When we look out on the landscape of our culture today, what we see is brokenness; the brokenness that God never intended in his good and perfect design of creation. But our rebellion and rejection of his loving and kind authority have shattered what was once beautiful. The good news is that, in Christ, God is restoring this brokenness. Not only can we be put back together – reconciled to God – but we also become new creations. In 2 Corinthians 5:17-19, we see Paul’s inspired declaration:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.

Put simply, the good news of the gospel is the truth that the perfect life, atoning death, and bodily resurrection of Jesus rescues all of God’s people from his wrath and makes peace with God with a promise of the full restoration of God’s created order forever to the praise of his glory and grace.