Jesus is God as human.  That is good news, for we can now say that God is not some distant being who is abstractly ‘over us’ or ‘above us,’. but rather God is always ‘among us,’ ‘with us,’ and ‘for us.’

Through Jesus, the God-human, God has reclaimed the world that belongs to God alone. Humans are held in bondage to sin as a power that reigns over us. However, God freely enters into our plight to rescue and restore us. Through Jesus, he has already done what we attempt to do for ourselves through our good works and good intentions. In doing so, he makes us his new humanity in union with Jesus, the new human. Now we can live in relationship with the Father, through his Son and in his Spirit. 

Paul says, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself…” (2 Cor. 5:19). In another place, he tells us,  “… in him (Jesus) all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him, God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven” What God does, through Jesus and by his Spirit, involves and includes all of humanity and the entire cosmos. We do not make this happen; it has already happened because of God’s action in Jesus. In him, God has reclaimed the all that belongs to God alone. 

The gospel is not simply good news of one sort or another, but the specific action of God in Jesus rescuing and restoring humanity and all things to himself.  And, by his Spirit, we participate personally in what God has done, is doing and will do.