The Gospel

Contemporary thinking says man is the product of evolution. But the Bible says we were created by a personal God to love, serve, and enjoy endless fellowship with Him. The creation was a creation by design and not by chance. The Bible also tells us that the original creation was good in every respect. God is the supreme ruler of all. Jesus Christ was the agent of the creation. In Him alone all things hold together. He is worthy of our absolute allegiance, obedience, and worship.

God is absolutely and perfectly holy. He cannot approve of any sin. He cannot tolerate the presence of any sin. By His very nature He condemns all sin.

Because He is holy, God requires those who want to follow and worship Him to be holy also. He says, "You shall be holy, for I am holy" (1 Peter 1:16).

According to Scripture, everyone is guilty of sin: "There is no man who does not sin" (1 Kings 8:46). We are all fallen from the righteousness which God demands. We are utterly incapable of understanding, loving, or pleasing God on our own. We cannot earn salvation or win God's favor. We are all sinners, both by nature and by choice.

Because God is holy, He cannot simply overlook or ignore sin. His justice demands a penalty: "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). The "death" spoken of here is not merely physical death, but spiritual death—eternal separation from God in conscious punishment. This is the destiny of every person apart from divine intervention.

Just changing your behavior cannot erase the guilt of your sin. You cannot turn over a new leaf. The sin problem is so deep it requires a divine solution.

The New Testament teaches that Jesus Christ is both God and Man. He is the eternal Son of God who took on human flesh. Jesus lived a perfect life, satisfying the holiness required by God's law. Then He died on the cross as a substitute for sinners. His death paid the penalty that God's justice required for sin. Three days later, Jesus rose bodily from the grave.

The Bible says, "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved" (Romans 10:9). This means that salvation is not earned by human effort. It is a gift of grace to those who trust Christ and acknowledge Him as the Lord of their lives.

Believing in Jesus means more than mere intellectual agreement. True Christian faith includes repentance. Repentance is agreeing with God that you are sinful, confessing your sins to Him, and making a conscious choice to turn from sin and pursue Christ and obedience to Him.

This doesn't mean you will attain sinless perfection. But genuine saving faith produces an increasing pattern of obedience. The Christian increasingly desires to please God and hates his own sin. Those who claim to know Christ while deliberately continuing in unrepentant sin should never be confident that they are truly saved. Genuine Christians do not treat the grace of God so lightly (Titus 2:11-14).