by Chito Tolosa

The message of Christianity is really quite simple. It is a message from the Bible about God and His son, Jesus. It is about life and death.

The Christian message is that God is the ruler, the king. God rules the world because He made the world. He made it and He owns it.

God created people in His own image and put them in charge of the world—to rule it, and to care for it. He appointed humanity to supervise and look after the world, but always under His divine authority, to honor Him and to obey His directions. It all sounds rather ideal—God in heaven, people ruling the world according to His commands, and everything right with the world. But everything is very obviously not right with us or the world.

The sad truth is that, from the very beginning, men and women everywhere have rejected God by doing things their own way. We prefer to follow our own desires, and to run things our own way, without God. This rebellious attitude is what the Bible calls ‘sin’. By rejecting God we made a mess not only of our own lives, but of our society and the world as well. The result is misery.

There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks after God. All have turned aside (Romans 3:10-12).

The death sentence God passed against us is entirely just, because He gave us exactly what we asked for.

This is a terrible thing, to fall under the sentence of God’s judgment. We are all guilty of rebelling against God. Are we all destined for death and everlasting ruin? If not for God’s own miraculous intervention, we would be.

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment (Hebrews 9:27).

Because of His great love and generosity, God sent His own divine Son into our world to become a man—Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus died as a substitute for rebels like us. Jesus paid the debt that we owe God, by dying in our place. He took the full force of God’s justice on Himself, so that forgiveness and pardon might be available to us.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 3:18).

God accepted Jesus’ death as payment in full for our sins, and raised Him from the dead. The Bible promises that one day, He will return to call all of us to account for our actions.

Jesus offers us new life, both now and eternally. Now, our sins can be forgiven through Jesus’ death and we can make a fresh start with God, no longer as rebels but as friends. In this new life, God Himself comes to live within us by His Spirit. We can experience the joy of a new relationship with God. The risen Jesus will give us eternal life, not because we have earned it, but because He has died in our place.

In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3).

We can continue with our rebellion against God, and try to run our lives our own way without Him. Sadly, this is the option that many people choose. Or we can receive this Christian message and repent and believe that Jesus became a man to die for our sins that He may grant us a new life that goes beyond death and into forever. No longer as rebels but as part of God’s own family, as His adopted sons and daughters.

He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, but he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God’s abides on him (John 3:36).