About The Gospel

In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, God creates all of the universe and everything in it, including the first man and woman, Adam and Eve. God created Adam and Eve for may purposes. These included filling the earth with their offspring, tending to the Garden of Eden, and to be in complete fellowship with Him and each other.

While they lived in the Garden of Eden they regularly spent time with God and felt pure happiness and unadulterated joy. This is how God intended them to live. He only gave them one commandment, not to eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

In the same way God made Adam and Eve to be in fellowship with Him, that was his original plan for us. To have a absolute and perfect relationship with Him and that we would live in total unity with each other. God created us to be in harmony with all of Heaven and all of earth.

But that plan was disrupted by one evil act.

Adam and Eve were commanded not to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were tempted by Satan and sinned by doing the one things God had asked them not to do. When they ate from the tree they were immediately aware that they had did something wrong, they were ashamed, covered their nakedness and hid from God in the garden.

God confronted them face to face and as a result of their sin there were immediate and future consequences. These consequences included being banished from the Garden of Eden, all women having pain in childbirth, and our work turning from something we love and find joy in to some that we hate.

The last consequence did not happen immediatly, but instead would happen in the future, physical death. God had promised that the day they sinned by eating the fruit they would “surely die.” Spiritually Adam and Eve died the day they sinned in the garden. Their souls became immediately polluted by sin and selfishness. As a result all of their offspring (which includes you and me) is born sinful, selfish, and deprived of God’s fellowship.

When confronted by God, Adam blames Eve for being the first to sin, and then Eve blames the snake. Since then humanity has been hiding from God and playing the blame game ever since. What began as paradise unraveled with a single choice to disobey God and listen to Satan instead. Every war, famine, argument, sine and tragedy can be traced back to the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve chose to turn their backs on God.

Since the original sin, humanity has attempted to remove its stain with good deed. For example Cain offers God vegetables as an appeasement for his sin. God choose to reject this and in his anger Cain killed his brother Abel.

In Exodus, the second book of the Bible, God gave the people of Israel 10 Commandments. These were not to save them for their sins, but to show them that they couldn’t live up to His perfect standards on their own. Instead of looking to Him in faith many of the Jewish people looked to themselves and thought they could please God in their own strength. But God did not see their good deeds as good, but instead saw that they were done selfishly.

In Leviticus, the third book of the Bible, God gave the Israelites a sacrificial system. Every time a Jewish person sinned they were to sacrifice a goat without any blemishes. Think about that, if you were Jewish and alive during the Old Testament you would have to make a sacrifice even single time you sinned. You would soon run out of goats.

This sacrificial system was meant to convince us of our sinfulness. If you are an honest person you would soon realize that you could never make enough sacrifices for your sin.

The rest of the Old Testament tells the story of the Jewish people, some of whom realized they were sinners and needed God to save them, and most of whom trusted in their own goodness instead of mercy and grace of God.

Jesus came to earth as both fully God and fully human to fulfill the law and be the ultimate sacrifice. He lived a perfect life, with no sin, and died in our place for our sins. Right before he died on the cross he said the words “It is finished.” What he meant by these words was that the price of our sins was paid completely. As a perfect human he could die for others humans. As a true and living God his payment for sin was infinite.

Jesus rose from the dead three days after he was murdered on the cross. He was seen by over 500 witnesses on at least 12 separate occasions over the course of the following forty days, until he ascended to heaven. Because he died our sins are paid for entirely. Because he rose from the dead we know that Jesus was who he claimed to be, God in the flesh.

Because Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead we will be with Jesus forever in heaven. When we trust in Jesus we enter into a personal relationship with God called Eternal Life.

Part of the reality of eternal life is that it doesn’t start after you die but as soon as you believe. This life is the joy of a real, exciting relationship with Jesus every single say through prayer, worship, and living in the strength that God provides through his Holy Spirit.

The other part of the reality of eternal life is that all who have it will be with Jesus forever in heaven someday.

The amazing thing about eternal life is that it is a free gift given to us by God through faith alone and not by any of our good deeds. Jesus paid the price for our sins when he died on the cross. All we have to do to receive the gift of forgiveness is believe that Jesus died for our sins and trust in God! When we do this we can rest in knowing that when we die in this life we are guaranteed a home in heaven forever.

Eternal life is not achieved by good deeds but received through faith. It’s not a matter of trying but trusting. Almost the entire New Testament is dedicated to talking about this eternal life and the implications of it in our everyday lives. We are given examples through out the New Testament, from Jesus, his Disciples, and other to show us how to live, serving each other in love.