| Why Jesus? |
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At heart Christianity is about a relationship with God through Christ. It sounds weird, but you really can 'know' God if you approach him in the way he says!
That relationship with God is a two-way relationship. But let's not kid ourselves! One of the parties in that relationship is all-wise, all-loving, all-powerful and the other party has messed up. The relationship we have with God is not, therefore, a relationship of equals - even though God treats us with incredible respect! And even though it's a relationship in which God works to repair our broken humanity, restoring it little by little so that we regain the dignity that God always intended us to have as the only creatures made in his image. That invites some questions, however:
That's what the 'gospel' explains!
God acted in Christ to reconcile us to himself - and also to reconcile us with each other. He actually gives us forgiveness and a new start individually. (One of the ways we use to describe this is 'being born again'). PLUS, God's salvation goes further. He draws all those he has 'saved' together into his new society - the church - to demonstrate his glorious plan of grace to all the universe.
As Christians then, we are followers of Christ - that is people who welcome him and receive him as our Leader (or 'Lord' if you prefer a Biblical term). How we follow Christ is not up to us to decide. It's up to him because he is the Father, the Lord, the Leader in this relationship.
That call to obey Jesus can seem a bit heavy until you 'know' him and find out how excellent he is - and how just, how merciful, how straightforward, how honest, etc. In short, once you find out how good God is, it's really not hard to want to follow him!
The name God gives to his call to humanity is 'the gospel'. There's a good explanation of 'the gospel' in two YouTube videos here:
There's another great summary of 'the gospel' on the web site of Mars Hill Church, Seattle.
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Links
Beacon Church Office 01932 569405