I think if we’re honest we can look at the world and see it’s in a huge mess. But it wasn’t always that way.

God created the world perfect, and mankind perfect, and was in a perfect connected relationship to His creation. God is perfect love, perfect truth, perfect holiness. He created mankind in His image and with a free will to love Him as He loves us.

The scriptures tell us that for a time the first man and woman were in perfect relationship with their Creator. Walking and talking with Him every day in this beautiful world He had created for them.

However by their own free will they listened to the lie of the evil one, doubted God, and wanted to be like God for themselves. Sin had entered the human race. And the wages of sin was death.

Adam and Eve would have lived forever in perfect relationship to God if they hadn’t sinned. But instead their sinful nature has been passed down from generation to generation as part of our human DNA. That’s why the world is in a mess. Just like them, we think we can live life on our own terms, apart from God.

But because God loves us so much, He wants to rescue us from the power of sin and death and restore us to a right relationship with Himself. Without Him, we send ourselves to hell. Hell is separation from God because of our sin.

So to rescue us God came to this earth as a man. Jesus…God the Son, born of a virgin, who grew and walked the dust of this earth… God Himself in human flesh! Jesus was the incarnation of God the Father and everything He is. Sinless. Full of mercy and compassion. Slow to anger. Abounding in love. He went about doing good and healing ALL who came to Him. He showed us the very heart of God because He is God!

Jesus, because He was sinless, was able to take the punishment our rebellion and sin deserves…by dying on a wooden cross as a sacrifice in our place, and taking the full wrath of God against sin and rebellion on His own shoulders.

Then on the third day Jesus conquered death and rose from the grave….proving beyond doubt that He was God and making a way for mankind to be reunited once more in a relationship with their Creator by faith and trust in what He has done.

Jesus left the Holy Spirit as our guarantee. He lives in the hearts of all who believe and is our living hope that we too, shall rise from death and live eternally with God in heaven.

Mankind tries to make it about religion.

Religion says “we must work our way up to God, we must be “good”, we need to earn our way into God’s favour…but Christianity is about how God came to us and loved us even in the midst of our sin.

Even while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

It is not dependent upon our “goodness”!

God gave us the ten commandments as a mirror so that we can see our true sinful condition. Not one of us can say we are “good” when we measure ourselves against God’s perfect standard of the ten commandments.

For example take the commandment “Thou shalt not lie.” All of us have lied. All of us have broken at least one commandment at least once.

When we humble ourselves with this realisation, we are not without hope.

We can look to Jesus. That’s why He came. To rescue us from the power of sin and death.

All it takes is a simple step of faith that God has paid the price for our sin, and loves us, and wants to be in a relationship with us.

That is the Good News of the Gospel!

Will you take by faith what God by His grace has provided?

Simply:

1. Admit you’re not “good”. Ask God for forgiveness. “All have sinned falling short of God’s glory. (Romans 3:23)
2. Believe Jesus is Lord. Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father but by Me.” (John 14:6)
3. Call upon His Name. “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

If you have prayed this then make sure you pick up a Bible and read it daily, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand what you read.

Your spirit is now alive to God and He will speak to your heart through His Word. Prayer is us talking to God, but reading the Bible is God speaking to us.

Through your trust in what Jesus has done, you will no longer be separated from God because of your sin, but united with him in a relationship that will positively change your world! His Holy Spirit will live in your heart as a guarantee. You will never be the same!

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