The Truth
What the Bible tells us about Jesus Christ is changing people’s lives, now and forever. All of us have more to discover for ourselves, and all of us have more to share with others. This is a really quick overview of what the Bible says – come and join us to dig into it more over time.
God makes
God is the Creator who brought the universe into being. On purpose. God created with wonderful artistry, variety, precision and patience. Like every human being, you were made in the image of God. On purpose. We were made to know and love God first, and then others around us, and to put ourselves after that.
We break
From the start of human existence, we have reversed all that. We have denied God’s rule over us, put ourselves in charge, others after us, and God last of all. We have become kings and queens of our own lives, believing that is where the best of life is. This default we live in is called sin, and it has been bending the world out of shape, and breaking its God-made goodness.
God promises… rescues… commands… warns… and judges
In that order. The Old Testament is the big story of how God has been at work over centuries. God made promises to bless all nations of the world through a people He rescued to belong to Him. He gave that people a Law to live by, to be a light to the world revealing the goodness of God to a world that had forgotten Him. This Law – about true worship, justice for the poor, hospitality to the outsider, purity of relationships, wholesome communities and fulness of family life – was one that God’s people failed to live up to again and again.
The Law God had given was not a ladder to get them back to God – it was a mirror that showed up the sin and error we all live in. In repeated cycles throughout the Old Testament, God’s people would sin, God would warn them to change course, and when they would not listen, He acted in judgement to set things right. Through it all, He promised a King and a Rescuer who would one day come to break this cycle of sin and judgement. Someone who would come to set God’s people free.
Jesus lives
The Son of God is born, to a virgin called Mary, to walk this Earth alongside us. This man – called Jesus (which means, ‘God saves’) – lives in Roman-occupied Palestine 2,000 years ago. He lives and understands an ordinary, hard-working human life like yours for the first 30 years. Then He starts saying amazing things. Doing amazing things. Making unbelievable claims. Performing impossible acts of healing, restoring and inclusion.
Jesus calls
Jesus starts inviting people, ‘Follow me.’ He claims He is the King God promised, bringing a Kingdom of God that will outlast and renew the brokenness of this world. He calls for people to know Him as the King to bow to and give our lives to. He claims He is the Rescuer God promised, coming to set people free from the cycle of sin and guilt and judgement that we’d been living in so long, and promising complete forgiveness of sin and even eternal life to those who would trust in Him. He calls God ‘Father,’ and He tells people that He has come to welcome them into the family to call God ‘Father’ too. Big, impossible claims – but then…
Jesus dies
Arrested by jealous authorities and sentenced to death by an unjust kangaroo court, Jesus goes to His death, crucified on a cross alongside criminals. But the Bible says this was more than just another Roman execution. Jesus claimed the purpose of His death was to forgive sins and set people free. People who started following Him began to write in the New Testament about how Jesus’ death set us free and saves us. How Jesus died as a substitute in our place, taking all of God’s judgement for the sin we’ve lived in on His shoulders and destroying it there on the cross. How it makes us innocent in God’s eyes and free to belong to God without fear now and forever.
Jesus rises
The Bible says that Jesus died one Friday, and then physically rose to life on the Sunday. This claim is central to believing in Jesus. The Bible itself says, if this isn’t true, everything else about believing in Jesus is nonsense. The claims the Bible makes about Jesus rising to life are solid – we’re discovering the truth of them in our reasoning and our experience. And they are exciting – because Jesus’ promise was that those whose trust is in Him shall also live beyond death, safely home with the God we were made to know forever. Jesus’ resurrection is the proof of His identity and His claims. It is the cornerstone of our faith. And it is the reason for living with new hope, freedom, perspective and joy.
Spirit given
After Jesus ascended to Heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit – the very presence of God – to live in every person who puts their trust in Jesus. The Holy Spirit is at work to point people to Jesus, convince us of our need for Him, give us gifts to use to share with the Church and the world, and to unite people in their faith in Jesus. God is at work, by His Spirit, through the Church, to bring transformation to society, and ever increasing measures of those things the Law was given for – true worship, justice for the poor, hospitality to the outsider, purity of relationships, wholesome communities and fulness of family life.
Jesus returns
The Bible says that Jesus will return one day. And that will be the close of the history of this world. A new Heaven and a new Earth will begin – where all things are set right, the world will be renewed in the perfection that was intended for it, and there will be no more sin, death, suffering, pain or injustice. Those who have been made new through their faith in Jesus will be part of that – those who have not, won’t. Only that which is saved will be eternal. Which is why we want to share this message of the Bible with you now!
