The Good news

Did you know that God loves you and desires fellowship with you forever?

He is so interested in this relationship that He paid an enormous cost to make this possible.

To understand why this was necessary, it’s first important to understand the situation we were in.

THE PROBLEM

God is perfect in every way. He is all-powerful and all-knowing. He made a world that He called “very good” (Gen 1:31). People were made to experience relationship with God. When the first people decided to do things their own way instead of God’s way, the world was no longer perfect – it was impure. Tainted. It fell short of God’s glory and entered into sin.

The Bible says that everybody has sinned (Rom 3:23). This creates a problem, because our perfect God is not unjust. Sin is like a crime against God, and earns a penalty: death -- separation from God (Rom 6:23). Any sin -- the smallest lie, a bad thought, hate for a person – is a serious offense against a perfectly righteous God and is enough to merit eternal punishment. If you were to keep all of God’s instructions perfectly and stumble in just one part only one time, you are a lawbreaker in God’s economy (Jas 2:10). This offense against the eternal God earns an eternal punishment.

THE SOLUTION

God the Father loved the world so much that He sent Jesus, God the Son, to become a human (John 1:14, John 3:16). He lived a perfect life and never sinned (Heb 4:15). Being both perfect and eternal, Jesus was able to bear the sin of the whole world by taking our punishment for us through his death on the cross.

While we were hostile to Him in our sin, He died for us (Rom 5:8). He Himself paid the eternal punishment that we all deserve, and He rose again on the third day demonstrating His power over death. He went back up into heaven, and He’s coming back someday to establish His kingdom.

A person can also reject this gift. If they do so and die, they must bear the penalty of their own sin – eternal separation from God in hell. (Daniel 12:2, Revelation 20:10-15).

Are you willing to trust Christ today? If you are, please talk with a pastor or elder, or contact us here so we can help you take your next steps with Christ.

Christ’s payment for our sin allows God to stay just, since Jesus paid sin’s penalty, but also to be loving, since He made a way for people to have fellowship with Him. God offers this exchange – our sin debt taken away and God crediting us with Jesus’ righteousness – as a free gift. All that He requires is that we trust in Jesus alone as the one who paid our penalty. We must accept that we cannot earn our relationship with God by doing good things. The Bible says “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Eph 2:8-9).

Believe. Belong. Build Up. Be Strong.