What does tidings of great joy mean?

Christ came to the world, not to appease any wrath of an unmerciful God, not as atonement for a sinful world, not to save any man from the inevitable result of his own sin—He did come to save him from the dread and horror of the grave—to reveal to him a purer and better existence beyond that grave—to reveal to him all he could comprehend of God's love and mercy—to reveal in his own spiritual body, a living, tangible witness of the spiritual future of which he taught.

He came to bring tidings of great joy, in that God's blessed spirit is everywhere, waiting to guide and uplift the weak and trembling spirit that is ready to receive its impressions.

He came to teach of the law also—to tell the inevitable result of reaping as he sows. It was necessary that He should suffer and die—not for atonement, but for revealment—to make a strong impression on men's minds and to reveal himself to them afterwards and clinch the fact of spiritual existence in the minds of his followers.