REPENT AND BELIEVE

An eternally sovereign God created the heavens, the earth, the seas, and all the things that are in them. He created the birds of the air, the creatures of the seas, the creatures that walk and dwell on the land, and He created man. He created man and woman in His likeness and image and planted them in the midst of His creation to subdue it and have dominion over it. 

God made them husband and wife, and they were to oversee and take care of the earth where God planted them. Together they were to multiply and fill the very space they were created to subdue. God provided everything they could ever want or need. The only thing that wasn't for them, was the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. 

God gave the man and the woman a clear warning that if they ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, they would surely die. Outside of this one command, they were free to do all that they wanted in God's perfect picture. 

But Satan, the devil, came to the woman in the form of a serpent and tempted her to eat of the tree God forbade them to eat from. She ate of it and convinced her husband to eat of it, disobeying God and setting the stage for our fallen world. 

They lost their perfect moral standing with God after sin entered them, bringing forth death, sickness, and every kind of evil. Over time, human hands influenced by sin would bring about the pestilence, the chaos, the destruction, that marks our fallen world.

Because of our fallen state, we are doomed to sin against the God who created everything good for both His and our pleasure. And the day will come where He will end sin once and for all. In the end He will judge the world, and His wrath will be poured out over it. 

He will judge those who came and went, those in the here and now, and those who are to come, on the day that He has reserved for His judgment. Not a single one of us can escape the wrath of God because we all sin against Him at some point or another. God has no sin. He hates sin. He is going to judge sin, and He is going to pay sin the wages of death it deserves. That means death for us all. A physical one and a spiritual one. 

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This is unquestionably bad news for us all. Our inability to keep God's moral law perfectly seals our fate, but there is good news. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. In His love for us, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to be the sacrificial atonement for our sins. 

God sent His Son Jesus Christ. He was born of a virgin. Lived a sinless life on our behalf. Endured the punishment for sin to the satisfaction of God's wrath on our behalf. He laid His life down crucified to a cross for our sins and our transgressions. Only to rise from the grave three days later, conquering sin and death in the process. He sits at the right hand of the Father with all glory and power, possessing the only name under heaven by which we can be saved. 

On the cross, Jesus Christ became our sin so that in turn, we can become God's righteousness in Him. With this, we receive forgiveness for our sins and the promise of eternal life. It is appointed unto man to die once and then comes the judgment. 

We cannot escape a physical death. It is an established consequence of sin. But by the power of Jesus Christ and His finished work of salvation on the cross, we can be saved from a spiritual one. This spiritual death being eternal separation from God to a place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

Eternal separation from God is the punishment reserved for the one who rejects the gift of salvation granted to us in Jesus Christ. But the one who receives this gift, eternal life awaits them. By the disobedience of one man, sin entered the world bringing death to all. But by the obedience of another, Jesus Christ, salvation entered the earth as a gift to all. 

This is the love and grace of God. This is the good news of Jesus Christ. This is the gospel. So, repent of your sins and believe in the gospel for your salvation today!