What is the bad news / good news approach to sharing the gospel?

This truth, the Gospel of God, brings a message to me about myself, I would here add, as well as about God. It tells me of sin as well as of salvation. It tells me that the whole world is in a state of revolt and rebellion, and that I myself am a self-ruined sinner. If I receive such a message as that, conviction, and affections which accompany conviction, will be awakened in me. As naturally will the soul be occupied with them, as with the peace and assurance and joy which the message of salvation will inspire. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," was said to a startled sinner. The Samaritan was convicted by the Lord as a sinner, ere He revealed Himself to her as a Saviour. The Gospel speaks of judgment and of peace — but it lays judgment at the door of all, peace on the conscience of those who are awakened.

You are under wrath and judgment. All the world is subject to the wrath and judgment of God because of their sins. But here is God's remedy. The Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven to seek and to save what was lost, and He, not by His life, but by His death, has opened the way of escape for everyone that believes in Him. In the cross of Christ I see the blood provided which shelters from judgment; and in that same cross I see a way opened for me of deliverance from the power and thraldom of sin.

My little boy was sitting on the floor playing with a small toy, and as I looked at him I realized that to reach the conscience and heart of an obviously dying man I must speak to him as simply as I would to my boy. I told him that nothing we had done or could do, availed for salvation. We had all sinned — done what was wrong in God's sight, and God must punish sin. If we had to bear the punishment we should be sent away from the presence of God for ever. But God Himself had provided a way — the only way — in which we could be forgiven and have our sins washed away. God's own Son — the Lord Jesus Christ — had come from heaven to earth. He was sinless, spotless and holy, and He alone could be our Saviour. His Name was to be "JESUS, for He shall save His people from their sins." To do this He must pay the penalty of sin, which is death; and so He died on Calvary's cross — the "Just for the unjust." He shed His precious blood, and it is "the blood of Jesus Christ (God's Son) which cleanses us from all sin." God offers us salvation through faith in Christ, ceasing from our own efforts to keep the law, and putting our trust in that finished work which He did on the cross; owning Him as our Saviour and Lord. "Neither is there salvation in any other."

Now you have several God-given facts: — You are a sinner, needing a Saviour. Christ Jesus came to be your Saviour. He suffered on the cross for your sins, and shed His blood there for your redemption. God has raised Him from the dead and given Him glory, and this is proof beyond question of the completeness and perfection of His work. God justifies all who believe this gospel concerning His Son, they are saved for ever.

The Posture of the Son of God. We are told that "When Jesus came to the place where he was, He looked up and saw him, and said, Zaccheus, make haste, and come down; for to-day I must abide at thy house." What amazing condescension, for the Lord of glory thus to look up and speak to sinful man! What love! But such is the character of the heart of Jesus. Though bright angelic hosts surround the throne of heaven, we are told that "His delights were with the sons of men." Yes, man, who was created in the image of God, always had a place in His heart; and when fallen into degradation and ruin, through sin and rebellion against his Creator, Jesus still loved man; and his fallen, undone state only served the more to make manifest the vast resources of Divine love and mercy. The Son of God, who is in the bosom of the Father, left the bright glory and happiness of the throne of heaven, condescended to be made of a woman, and came forth "in the likeness of sinful flesh," that as Man, by the death of the cross, He might redeem man from all iniquity, and bring many sons to glory. This is Divine love. Though He was God manifest in the flesh, He emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant. He did all Jehovah's righteous will, obeyed every jot and tittle of the law, and humbled Himself unto death, even the death of the cross, that by such depths of humiliation, pain, and death under the judgment of God as Sin-bearer, He might glorify the Father, and redeem us from the utter destruction and eternal despair to which, as sinners, we were justly exposed. It was the same loving-hearted Jesus, who afterward died on the cross, that came where Zaccheus was, and said, "Make haste, and come down; for to-day I must abide at thy house." It was the same Jesus who said to sinful Israel by His prophet in days of old, "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." It was the same blessed Saviour who said to His apostles after His resurrection, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." It was the same Jesus who said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink;" and who still says, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

It is then because men are sinners that repentance is necessary, repentance toward God; for it is against Him that they have sinned, and under His just judgment that they have consequently fallen. The preaching of repentance is, on this very account, designed to awaken the sinner to a sense of his condition, by bringing before his soul the claims of a holy God, as well as the provisions of His grace. The presentation of God in the gospel as the One who so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life, is surely calculated to touch the most obdurate heart. A God coming in judgment to deal with sinners even the natural conscience could understand; for the soul, whatever its subterfuges, knows its deserts. But a God appearing in grace, sending His beloved Son into the world, making Him to be sin on the cross, and publishing the glad tidings of grace and salvation fm and wide, is so contrary to all human thoughts that the sinner may well be arrested, and compelled to consider. Justice is a well-known principle even in this world; but grace is so beyond its experience that it can hardly fail to beget a desire to trace out its source and origin. If God then proclaims the necessity of repentance, He Himself seeks to produce it by bringing the soul under the appeals of His grace in the gospel.

The gospel makes all now as clear as even God can, consistently with His love and glory, till the judgment. Then it will be proved that not lack of light from God was at fault, but man's will who loves darkness rather than light, because his deeds were evil. But now before the judgment, God commends His own love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. It is Christ's death which efficaciously and for ever atones for guilt. It is by Christ's death that enemies are reconciled to God. All is yours if you believe on Him; all is lost if you turn from Him.

How else could we know with assurance whence we came, and whither we go? Conscience may whisper that we are guilty, yet responsible before God. The more active and thorough its exercise, the more we are forced to feel our unfitness for His presence. There is therefore no prospect before us, as we are, but a fearful expectation of judgment. For conscience can tell us no way of escape from our own evil, no means of righteous reconciliation with God. His word confirms, in plain, strong, and solemn terms, all that we cannot but judge of our own state. But His word adds far other and better things; it makes known Christ, the coming Judge of quick and dead who despise Him and the God that sent Him to die for sinners; to all who repent and believe the gospel, it makes known in and through Christ the victory of His grace. The believer is not only rescued from the wrath to come, but brought already into divine favour, and even the relationship of a son of God; and henceforth, instead of dreading the Judge, he is entitled, while he serves a living and true God, to wait longingly for His Son from heaven. Such is the gospel Christ commands His servants to preach to every creature.

Let me dwell for a moment, if one soul be here tonight not clear in the gospel. Just put these few testimonies together. First of all, the blessed Saviour is divine. Because He is divine He is able to do every thing, able to save, able to cleanse, able to keep, able to present you faultless before His presence with joy in heaven. Then He is Man, — Man so that He could die for us, so that He could lay down that perfect life upon the cross as a sin-offering for us. You and I deserve to be judged for our sins. Christ could be judged in our place because He is Man, and as man die and make atonement for sin. You have a divine Saviour, almighty; you have a human Saviour who died for us. Next, John testifies of repentance. What have I to do? to work for my salvation? to turn over a new leaf? to reform? to give up my bad habits? — is that what God asks? Nay; dear friends; Repent! is the command; and repentance is owning that I am a sinner, taking my place as a guilty, helpless, worthless sinner, not able to do a single thing for salvation, not able to work my way into heaven, but just owning that I am helpless, guilty, vile, and undone. What then? Look away from self, look away from what you are, — your sins, though they be like scarlet, look off there at the Lamb of God, and what do you see? One who takes away the sin of the world, who removes the guilt, takes off that awful load that was on your conscience, sweeps forever from view that black cloud of your sins that was between you and God. Look at the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world! What a blessed Gospel! what a testimony! — a divine and human Saviour, repentance, and faith in Christ who died for us!

First, he says, "It is the power of God to salvation". God is its source. It is not man coming to God with his works, but God approaching man with salvation. We can understand God's power to judge a guilty sinner, but the marvel of the gospel is that it reveals God's power to save a sinner who deserves to be judged.