What Do We Believe?

What is Christianity? More than life or death - the Bible says we have an important choice to make.

God made the whole world, including us, and He made it perfectly; and he put us in place to rule under Him. He has kindly given us every good thing we see in our lives (see Genesis 1:31) "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."

But we all choose to rule the world and our own lives our way, ignoring what God wants and consequently rejecting Him as God. Because we don't live the way God intended, we fail to live up to the perfect standard He has set, so both the world we see today and our lives are imperfect. (see Romans 3:23) "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

God made us, so He rightly has authority over us. If we choose to reject Him, God can't just ignore it. One day God will make the world right by getting rid of what is evil - which means punishing us for rejecting Him. When God judges He will remove those who have rejected Him from every good thing He has given them. This is hell (see Romans 2:8) "But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger."

But amazingly, God doesn't leave the situation like that. Becuase He loves us, God sent His Son Jesus into the world. Although Jesus lived perfectly, He died on a cross and took the punishment that we deserve. Then God raised Him to life again, and He is now ruler of the whole world. He has defeated death and offers eternal life to those who believe in Him! (see Romans 5:8) "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Jesus is going to return to judge everyone who has ever lived, and make the world perfect again. If we trust in Jesus and live with Him as our King, we don't need to worry about death and judgement anymore. We know that Jesus has taken our punishment to make it possible for us to live forever with Him! (see John 3:18) "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."

We can't earn our way to heaven because we don't live up to God's perfect standard. But because of God's amazing love, we can rely on Jesus completely to save us.

If this has got you thinking, please don't just ignore it. Get in contact with us here or come to one of our weekly meetings. We'd love to answer any questions that you have.