How to read “bad news” in Scripture

Posted by Josh Howerton on May 23, 2011 | 2 comments

The Bible’s picture of Mankind is about as encouraging as a swift kick to the groin or a terminal cancer diagnosis on your birthday. For instance, Romans 3, the most theologically comprehensive description of Man in Scripture, says…

• Not a single man is righteous or does anything good by himself
• Everyone runs away from God from the minute He gifts them with life
• Mankind is morally and spiritually “worthless”
• Our default mode is to use our mouths to promulgate deception about God and foster spiritual death
• Mankind’s natural bent is to declare war on God, hoping to shed his blood

Happy Monday! (sarcasm intended)  When Christians read seemingly discouraging passages like these, they usually fall into one of two destructive ditches on either side of the road…

• Stay in the bad news. Rather than seeing condemning passages as on-ramps to a highway of good news, some people STAY IN condemning truths and dwell in them as if they were doing God a favor by fixing their eyes on how sinful they are.  Because the whole purpose of the bad news is to drive us to good news, this is the spiritual equivalent of parking your car on an access road and proudly declaring, “I’m there!”  These people live their lives in morbid introspection, stay downcast, don’t experience confidence on mission, and live false “joyless lives for Jesus”.  He is neither savored nor glorified when this happens.

• Ignore or downplay the bad news. Rather than seeing condemning passages as on-ramps to good news, others either quickly gloss over or downplay what they’re actually saying, thinking they’re doing God a favor by “focusing on the happy stuff”.  These spiritual Clark Griswolds often interpret The Bible as if it’s supposed to read like a spiritualized version of “The Power of Positive Thinking”.  Because they rarely let the reality of their depravity and sinfulness “sink them”, these people never truly appreciate the heights of what Jesus has done for them.  A forced, superficial joy takes the place of the deep, rich joy that is forged by embracing the fulness of the Sinner/Savior relationship.  Jesus is neither fully savored nor glorified when this happens.

Rather than “wallering” in it or ignoring/downplaying it, the Bible gives us a third way to read bad news passages…

• Bad news passages as “on-ramps” to a highway of good news. In Romans 3 the unparalleled condemnation of Mankind laid out in verses 10-18 is immediately followed by the phrase, “But God…” in verse 21 and then it goes on to powerfully describe the grace we access to in Jesus.  In this chapter the bad news serves as an “on-ramp” that leads to a highway of good news in Jesus.  In other words, if you didn’t first see how BAD you were, you wouldn’t be able to see how GOOD the news is that Jesus has made you righteous in God’s eyes.  This is how all the bad news in The Bible should be read – as access roads to a deeper understanding of the good news of the gospel.  Bad news isn’t meant to be ignored or downplayed (none of Scripture is), but it’s also not meant to be “dwelt in” – it’s meant to push you elsewhere, to joyful thoughts of redemption in Jesus.  See bigger sin and you’ll see a bigger Savior.

Either parking in the bad news or passing over the bad news will cut you off from experiencing the fulness of gospel-riches.  Be devastated.  But be devastated SO THAT you can be enraptured.