with his wife, Carmen, and daughters, Ashlyn and Alyssa. They attend the Lincoln Berean Church. Chris is a self-described “theology junkie” whose mission is to proclaim the unfathomable grace of Christ in a clear, understandable, and Biblical way.