What is important about church? Why should we believe in God? How do I know the truth? These are only a few of many questions that people ask about Christianity.

The gospel (or good news) begins with the person of Jesus Christ who is fully Deity (or the Son of God, Colossians 2:9) and came to earth as fully human while never losing his status as being fully Deity. He was the only human to ever live who never sinned (Hebrews 4:15). This is important because God does not allow sin into His presence (1 Peter 1:16) and therefore humankind cannot enter His presence because we have all sinned (Romans 3:23). However, Jesus Christ in His state of perfection comes before God the Father on his own merit representing our needs (1 John 2:1). Our state of guiltiness before God requires just punishment and Christ’s personal sacrifice on the cross meets God’s holy requirement of justice.

Compare it to society, a righteous judge has to judge the criminals who come into his court according to the law that he made an oath to uphold. He does not remain just if he does not uphold this law of our society. God is just and his standard (or law) is complete righteousness (which is 100% adherence to His standard without any mistake) therefore He cannot simply let us slide for our wrongdoing. However, because He loves us so much (we are His creation) He sent His Son to become human so that Jesus could be punished in our place (John 3:16). The just punishment for our sin is death (Romans 6:23) therefore Christ had to die in our place so that we would be able to be declared innocent and righteous before God (Romans 5:8-9).

As a result of Jesus Christ’s magnanimous sacrifice all we need in order to become righteous is accept His free gift by faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). There is not one act of goodness we can do to earn this free gift. All you have to do is believe that you are a sinner, believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and believe that He died for your sins. If you believe these things, accepting that the Bible is true, then you are guaranteed a place in the kingdom of God.

It is important to understand that we cannot earn this gift of innocence because it is beyond our reach and we do not have the ability to achieve such a status before God. Once you have sinned you cannot go back in time and change that. The only way to receive this status of innocence before God is to accept this free gift through Jesus Christ. It is by God’s tremendous act of kindness that this gift is offered to us in the first place. It is a privilege to be able to accept such a wonderful and valuable gift and any one who desires it is able to do so

Once you accept Christ as your personal Savior this is just the beginning of your new life. The Bible calls us “new creatures” and we now begin to live our new life by learning the Scriptures in order to act righteously. The best way to do this is to be a part of a biblical church fellowship. The church provides family for all believers and will train you in the way that is right. At Calvary our purpose is to do just this so that all can know Jesus Christ and live a joyful and obedient life before the Father.