Hear the good news

Welcome

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Hello and welcome to the beginning of an adventure, the possible birthplace to the rest of your life. However you came to be here, whether you saw us on the streets of Stevenage doing what Jesus told us to do, or you got here through a friend, a recommendation, one of our leaflets or calling cards, our advert in the Comet or simply by accident it matters not, we think it might just be God calling you?

I, the author, am a Christian, which means I have forsaken my former selfish existence to follow Jesus Christ and have put my faith in Him as my saviour. It also means that I worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and take the Holy Bible to be my ultimate authority on life. I am also "born again", which means I have repented of my sins and been Baptised in water and spirit.

I am now working out my salvation by faith in Jesus and obeying his commandments, resisting sin to walk righteously and live a life pleasing to God. 

Right now, I am guessing that you are finding all this totally alien and, frankly, rather daft.

"The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him" [1 Cor 2 v 14] however, it also says in the same letter to the Corinthians "the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight". [1 Cor 3 v 19]

The big problem for mankind is that we have chosen to rebel against the God who made us and do everything our own way. God has told us that we face eternal separation from him unless we change our ways. To put it bluntly, we will spend an eternity in Hell and that is bad, real bad. But the good news is that we can do something about it.

This web site aims to give you, the discerning reader, the truth about your eternal destination and an opportunity to find out how you can be rescued from the impending judgement on the world. This is what we Christians call "Salvation".

It is also important to note, at this stage, that salvation is a continual process. However, we take these first 5 important steps and then we live the life that Jesus wants us to live.

Why do you need salvation?

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The first thing we need to explain is why you need salvation? After all you don't go to a Doctor if you don't think you are ill?

It all starts at the beginning. When God made man he made him in his image [Gen 1 v 26] and he was perfect in every way [Gen 1 v 31]. Man did not sin and was put in charge of the whole Earth [Gen 1 vs 28-30]. Man was also immortal; we learn this just after Adam had blown it and lost his immortality [Gen 3 v 22],  Man had direct communication with God [Gen 3 vs 8-9].

There is a bad guy we call Satan.  He was once the mightiest of all the Angels, the most loved by God but he too got proud and thought he could do things his way. For that he was punished and cast out of Heaven. so he contrived to spoil God's creation. Satan appeared to Eve in the form of a snake and deceived Eve into disobeying God. Eve, in turn, persuaded her husband Adam to do the same [Gen 3 vs 1-7]. Thus sin entered into the world. This is what is known as the "Fall of Man". Can you accept this or does it just sound like a fairy story to you? Be careful because that is just the way Satan would love you to see it.

God had set the rules and the standards by which Man was to behave and explained the consequences of disobedience [Gen 2 vs 16-17]. When these rules were broken the punishment had to be carried out just as in a court of law today. If God had turned a blind eye then his laws would be meaningless.

The punishment for sin was death and separation from God. Man was no longer to be immortal and could not have direct communion with God, being banished from the garden of Eden he now had to work hard for his living [Gen 3 v 23].

Unfortunately this "problem" did not end with Adam and Eve and affects all mankind. [Rom 5 vs 12] This remains the case until the end comes and God judges the world, but that is a story for another time. We are, therefore, born into sin. We start out life already in rebellion against God.

Through Moses, God gave us some laws he wants us to keep but we just cannot seem to be able to keep them. We call these laws the 10 commandments [Exo 20 vs 1-17]. For reconciliation with God we would need to be perfect and keep all God's commandments forever. In a fallen World this is just not possible.

The real bad news is that when we die, the physical body may die but the spirit remains. Most atheists believe that death is annihilation, the end of it all, simply oblivion. The Bible tells us however, that death is not annihilation, that we will continue to exist but separated from God in a place called Hell and it is not a nice place to be. Once we are there, there is no coming back, no second chance [Matt 18 vs 7-9].

Fortunately, it is not all doom and gloom. There is good news, God has a rescue plan.

What is the good news?

Enter on to the scene Jesus Christ. Jesus claimed to be the Son of God [Matt 16 vs 13-17] and referred to God as his father [John 5 vs 17-18]. While Jesus was on Earth he was also all human and could suffer pain and emotion and be limited by space and time just as we are.

Jesus was regarded as a Rabbi, or teacher [John 3 vs 1-2] and a healer [Luke 9 vs 10-11]. He could command the weather [Luke 8 v 24-25], cast out demons [Luke 4 vs 31-37], perform many miracles [Luke 9 vs 10-17] and even raise the dead [Luke 8 vs 40-56]. Jesus spent much of his early ministry bringing meaning to the Law of Moses, describing the Kingdom of God, teaching his disciples, healing the sick and casting out demons. However, all this was secondary to his main purpose which was to die for our sins and thus carry out God's rescue plan for us.

Yes, Jesus who was perfect and never sinned [1Peter 2 v 22] had to die to pay the penalty for our sins so that we could finally be reconciled with God [Rom 5 vs 7-10].

This is like a Judge fining us a huge sum of money that we could never pay, for a genuine crime we had committed. If we cannot pay, the Judge tells us that we will have to go to jail, but someone else comes along and pays it for us, thus freeing us from jail even though we were not innocent and had done the crime. We have neither deserved it nor earned it [Eph 2 vs 1-5].

Jesus is crucified on a cross, for no crime he had committed, and dies. But after three days God raises Jesus from the dead because death could not hold him and thus the curse of death on us is lifted. This is the Gospel, or good news, of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah!

Why is it good news?

God sends his son to rescue us and we kill him! Does that not seem like an odd form of good news? The Pharisees and Sadduccees, Jewish rules and teachers of the Law of Moses, thought they were getting rid of a nuisance and threat to their power base. The people were disappointed because they were hoping for a military leader who would rid them of the Romans. But it was always in God's plan for this to happen as was predicted exactly by the prophet Isaiah over 700 years earlier! [Isaiah 53]

The nature of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus bear witness to the fulfillment of this prophesy. Through miracles, signs and wonders and fulfillment of prophesies, God showed the people that Jesus was truly his son that was predicted to come [Acts 2 vs 22-23].

Jesus dies a horrible physical death on the Cross, but what we are not fully aware of is the other battle going on in the unseen spirit world. I will spare you for now of the scant details we have about what happened in those 3 days; just suffice to say it was critical to God's rescue plan for us.

God raises Jesus from the dead after three days and does another vitally important thing which is sometimes overlooked. He exalts Jesus to sit at his right hand and makes him Lord and Christ [Acts 2 vs 33-36]. This may, at first seem rather alien, so in simpler words he gives Jesus all authority in Heaven and on Earth to intercede between us and God, so that through him we can be reconciled with God even though we are still sinners. More to the point, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved which is the point of this whole message. We cannot do this for ourselves and we cannot earn it either. Good works will not get you to Heaven but call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and, by grace (that is, given as a free gift), you will be saved. Halellujah!

Finally, Jesus is given the promised Holy Spirit which he sends in his place to be a helper. We will come back to this Holy Spirit later in step 4 (Baptism).

Are there strings attached?

Oh yes, I am afraid so, you are not getting away with it that easy. God has provided the rescue plan; Jesus has put it into action AND YOU HAVE TO RESPOND TO IT!!

Move on to step 2 (Believe) to find out what to do next...