Truth is something that corresponds to reality. If something is true, it requires that we must deal with the implications of it in our life. The following is what we believe the Bible teaches concerning God, man, and the person and work of Jesus Christ. We believe this to be true across all people for all time. Read at your own discretion.
God Created All Things
The Bible speaks of good news because it also speaks of bad news. The good and bad news begin with God.
The Creation
God has always existed as one God in a loving community of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (yet those persons are not parts of God, nor are they mixed. It is a deep mystery). As such, He has always been a community of love and did not need to create anything to be Himself. Out of His joy, He made all things. His highest creation, man, He made in His image as male and female (Gen 1:27; 2). It was all very good and mankind had peace with each other and with God; there was no lying, no murder, no adultery, no death. God commanded them to enjoy everything in creation and to fill the earth, ruling it as stewards under God and accountable to Him.
Mankind's Rebellion
The Fall
God had one prohibition, however. The man, Adam, and the woman, Eve, were not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good or evil or they would die. In due time, they did break that command. A crafty serpent deceived Eve into believing God was a stingy liar, and she ate of the tree; Adam followed his wife, directly disobeying and bringing God's judgment and curse upon themselves and all of creation (Gen 3:14-19; Rom 8:22). Labor pains would increase for Eve and Adam would have to work much harder to sustain himself as the earth would not be as fruitful. God is perfect; He is "not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with [Him]” (Ps 5:4). Because of their disobedience, God expelled Adam and Eve from the garden and from the perfect fellowship they had with Him. They died spiritually and then physically, and all their descendants now face the same judgments (Rom 5:12ff.).
Our Guilt
Sin is disobeying any of God’s commands or not doing what He told us to do; it is lawlessness (1 John 3:4). You can use the 10 commandments to see if He would accept you on your own merit: have you ever taken the Lord’s name in vain? Have you stolen anything, even small? Have you ever lied? Jesus said that the heart of murder is anger, and the heart of adultery is lust (Matt 5). According to His standard, He counts us as blasphemers, liars, murderers, adulterers, and thieves. The two greatest commands are to love God and others, since love does no wrong to its neighbor; we break those two when we break the others (Matt 22:34-40; Rom 13:8-10). The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23) and everyone earns death as the wage for sin (Rom 6:23). God's just judgment is coming against lawbreakers (Rev 21:8). This is the bad news: you and I are guilty.
God Sent His Only Son
The Promise Fulfilled
Yet, God promised to send a Savior after mankind rebelled, and He fulfilled that promise 2,000 years ago. In love, the Father sent His Son to be born as a human, and the baby was born in a stable and named Jesus. Jesus lived a sinless life and willingly went to His execution on a cross to die as a substitute for sinners. God can forgive sin and still be just because Jesus paid the penalty for sin (Rom 3:26). He canceled the record of debt that stood against us (Col 2:14), and rose from the dead, defeating sin and death for all who trust in him (John 11:25; 1 Cor 15:17; 2 Tim 1:10). Sin brought judgment, but Jesus restores people to a right relationship with God.
The Restoration of All Things
One day, God will raise the dead and Jesus will judge all men (Matt 25:31-46). Some will inherit eternal, bodily life with God and live in perfect fellowship with Him, and many will face the just penalty for their sin as eternal, bodily death, in the lake of fire (Rev. 20-22). He will make all things new; there will be no more death and sorrow, and God will dwell with His people and be their God. God has given His Holy Spirit to believers as a promise of that future life, enabling them to put sin to death and live uprightly in this age (Rom 8:13; Eph 1:13-14). Jesus defeats the last enemy, death.
How Should You Respond?
The Promise Realized
God so loved the world and sent His Son
to die for us and take our justice so that we
can have fellowship with Him. God commands “all people everywhere to
repent, because He has fixed a day on which
He will judge the world in righteousness by a man
whom He has appointed" (Acts 17:30-31). Repentance means to turn
away from sin and unbelief. The other side of
repentance is faith, which is to trust in Jesus' death
and resurrection to save you. The Bible says that "if you
confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you
will be saved" (Rom 10:9). This is the good news.
Cry out to Jesus today to save you from God’s
coming judgment against sin and to receive eternal life: "For God so
loved the world, that he gave his only Son,
that whoever believes in him should not
perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16).
See Where do I go from here?