Good News or Good Advice?

Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones on 1 Corinthians 15. He clarified how the Gospel is based on historical events in how the religion got itsstart. He said there was a big difference between advice and news. The Gospel, he would say, is good news, but not good advice. Here’s what he said about that: “Advice is counsel about something that hasn’t happened yet, but you can do something about it. News is a report about something that has
happened which you can’t do anything about because it has been done for you and all you can do is to
respond to it.”
So he says think this out: here’s a king, and he goes into a battle against an invading army to defend his
land. If the king defeats the invading army, he sends back to the capital city messengers, envoys, very
happy envoys. He sends back good newsers. And what they come back with is a report. They come
back and they say: The invading army has been defeated and it’s been all done. Therefore respond with joy and now go about your lives in this peace which has been achieved for you. But if he doesn’t defeat the invading army, and the invading army breaks through, the king sends back military advisers and says . . . “Marksmen
over here and the horseman over there, and we will have to fight for our lives.” Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones
says that every other religion sends military advisers to people. Every other religion says that if you want
to achieve salvation, you will have to fight for your life. Every other religion is sending advice saying “here
are the rites, here are the rituals, here’s the transformation of the consciousness and here are the laws
and the regulations. Marksmen over here and horsemen over there and we are going to fight for our
lives.” We send heralds; we send messengers and not military advisers. Isn’t that clarifying? It’s just
incredibly clarifying. And it’s not like there’s nothing to do about it, my goodness. Both the messenger
and the military adviser get an enormous response. One is a response of joy and the other one is a
response of fear. All other religions give advice and they drive everything you do with fear . . . as you
know, when you hear the gospel, when you hear the message that it’s all been done for you, it’s a
historical event that has happened, your salvation is accomplished for you, what do you want to do?          
You want to please the one that did this for you.