That's the beauty of grace and power of the Holy Spirit, that serving becomes a joy for us. But still, getting told what to do isn't good news. The good news, as you said, is that it's not up to your works of obedience--but God's grace and love.
But even still, the commandment to good works is not the good news, it is the works that the one who has believed the good news does.
In the Lutheran tradition we speak of the "Three Uses of the Law" as a helpful way to properly understand the place and significance of the Law in Christian life, faith, and practice.
In short:
The first use describes the Law as a fence which surrounds man, saying "Do not cross this line"; the second use describes the Law as justly condemning us and pronouncing us guilty since we consistently cross those lines, whether by action, inaction, in word, thought, and deed: we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, there is none who is righteous, not even one. And the third use describes the way of life for the people of God--that is, the call to a life of loving obedience and discipleship; not for God's sake (God doesn't need our good works), but for our neighbor's sake (our neighbor does need our good works).
Understanding that none of this is good news; the good news is what God has done for us--giving us His Son's righteousness as a pure, unconditional, free gift. The Good News, as it pertains to righteousness, is ONLY the imputed righteousness of Jesus, the passive righteousness which declares us righteous for Christ's sake.
"If you murder you will die" Isn't good news.
"You have murdered, and you will die." Isn't good news.
"Don't murder, but promote life." Still isn't good news.
But, "You, the guilty murderer, are forgiven, and not only can you walk out of this prison cell but you are now an adopted child of the King of the universe" that's good news.
If it does not soothe the guilty conscience of the sinner by declaring them fully and freely forgiven, then it isn't--and can't be--Gospel.
-CryptoLutheran
Like, agree and informative.
I think Lutheranism presents good theology regarding this. I've also listed to a lot of what Jordan B Cooper has to say.
In the world of Protestantism there's a schism between what's called Lordship Salavation by many which focuses on commitment, obedience, obligation and perseverance. John MacArthur who best known for teaching this, wrote about it in a book he titled "The Gospel According to Jesus". Although it seems to me that's its really just mostly Catholicism.
Then there's the Free Grace folks who denounce all of that as works based salvation and seem to focus exclusively on the Paul's teaching regarding grace. But the objection to this is it promotes and encourages carnal Christianity.
So that's the "two gospels" most talk about.
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