It is this Good News that saves you.
—1 Corinthians 15:2
Gospel means—and is—“Good News.”
But before there is good news, there is bad news.
The bad news is that we are sinners: transgressors and trespassers; derelicts and deadbeats; reprobates and renegades; frauds and phonies.
No one can make us good by giving us a soaking in a Jacuzzi, treating us to a high-dollar makeover, and fitting us out in haute couture custom-made finery.
The good news is that we are loved in spite of our flaws: chosen, adopted, redeemed, justified, cleansed, forgiven, saved.
God makes saints out of sinners; takes the bad and makes them good. Changes Zacchaeus, the crook, into Zacchaeus, the convert; changes Saul, the hatchet man of the Pharisees, into Paul, the servant of Christ.
The glad news eclipses the sad news: saved by grace.
Grace is received, not achieved.