The primary message of Christianity is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word gospel means “good news.” Christianity offers the best news of all time! It offers the only solution to our most pressing problems. No educational program, political party, or psychological therapy is able to address the deepest problem of the human race. Though human wisdom has brought many temporary benefits to us, history has proven how inadequate we are to address the profound guilt and widespread, universal corruption under which our world groans. God, and God alone, has the answer.

God is a loving, gracious, merciful, kind, compassionate God. But he is also a pure, holy, just, righteous God who loves uprightness but hates iniquity. We are all born condemned sinners before this holy God. We justly deserve death and hell for our sins that flow from our sin nature. We therefore cannot have fellowship with God as we ought, because we do not have like natures. We are so corrupted by sin that we could never save ourselves or do anything to remedy our lost position and condition.

The gospel reveals that God has come and won the victory for us. It is good news precisely because it is not about what we have done or can do, but what God has done and will do. The gospel declares divine intervention into a hopeless world. The gospel announces the good news of the coming of Jesus Christ. Approximately two thousand years ago, during the height of the Roman Empire, God sent His Son into human history in order to save people of every nation from their sins and misery. Christ was conceived by the Spirit of God in the womb of a virgin and was born Jesus of Nazareth, the God-man.

The great question is: How can God be just, yet pardon those who should justly be condemned? How can God be holy, yet befriend those who are evil? Anyone who justifies the wicked is an abomination to the Lord (Proverbs 17:15). How then can the Lord justify sinners like us and still be just (Romans 3:26)? If God acts according to His justice, then the sinner must be condemned. If God pardons the sinner, then His justice is compromised. The answer to this greatest of all dilemmas can be found only in the gospel. In justice, God condemned humanity and demanded complete satisfaction for our crimes against Him. In love, God took humanity upon Himself, bore our sin, suffered the penalty we deserved, and died in our place. The same God whose justice demanded satisfaction for our sin made satisfaction by offering Himself in our place. This is what makes the gospel truly good news!

Jesus came to bear the sins of fallen men and women and to offer His life as a sacrifice in our place. His death satisfied the demands of God’s justice against sinners and made it possible for a just God to pardon them. His resurrection three days later testified that He is the Son of God and that God accepted His death as full payment for our sin. Now, all people may be fully forgiven, reconciled to God, and receive eternal life through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Through this great work of salvation, God has revealed to us who He is.

What must we do to be saved? We must respond to the gospel message with repentance and faith.

Mark 1:15 - The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
Acts 20:21 - Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Repentance involves a change of mind leading to a recognition that what God says is true and that we have been wrong. A genuine recognition of our sinfulness and guilt will also lead to genuine sorrow, shame, and even hatred for what we have become and done. True repentance will also be accompanied by a change of the will that produces right actions—especially, a turning away from sin and a turning to God in obedience. One of the greatest evidences of genuine repentance is that we are not only turning away from sin but we are also turning away from trusting in our own virtue, merits, or works to gain a right standing before God.

Faith is more than a belief in the existence of God; it also involves a trust, confidence, or reliance upon His character and the truthfulness of His word. People with genuine faith do not merely believe there is a God but they trust what He has said and rely upon it. Faith is a receiving grace. It is a term that simply denotes union with Christ. Repentance will not save you, and likewise, faith will not save you. Only Jesus Christ alone can save you. But faith is what joins us to Christ. We are saved by grace through faith.

We urge you to prayerfully examine yourself, whether you are in Christ or not. Whether you are trusting in Christ alone or if there is any trust in your own righteousness. Whether you have made an empty profession void of any fruit or evidence of salvation and no change in your heart, in your thinking, in your desires. Don't delay! Turn to Jesus Christ and trust in him today. In John 6:37 Jesus says "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." He will receive you if you come to him in faith seeking to be saved from your sin by him and him alone. If you have questions about salvation, please do not hesitate to contact us. We would love to help you come to know God through Jesus Christ and grow in that knowledge by developing a lifelong relationship with Him.