The best news ever for a 21-year old divorced single mom in California: The Gospel of Jesus Christ

The international cover of the Good News Bible, used since 2004

The Best News Ever




Sunday school at the Baptist church in Kentucky, US, 1946.
"I was frequently taken to Sunday school where I heard stories about Jesus."

I didn’t begin to understand the gospel until the summer before my twenty-first birthday. Although I had attended church from time to time in my childhood, I’ll admit that it never really transformed me in any significant way. I was frequently taken to Sunday school where I heard stories about Jesus. I knew, without really understanding, the importance of Christmas and Easter. I remember looking at the beautiful stained-glass windows, with their cranberry red and deep cerulean blue, with Jesus knocking on a garden door, and having a vague sense that being religious was good. But I didn’t have the foggiest idea about the gospel.



Portrait of a noble girl c. 1571 by Alessandro Allori (1535–1607).
"My strongest memories of adolescence contain despair and anger."

My strongest memories of adolescence contain despair and anger. I was consistently in trouble, and I hated everyone who pointed that out. There were nights when I prayed that I would be good or, more specifically, get out of whatever trouble I was in and do better, only to be disappointed and angered by the failures of the following day.

An anti-teenage pregnancy poster from Flickr.
"Upon graduation from high school at seventeen, I got married, had a baby, and became divorced."

Upon graduation from high school at seventeen, I got married, had a baby, and became divorced—all before the third decade of my life began. It was during the following months and years that I discovered the anesthetizing effects of drugs, alcohol, and illicit relationships. Although I was known as a girl who liked to party, I was utterly lost and joyless, and I was beginning to know it.

Harold Gilman's Mother and Child, painted in 1918.
"I felt like I was fifty years old."

At one point, I can remember telling a friend that I felt like I was fifty years old, which, at that point in my life, was the oldest I could imagine anyone being. I was exhausted and disgusted, so I decided to set about improving myself. I worked a full-time job, took a full course load at a local junior college, and cared for my son. I changed my living arrangements and tried to start over. I didn’t know that the Holy Spirit was working in my heart, calling me to the Son. I just knew that something had to change. Don’t misunderstand—I was still living a shamefully wicked life; it’s just that I felt that I was beginning to wake up to something different.



Best Friends Art - Sisters - Watercolor Painting by Heatherlee Chan
"She told me I needed to be born again."



At this point, Julie entered my life. She was my next-door neighbor, and she was a Christian. She was kind to me, and we became fast friends. She had a quality of life about her that attracted me, and she was always talking to me about her Savior, Jesus. She let me know that she was praying for me and would frequently encourage me to “get saved.” Although I’d had that Sunday school training, what she had to say was something completely different from what I’d ever remembered hearing. She told me I needed to be born again.

Jesus cleansing a leper – medieval mosaic from the Monreale Cathedral
"I knelt down in my tiny apartment and told the Lord that I wanted to be his."

And so, on a warm night sometime in June of 1971, I knelt down in my tiny apartment and told the Lord that I wanted to be his. At that point, I didn’t really understand much about the gospel, but I did understand this: I was desperate, and I desperately believed that the Lord would help me. That prayer on that night changed everything about me. I remember it now, forty-two years later, as if it were yesterday.

Allegory of Salvation by Antonius Heusler (ca. 1555), National Museum in Warsaw.
“What must I do to be saved?”

I knew I needed to be saved, and I trusted that Christ could save me. One man who came in contact with some of Jesus’s followers asked this same question: “What must I do to be saved?” The answer was simple: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”

Immanuel Kant introduced the categorical imperative: "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law".
Elyse Fitzpatrick: "Because he is completely holy, that is, perfectly moral, you have to give up any idea that you can be good enough to meet his standard."

Very simply, what do you need to believe in order to be a Christian? You need to know that you need salvation, help, or deliverance. You must not try to reform yourself or decide that you’re going to become a moral person so that God will be impressed. Because he is completely holy, that is, perfectly moral, you have to give up any idea that you can be good enough to meet his standard. This is the good bad news. It’s bad news because it tells you that you’re in an impossible situation that you cannot change. But it’s also good news because it will free you from endless cycles of self-improvement that end in ultimate failure.



A 1907 Christmas card with Santa and some of his reindeer.
"This is the story you hear about at Christmas."

You also need to trust that what you’re unable to do—live a perfectly holy life—he’s done for you. This is the good good news. This is the gospel. Basically, the gospel is the story of how God looked down through the corridors of time and set his love on his people. At a specific point in time, he sent his Son into the world to become fully like us. This is the story you hear about at Christmas. This baby grew to be a man, and after thirty years of obscurity he began to show the people who he was. He did this by performing miracles, healing the sick, and raising the dead. He also demonstrated his deity by teaching people what God required of them and continually foretold his coming death and resurrection. And he did one more thing: he claimed to be God.



Christ on the Cross, by Carl Heinrich Bloch, showing the skies darkened.
"Because of his claim to be God, the leading religious people, along with the political powers of the day, passed an unjust sentence of death upon him."

Because of his claim to be God, the leading religious people, along with the political powers of the day, passed an unjust sentence of death upon him. Although he had never done anything wrong, he was beaten, mocked, and shamefully executed. He died. Even though it looked like he had failed, the truth is that this was God’s plan from the very beginning. 

An Easter postcard depicting the Easter Bunny.
"This is the story that we celebrate at Easter."

His body was taken down from the cross and laid hastily in a rock tomb in a garden. After three days, some of his followers went to go properly care for his remains and discovered that he had risen from the dead. They actually spoke with him, touched him, and ate with him. This is the story that we celebrate at Easter. After another forty days, he was taken back up into heaven, still in his physical form, and his followers were told that he would return to earth in just the same way.




Women at the empty tomb, by Fra Angelico, 1437–1446
"They actually spoke with him, touched him, and ate with him."

I told you that there were two things you need to know and believe. The first is that you need more significant help than you or any other mere human could ever supply. The second need is to believe that Jesus, the Christ, is the person who will supply that help and that if you come to him, he will not turn his back on you. You don’t need to understand much more than that, and if you really believe these truths, your life will be transformed by his love.

Source: Fitzpatrick, Elyse M. Found in Him: The Joy of the Incarnation and Our Union with Christ. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2013, pages 213 to 215.