The Bible, God’s unchanging Word to humanity, explains that there is only ONE true and living God (Isaiah 44:6-8). He is the wise and righteous King of all the things that exist in the universe (Psalm 47:7-8). This one God is revealed by the Bible to exist in three Persons as the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19; 1 Peter 1:2).

The Bible also explains that all human beings are made in God’s image, created individually to experience a loving, depending relationship with Him (Genesis 1:27; John 4:23-24). We are not the product of random evolution but of intentional, intelligent design (Psalm 139:13-14; Revelation 4:11). But we are all born outside of a right relationship to God, the Creator.

This causes a desperate need for God in every individual person. 

We need God because we were never meant to try to live life without Him. All of the bad things both across the world and inside our lives come from something called “sin” (Romans 3:23, 1 John 3:4), which exists because of the intentional disobedience of the first humans ever to exist (Genesis 3:1-13). Humans ever since have been trying to figure life out on their own with terrible consequences.

Today, we all experience sin as the failure both in motives and actions to measure up to God’s good, holy, and righteous standard for human living as He reveals it through the Bible, and ALL humans fail to reach God’s perfection (Romans 3:10-12). This rebellion affects everything in the world today for the worse, and it has impacted every human at the soul level.

There is no better or worse level of sinning against God – all of it keeps us from being able to experience true friendship with God if nothing is changed. 

The Bible explains that because of the problem of sin, corruption and death entered the universe and now affects every human being (Romans 5:12). At death, there will be a moment of personal accountability before God (Hebrews 9:27), and we will not be able to enter God’s presence if we rely on our record of deeds on Earth as creatures in His universe (Romans 3:19-20). Sin makes us unworthy of God’s presence.

Because God is perfect and cannot allow true evil to go unpunished, all humans face the potential consequence of their personal rebellions against God, in an eternal existence of great pain and sorrow in a real location called Hell (Luke 12:5, Matthew 13:41-42). This is the first part of the “good news” of God, the gospel. It starts with the truly bad news of the actual danger to our soul caused by our sin.

But it is not the final word! 

The Bible proclaims that the God who made us also loves all people as His creatures (1 John 4:7-8). Because of His great compassion, He was moved to plan the greatest rescue mission ever accomplished.

God would bring about a plan that deals with our failure to do what’s right and make us able to stand in His presence without sin or fear, able to enjoy God and Heaven with Him when we die! This is “the gospel”, the GOOD NEWS of God’s heart to rescue sinners from Hell without compromising His justice.

And it all happens because of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Son of God who was sent into humanity 2000 years ago to bridge the great gap between you and God (John 3:14-17). 

The Bible tells us that there is NO good thing you could do to make God ignore your sins (Romans 6:23), because good works cannot erase what’s already been done. Instead, the Bible reveals that Jesus Christ, God Himself and the Son of God, took on human nature (Matthew 1:21-23) and lived a perfect life, always obeying the righteous standard of God on behalf of the human race (John 8:29). Then, as He Himself predicted (Mark 10:45), Jesus willingly allowed Himself to be led to die on a Roman cross, in that moment bearing the justice and punishment of God toward the sins of humanity as their replacement, their one Substitute (Isaiah 53:5-6; 1 Peter 2:24).

By doing this, Jesus fully absorbed all the penalty and holy wrath of God against sin, and He frees us from answering for those sins by taking accountability for them onto Himself (1 John 2:2; 2 Corinthians 5:21). He then rose again to conquer both sin and death itself, and guarantee eternal life to all who trust in Him (Romans 6:9-10).

In this way ALONE, God opens a road back to Himself for humans. All God requires is that we individually receive this gift of Jesus’ sacrifice in simple, total reliance on God’s promise to forgive and take away the guilt of our sins by His Son’s death (Romans 10:9-10; Acts 16:31; Romans 3:28; John 3:36). We are invited to call out in honest prayer to God and ask Him to give this gift to us (Romans 10:13).

The moment we truly trust Jesus to keep His promise to save us, we are forgiven of every sin we ever committed (Acts 13:38-39), adopted into the eternal family of God (Romans 8:15), receive the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of God’s love (Ephesians 3:13-14), and are given a secure place in God’s Heaven, a real location where God dwells fully, to exist, rejoice, and worship Him there forever (1 Peter 1:4-5).

You are a Christian, a true believer in Jesus Christ!

Because Jesus’ sacrifice was perfect on our behalf, there is no work we need to contribute to add to His sacrifice (Hebrews 9:25-28). Baptism in the New Testament is the total immersion, or going underwater, of a new Christian who has put their whole faith in the Lord Jesus and His death for them (Acts 8:35-38).

It is an open declaration of your allegiance to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord by faith, and it is also a powerful visual symbol of the connection, or union, that Christians have with Jesus in His dying and rising again for us (Acts 2:40-41; Romans 6:3-4).

All of our hope is wrapped up in Him, so we gladly join our reputation and identity publicly to the Lord Jesus through baptism.

The Bible teaches that Christians were meant to be cared for by God inside of the regular gathering of true followers of Jesus Christ to worship Him and grow together in their life journey with Him (Ephesians 2:21-22).

All Christians are commanded to care for each other as the family of God, which is not possible when you do not interact with fellow Christians on a consistent basis (Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 12:25-26).

When you join yourself to a church and obey the will of God for your life as a believer in Jesus, you are protected (Hebrews 13:17) and empowered to fulfill the will of God for you on this Earth as His child (Ephesians 4:11-12; Colossians 1:28).