The four Gospels record Jesus proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom of God with the words 'Repent and Believe' thirty two times, more than any other command or instruction, except for why we need to repent and believe. The Church's basic job in the world is to make disciples by proclaiming access to God by being - in some literal sense - joined to Jesus through baptism: the only way to the Father is through Jesus (Jn 14). The Bad News is the consequence of failing to repent and believe: judgment and horrific punishment. The Gospel of Matthew alone records Jesus proclaiming this Bad News over thirty times!
A central feature of Advent is to be prepared for the Judgment coming upon the Lord's return. This coming Judgment is the central teaching of each Gospel's Passion Narrative (the part that begins with Jesus triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which we celebrate on Palm Sunday, and ends with his death). The Bad News makes us more receptive to the Good News. The prominence of the Bad News in Jesus' preaching seems to be because that many of us, if not most, need the Bad News to soften our hard hearts to receive the Good News.
Of course, the Good News of being with God is so compelling that we shouldn't need the Bad News. Yet this age of distractions and blindness of sin needs to hear this bad news of failing to repent and believe no less than the undistracted and scrupulous Palestinian Jews of Jesus' time.
We are indeed 'made for joy': an indescribable and glorious joy (I Peter 1.8) that comes from being with God, being with those who are with God, becoming like God, and loving the way God himself loves. Entering this life of joy requires us accepting God atonement for our sins and then allowing him to remake us to become like Jesus (Rom 8.29). This is the 'good' in the Good News.
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