"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!"- Romans 10: 13-15
Dear reader, please follow the above text carefully. It says, whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But here is the clause- they must believe Him before they can call on Him. Again, the text explains that to believe the Lord, they must have heard of Him, and they can't hear of Him except there be a preacher. The text further tells us who a preacher is: A MAN SENT BY GOD TO BRING GLAD TIDINGS (GOOD NEWS). This boils down to the fact that SALVATION IS TIED TO GLAD TIDINGS; NO GLAD TIDINGS, NO SALVATION! So, what exactly are these glad tidings? Simply put- The Gospel; Good News. They are of two categories; I'll talk about the first in this post, and ina subsequent post discuss the second.
1. B.C (Before Christ) GLAD TIDINGS Luke 1:19- "And the angel answering said unto him (Zechariah), I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings". The glad tidings showed to Zechariah were the details of John's ministry. However, everything John the baptist was sent to do was with a sole purpose: "To make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Luke 1: 13-17). So the good news here really isn't that "John was going to be born" but that "THE MESSIAH WAS SOON TO BE BORN" Have you ever taken time out to meditate on the significance of the birth of Jesus Christ? Although many people, even unbelievers, have heard the story of Jesus’ birth- born by a virgin in a manger bla bla bla- its real significance may be missed because we have become so familiar with the “story” aspect. The birth of Christ was not the ordinary birth of an ordinary man. It was the birth of the most unique Person in history. His birth was the incarnation of God Himself. In other words, the very God became a man. The significance of this is profound and will take all eternity for us to appreciate. The conception and birth of Jesus Christ was the mingling of God with humanity. It was the initiation of a game-changing process in the eternal scheme of events. Such a thing had never occurred before! John 1:14 says that the Word, the eternal God Himself, became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. That is to say, the eternal God in all His Glory, Splendor and Majesty stepped out of eternity into time to become a man of flesh and blood. Through Jesus' incarnation, God was expressed in a human body. Born by a virgin in the manger in Bethlehem of Judea, Jesus fully expressed the very God in all His rich being and Person to mankind- His love, mercy, righteousness, holiness, compassion, and glory. All these were and till this day, still are expressed in the physical life and times of Jesus, the Christ. Beloved, the first glad tiding that we must believe in order to be saved is that Jesus Christ is more than a holy man, a prophet, or a martyr. He is the complete, eternal God who came in the flesh. This is a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith. By believing the Lord Jesus Christ as the "God-Man" who lived a perfect human life that expressed the true God, and by receiving Him as our Savior, we are saved. If you’ve never done so before, you can receive Him right now by saying this short prayer.