Simply put, it is God’s love story. God, through the sacrificial death of His Son Jesus, has made it possible for some to spend eternity with Him. Perhaps the most famous verse in all the Bible states this profoundly, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but receive eternal life.” That’s in the third chapter of John’s Gospel in verse 16.

The Gospel isn’t really just Good News. The Gospel is Great News since we had no other way to reach eternity with God in heaven. Each one of us was born into the world as sinners and God is a Holy God! That means that we are separated from him. He is repelled by sin just as a magnet is repelled by its opposite pole. As sinners, we cannot offer any acceptable sacrifice to God to lessen the effect of our sins. And that’s why God sent Jesus, the only sinless sacrifice to die for the sins of His flock. Jesus is the only person in history that lived a perfect life without any sin. Therefore, He is the only fitting sacrifice that can be offered to a Holy God. Jesus stood in our place as our substitute when He was crucified on the cross. He took our sin and the punishment that we rightly deserved. On the third day he rose from the dead; victorious over sin and death. His resurrection is the sign that God accepted this Great Transaction. It is the sign that all who are united to Christ through the gift of faith are forgiven and will inherit eternal life. 

Faith, believing in and personally trusting Jesus’ finished work, is the key to being reconciled to God and acquiring eternal life. Just two verses after John 3:16 we read, “Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” It is a gift. It is received by grace through faith. That means that you know that you can’t earn it and you can’t deserve it. Will you receive His gift and live as His child? We can help you on this quest. Just ask! None of us are perfect; but we know the One who is, and we would love to point you to him and his gift of forgiveness.