God

 It is not true that it doesn’t matter what you believe about God as long as you believe. That is to reduce God to a figment of each person’s imagination. We believe that God exists and, like any other living being, He is who He is – not who we imagine Him to be.

            We believe in one true God. The true God is the God described in the Bible. He is one, but there are within Him three: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

            God is spirit, without a body like we have. God is infinite spirit, meaning He is unlimited. He is not bound by time and space, but is eternal, having no beginning or end. He is present everywhere at the same time. Everything about Him – His power, His knowledge, His love, His faithfulness, and so on – has no limits. Whereas people can love only to varying degrees and will stop loving under certain conditions, God loves without measure and never stops loving.

God is also a creator. He made everything that exists. Nothing exists by chance, but only because God wanted it and brought it into existence.

 MAN

             People are not the result of a long, evolutionary process. They are God’s creation. In fact, they are His supreme creation. After God had made everything else in the universe, He said that it was good. But when He had made the first man and woman, He said that creation was then very good.

            The first people were made perfect, and they lived in a close relationship with God, able to talk with Him and hear Him talk with them, sharing all of life together with Him. As a gift of His love, God gave to the first man and woman, and to their descendants after them, the earth and everything on the earth. They were given the privilege of ruling this planet, which people still have to this day.

 SIN and the devil

             God created everything good. There was no evil anywhere, not in our universe, nor in heaven. However, in heaven, there was a very powerful angel, whose name was Lucifer. Lucifer, over time, became proud and decided he wanted a higher place in heaven than God had given him. He no longer wanted to be a servant of God. He thought he was as wise as God, could be a god, and deserved a throne as God. Others of the holy angels were caught up in his rebellion, and all were thrown out of heaven. Lucifer was now a determined enemy of God, whose name became Satan or the devil. He has never given up his determination to be a god.

            Since Satan had lost his hope of ruling in heaven, he looked for another place to rule. There was one other place available – earth, where a man and a woman were in charge. They loved God. However, Satan reasoned that if he could change that and get them to switch allegiance to him, then he could get rule over the earth. So he approached them in their garden home one day, disguised as a snake, and began to talk with them, slowly convincing them that God did not have their best interests at heart, but was holding out on them. He convinced them that they would be better off without God – they could run their lives better on their own. They would be able to know good and evil – the right and wrong way to live – all on their own. All that was needed was for them to do the one thing God had told them not to do – eat the fruit from the one tree God had told them to leave alone. They did that.

            Choosing to live life without God is what the Bible calls “sin”. People who live that way are called “sinners”. The first man and women, when they chose against God, became sinners. Their children, and all people since, have been born like their parents – sinners who choose to live without God. Although some people choose to change that, we are all born that way. Being a sinner causes us to “sin” – to do wrong things. In other words, no one is perfect.

 DEATH and hell

             God had warned the first man and woman that if they chose to do what He had told them not to, they would die. As we read their story in the Bible, we realize that they lived for several hundred years after their first sin. So how did they die? This is an important question because we all sin, and so the Bible says that we will all die because the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 3:23).

            Death is an interesting concept in the Bible. When we think of death, we think of that time when our body stops working, and our soul passes on to someplace else, hopefully heaven. But the Bible teaches that death is a two-step process. The first death is what we have just described – the separation of our inner person from our body, with the result that the body stops functioning. But there is a second death: “The lake of fire is the second death” (Revelation 20:14). If that sounds ominous, it’s because it’s the scariest thing that could happen to a human being. The lake of fire is described elsewhere in the Bible as the “eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:14). Not only will the devil and his angels be thrown into this place for all eternity, but death and hell will be thrown in there as well: “Then death and Hades [hell] were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death” (Revelation 20:14). Now think of spending eternity in a place where the devil, demons (the devil’s angels), death and hell are thrown. But in the judgment, at the end of time, God will say to all sinners: “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41.

 Our dilemma

             From what has been said so far, it should be obvious that people are in big trouble. There are those who say that if we live good enough lives, we’ll get into heaven. But the Bible says that if we do just one thing wrong, we’ve missed our chance at heaven. Why? Because God’s standard of being “good enough” is very different from ours. We tend to think that if we are at least as good as the next guy, and much better than some, then that’s good enough for God. But that is not true. God’s standard is this: 

“Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” (Leviticus 19:2; Old Testament)

“But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” (1 Peter 1:15-16; New Testament)

 God’s standard is not “good enough”. His standard is perfection, total holiness, no mistakes, no wrongs. Who can measure up to that? No one.

 God has solved our dilemma

             But God has a solution to our problem. Whereas we can never be good enough to earn our way back to Him and into heaven, He can make us good enough. He can make it so we are perfect again.

            God was not taken by surprise when the first man and woman turned on Him and sinned. He is eternal and all-knowing. He knew, even before He made the first man and woman, that they would betray Him. So He already had a plan in place to save them from their predicament. Just after their sin, He told them that one would come who would completely undo everything that the devil had just brought into the world. This one would also destroy the devil himself so he couldn’t wreak any more havoc among people. Who would this person be, and what would he have to do?

            This person would have to die. Since sin results in death, this person would have to suffer the death earned by every person who has ever lived or ever will live. To do that, he would have to be perfect himself, with no curse of death on him because of his own sin. He would have to be able to withstand suffering all the death for all the sin every committed in the history of the earth, and, if his life was to be an adequate offering in exchange for the lives of all people in all of history, his life would have to be valuable enough to be the equivalent of the worth of all those lives. Certainly, no mere man would ever measure up to the standard needed to be the Saviour of all mankind.

 the Saviour

             So God Himself chose to be the Saviour. Specifically, God the Son chose to step out of heaven, lay aside all His glory, and become a human baby. He was born to a couple in Israel called Mary and Joseph. As God had told this couple to do, they named their child Jesus. He grew up, as any other boy does, in the care of His parents. At about age 30, He began to travel about the area where He was brought up, teaching people about God and about how God was finally giving them what they had been waiting for since the beginning of time when God had made the promise – a Saviour. And that Saviour was Himself. Jesus did many miracles to prove who He was. His life also fulfilled many of the predictions that had been given by God through prophets over a few thousand years so that people would know the Saviour when He came. After three years of traveling and teaching, the time came for Jesus to demonstrate how much God loves people. The time finally came for Him to die. He traveled to Jerusalem where He knew there was a plot against His life. He allowed Himself to be taken, and He was hung on a cross to die. While He was on the cross, God took all the sin of all human history and put it on Jesus. Jesus experienced both the first and the second deaths for us. He was buried. Three days later, He came to life again, proving that He had, in fact, paid the full price of sin and thus did not have to suffer death forever.

 Salvation

 The unique thing about Jesus’ death is that He died with the sins of the whole world on Him (John 1:29) – He paid for everyone so that every person can experience a wonderful exchange. Every person has a chance to exchange his or her sin for the righteousness of God. Remember, only being as holy as God is good enough for God. Since we can’t make ourselves that righteous, the only way we can be that good is if God makes us that good. Remember, too, that the Bible says God can make us holy. This is how that happens

The Bible says: “God made him who had no sin [Jesus] to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). We become the righteousness of God “in Jesus”. “In Jesus”, a divine exchange takes place: Jesus gets our sin, and we get His righteousness. Too good to be true, but in fact true. God simply gives us His righteousness: “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17). So the only remaining question is: What does being “in Jesus” mean, and how does it happen?

Being “in Jesus” means that Jesus and we are joined so the two of us become one: “[H]e who unites himself with the Lord [Jesus] is one with him in spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17). That being true, everything that Jesus did to pay for sin happened to us and, since He paid all there was to pay, so did we. The wages of sin were paid out to Jesus, and we are free from death, including the second death. We are good enough for God. We can be sure that, when our body stops functioning, we will go to be with God.

How does a person come to be in Jesus? It’s really quite simple. If you believe that Jesus is who He said He is – God became a man to save us from our sin – then you are ready for the exchange. The exchange goes beyond sin for righteousness, though. It is life for life. You give Him your life, and He gives you His. It is choosing to live totally differently than you ever have before. Now, instead of living life on your own and doing the best you can, you choose to live life together with God - always, every moment of every day. Is that possible? Yes. It’s a learning experience, but entirely possible. And entirely wonderful. To have an intimate relationship with the best and the strongest and the kindest person in the universe is a great privilege. But it is an exchange. You give up being master of your life. Your life belongs to God from the moment you decide this is what you want. Will He make your life miserable? Someone as good as God would never do that. Will your life be a challenge? Sometimes, yes. But there are others who have also made the exchange who can help you. They’re all around you in Christian churches of various kinds.

If you want to join your life to God’s through Jesus, tell Him that. This is called “receiving Jesus”. It’s admitting that you can’t ever be good enough on your own, but you understand that, because of what Jesus did, you can be good enough for God. Give Him your life – lock, stock and barrel. He’ll take good care of you. The moment you give your life, He gives you things it will take you a while to discover: forgiveness for all your sins, His righteousness, His Spirit, eternal life, peace, blessing, a new nature, and so on, and so on.

 MORE ABOUT GOD

             As noted earlier, there is only one true God, but there are within Him three persons: the Father, the Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

 The Father

             The Father is the One who gives life. It is He who has created all things, and He cares for all that He has made. Unfortunately, when people chose to abandon God and live their lives without Him, they chose another Father – the devil (John 8:44). But God the Father, knowing that this way of living leads only to death, sent Jesus to undo all that so we can be adopted back into His family and so that He can once again be our Father – our loving Daddy.

 The Son 

            God the Son – Jesus – shared with the Father in creating all things, and the Father has given to Him everything that has been made. All that the Father is, the Son is as well – all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, and so on. The Son keeps the universe running and holds it together just by speaking. However, He is most precious to us because of what He did so that we could return to God’s family – He paid the price of sin. The Son calls Himself the brother of all those who believe, and all believers are also His bride and will celebrate their wedding with Him at the end of time. All of history is heading toward this one event.

 The Holy Spirit 

            The Holy Spirit, as well, was part of creating the earth and all that is in it. He is also the one who made it possible for Jesus to be placed within His mother Mary’s womb. He told the writers of the Bible what to write so that the Bible is the perfect Word of God. He assures those who belong to God that they are indeed God’s children. He enables God’s people to do things they couldn’t otherwise do, like perform miracles, know things supernaturally, preach and teach so that people’s lives are changed, speak in unknown languages, and so on. He enables them to live more holy lives. And He, along with Jesus, prays for all God’s people.

 The bible

             The Bible was written by people, but the words were not thought up by those people. They heard God tell them what to write, and that is what they put on paper. Thus the Bible is the only book in the world actually authored by God. As such, everything in it is the truth, there are no errors, and the Bible can be completely believed and trusted.

            The Bible falls into two parts – the Old Testament, which talks about how God related to people till Jesus came, and the New Testament, which talks about how God and His people can relate now that Jesus has died so we can be saved from our sin. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the New Testament in ancient Greek and Aramaic. What we read in English are translations, which may contain translation errors. However, translation errors are usually small and do not affect any important teaching in the Bible.

 The church

             The church is not a building or something people do on Sunday. Furthermore, everyone who calls himself or herself a Christian is not necessarily one of God’s children or part of the church. The church is all the people who have given their lives to Jesus and have received His forgiveness for their sin. The Bible teaches that you can know a true Christian by the quality of his or her life. People who truly belong to God receive many things that enable them to live godly lives. They are born again, meaning they are given a living human spirit, which allows them to talk with and hear God, who is Spirit. They demonstrate more and more certain qualities that the Holy Spirit puts in them – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. Above all things, God’s people love. They have a deep love for God and a passion to know Him better. And they love others and treat others with respect and dignity. God’s people are not perfect, but when they do wrong, they desire to make it right, and over time, they become better and better people as they learn more about living in relationship with God.

 Eternity

             The world as we know it will come to an end. Jesus will return at a date no human being knows. At that time, the dead will be raised to life. Those who gave their lives to the true God and believed they were saved from their sin by the Saviour who was to come (if they lived before Jesus’ life on earth) or who has come (Jesus) will be welcomed into eternal perfection – heaven. The others will go away to the lake of fire. There is no second chance to make a choice for God after death. That choice must be made during your lifetime.