Proverbs 10-12 2 Corinthians 4

“If the Good News that we preach is hidden, it is hidden only to those who are lost. The devil who rules this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe. They cannot see the light of the Good News—the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is exactly like God.” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4 NCV)

In ancient Rome and Greece, mystery religions thrived. They were like Fight Club. No one talked about them. Much. Oh, you heard about them in generic terms. You might even know a member or two of those religions, but in order to find out about them, you had to be initiated into that religion. Their beliefs, their practices, even their handshakes were hidden. Paul makes it clear that the Good News, the gospel isn’t hidden. There are no levels of faith that you have to move up to by paying for a course or doing any amount of good works. But wait, he said that the gospel is hidden to those who are lost. Doesn’t that mean that we keep the full truth from some people? No, Paul’s point is clear: those don’t believe don’t because the devil has blinded them to God’s truth.

In other words, to paraphrase Flip Wilson, if you don’t believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior it’s because the devil made you not do it. God has laid it out. We all have sinned and fall short of His glory. What that means is that no one’s perfect. Can we all agree on that? God loved us enough, even though we weren’t perfect, that He wanted fellowship with us. We needed a perfect sacrifice so that we could have fellowship with a perfect God. We believe that God the Son entered the world, lived on earth, died on the cross to bring us forgiveness, and rose again from the dead. We believe that we can have a relationship with God because Jesus, God the Son, paid the penalty for our sin, our imperfection on the cross. Nothing we did could have earned God’s love; it was only His grace that gave us His love. We have an amazing life while we’re here on this earth, and the promise of a home in heaven with God when we die. That’s the basics. Nothing’s hidden. You don’t need to pay me any money for that and if I remember something else, I’ll share that for free also. You need to accept His grace, if you haven’t already. You need to experience His love if you never have. Once you do, you’ll never go back to your old ways again.

Oh Lord, Your grace is so amazing. You haven’t hid Your truth from us. You make Your salvation available to everyone. Help me to share that message, that hope, with others will all of my being.

Scripture taken from the New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.