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The Bible claims that the good news about Jesus is God’s powerful means to change lives—to change your life (Romans 1:16). This good news starts with hard news, just like a doctor shares the diagnosis before the cure. But we love you enough to tell you the truth, because it is this truth that can transform.
The Bible claims that the good news about Jesus is God’s powerful means to change lives—to change your life (Romans 1:16). This good news starts with hard news, just like a doctor shares the diagnosis before the cure. But we love you enough to tell you the truth, because it is this truth that can transform your life.
You were created
for a purpose
God created you in his image, unique from everything else in creation, so you could have a relationship with him. He made you for delight, for life, and for a purpose.
Instead of loving, serving, and worshiping God, you want to be God. You ignore him, disobey him, and love, serve, and worship other things instead. We all do this by nature. We’re sinners. The Bible says the wages for sin is death (Romans 6:23). The result of your sin is that you’re spiritually dead, unable to experience the life of purpose and joy God designed you for. For all who choose to reject him, God will not welcome them into his joyous presence in eternity, but will require that they bear his just punishment for their own sins for eternity in hell.
“For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish
but have eternal life.”
(John 3:16 ESV)
Since we could do nothing to restore our relationship with God, God came to us. God sent his perfect Son, Jesus, who is fully God, into the world to save us from sin, because no sinful human can make another human right with God.
“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10 ESV)
Because God is good, he is just. Sin had to be dealt with, so God sent his Son to pay the cost himself, and Jesus joyfully took the punishment for your sins upon himself, out of love.
“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 ESV).
By conquering death through his resurrection, Jesus made the way for us to have new life. Through him, we can be “born again” into God’s family, now able to know God not just as our Creator but as our Heavenly Father.
“He [God] has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead”
(1 Peter 1:3 ESV)
God made Jesus Lord and King over all. Jesus is now in heaven, alive. Being the Savior, Jesus is also the Lord, to whom every knee must bow.
“So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19 ESV)
Jesus will return to judge the world. Those who accept his free sacrifice will join him in eternal joy. Those who reject his free sacrifice will pay the penalty for their own sin for all eternity.
“So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:28 ESV).
What do you have to do? That’s just it; God has done all that needed to take place for you to enter into a relationship with him and receive his free gift of new life. You just have to take him at his Word, and believe him—that you’re a sinner, that Jesus is the only Savior, and that he is worthy of your trust from this day forward.
God gives a special gift to all who believe in Jesus—himself. He actually comes to live inside of us forever. Without the gift of the Holy Spirit, we would have no power to live out our new life. But by the Holy Spirit, we are free from the power of sin to live in a way that pleases God.
The Christian life is a life of faith, of trusting God and believing all that he says. That’s why Christians are often called “believers.” How will you know that you are living by faith, trusting in and depending on God?
Life looks different with Jesus. You’re a new person. God has specific things he has planned for you to do in the world with him (Ephesians 2:10). With the Lord at the center of your life, all is rightly oriented. There’s peace between you and your Maker, an unbreakable love between you and your Heavenly Father. And now you get to discover more and more of him every day, and join him on the joyful journey of following him into his will for your life and into an eternity with him forever when this life is over.
Open your Bible to Ephesians 1-3. Take a pen and highlighter, get a piece of paper, or open a note on your phone. Write down every phrase in this passage that describes who you are as a child of God.
