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God
The message of the Bible begins by teaching us that a holy and loving God has created us for the purpose of having fellowship with Him. As our Creator, He has the absolute right to establish the standards by which we are to live, and as His creatures, we have the responsibility to adhere to those standards as they are revealed in His Word, the Bible. These moral standards are nothing short of absolute perfection. "Therefore, you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).
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Man
The message of the Bible continues by teaching us that we have fallen short of God’s perfect standards for our lives because of sin. According to Scripture, "sin is lawlessness" (1 John 3:4), which means that it is rebellion against and indifference to God’s laws, or standards, for our lives. It is clear that sin is universal, since we are told that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Because a holy God can have no communion with sin, the consequence of sin is eternal death, or separation of our souls from God forever. "For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).
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Christ
The message of the Bible goes on to tell us that God, in His great love, sent His son, Jesus Christ, to bear the consequences of and pay the penalty for man’s sin. Christ did this voluntarily offering Himself as a sinless, substitutionary sacrifice on behalf of sinful men. In His death on the cross He took the sins of men upon Himself, being punished in their place as He endured the judgment of God for their sin, thereby forever satisfying the just demands of a holy God against sinful men. His resurrection from the dead was the supreme proof of His victory over sin and death, and therefore is the demonstration of God’s satisfaction with Christ’s death as a payment for sin. "For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might being us to God" (1 Peter 3:18).
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Repentance and Faith
The message of the Bible is also a summons for us to have repentance toward God and faith in Christ. To repent means that we must change our minds and hearts concerning our sin, so that we resolve to turn from that sin unto God, desiring to forsake it and follow Him. To believe means that we must depend upon and trust in Christ alone as the One who endured God’s judgment for man’s sin, in order that we may be delivered from sin's penalty of eternal death and receive God’s free gift of eternal life. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). As Christ's ambassadors, we urge you to repent and believe in Christ as your only sacrifice for sin and your only Lord and Savior. Become a true Christian today by faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone, to the glory of God alone!