Good news!

    Let me tell you the good news. This news is something that everyone needs to hear, and no one on earth will go unaffected by it. It is the best story ever, and every word is true.

   In the beginning, God created everything. One of His creations was a man made in His image. He gave this man one rule, and the man broke it. This was the first sin, or act of disobedience to God. God cursed the man and all of creation.

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—
-Romans 5:12
 

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,

-Romans 3:23-24  

   Sin didn't just effect that first man, Adam. He passed on his sin nature to his children, the whole human race. We are all born as slaves to sin.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
-Romans 6:23 

   God is just - He cannot let sin go unpunished. He is perfect and holy, completely set apart from us. His wrath must be poured out on sin. For mankind, this means the torments eternal death and separation from God. None of us could ever be "good" enough to satisfy God's standard, and we cannot bargain with Him.

 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
-John 3:16

   God is loving as well as just. He is one God in three persons - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Son, Jesus, lived on earth as a human. He lived a totally sinless life. He died on a Roman cross and took the punishment for our sin. Three days later, He rose from the grave, victorious over death and offering new life.

 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Romans 10:9-10

   This is God's amazing gift to us - eternal life through faith in Jesus can be ours. We need no longer  to fear eternal death, but instead have a life that will go on after our bodies die. We need to believe and trust in His salvation, telling with our mouths that He is now our Lord.


For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,  not of works, lest anyone should boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
-Ephesians 2:8-10

   Once we have trusted in Christ Jesus, we have a new life. We receive the Holy Spirit, who will help us to live a life that is pleasing to God. We will still sin as long as we are in our earthly bodies, but are no longer slaves to sin. Now we are free! 

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 
Romans 8:1