No one has ever brought better news to this world than Jesus! However, in order to fully appreciate the good news, one must first understand there is some bad news. Life is full of bad news, and the Bible says it all has its roots in sin. Before the first human couple disobeyed God, everything on earth was very good (Genesis 1:31). But when they sinned, there were some awful consequences to follow.

• First, Adam and Eve felt guilty and ashamed of themselves and afraid of God (Genesis 3:6-11).
• Second, there was conflict in the family. Adam blamed Eve for his sin (Genesis 3:12), and later one of their two sons murdered his brother (Genesis 4).
• Third, there was pain and suffering (Genesis 3:16).
• Fourth, God pronounced a curse on nature and on the world (Genesis 3:17-19).
• Fifth, Adam and Eve were separated from the tree of life and from God himself (Genesis 3:22-24).
• Finally, Adam and Eve died (Genesis 2:17; 5:5).

All this happened after man sinned, and today every single problem we face in life is a consequence of sin. Every bit of unhappiness, every broken relationship, every sickness, every natural disaster and even death itself is a product of sin. That is the bad news.

Now for the good news. Jesus came to save us from all our sins (Matthew 1:21). How did he do this?

• First, he was born into this world as the son of God (Matt. 1:18-23).
• Second, he lived a perfect and sinless life while he was here (Hebrews 4:14,15).
• Third, he died for us and in our place in order to pay the penalty due us for our sins (I Peter 2:24).
• And he suffered horribly in the process (Matt.27:27-56).

Jesus suffered what we deserved to suffer for our sins. But here is even more good news! After dying for us and offering himself to God as a sacrifice for us, God raised Jesus from the dead showing that he accepted Jesus' death as a sufficient sacrifice for our sins (Acts 2:24;Luke 24). There is one man in history who has conquered death, the penalty for sin, and his name is Jesus.

Now if we will believe in him, we can be saved from our sins (Acts 16:31). If we will express our belief in Jesus by repenting and being baptized in Jesus' name, we will be forgiven of our sins (Mark 16:15,16;Acts 2:38). We will be released from death itself, the penalty for sin (Romans 6:23; 8:2). God promises to one day raise all Christians from the dead never to die again (John 11:25; I Cor. 15).

But not only does Jesus save us from the guilt and penalty of sin. As we repent of sins, we commit ourselves to obey all the teachings of Jesus (Matt. 28:18-20). We agree to do what God requires Christians to do which includes loving the other Christians (John 13:34) and meeting with these Christians (Hebrews 10:25) and doing good to all men (Galatians 6:10). In this way Jesus saves us from the very practice of sinning as well! One day God will even deliver the world and earth itself from sin's curse (Romans 8:16-21). God will make a new heaven and a new earth which will be the eternal home of the righteous (2 Peter 3:10-13).

And so Christians will be finally saved from sin and all the awful problems that have come to us because of sin. Where will you ever hear better news than that?