Who is Jesus?

We believe that the God of the Bible is real, he is glorious, he is powerful, he is good and he is loving. He has existed for eternity as one God in three persons and this is referred to as "the trinity". This wild Biblical idea is one that no human would ever have made up and it means there are three persons in the Godhead. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And since forever, the three of them have been hanging out enjoying each other in perfect loving communion.

Then one day, God decided to create the heavens and the earth and everything on the earth including human beings. God created man in his image and in the beginning everything was awesome. Adam the first man and Eve the first woman were living in perfect, joy-filled, peaceful relationship with God when they were lied to and tricked by Satan into rebelling against their creator. They turned their back on him in disobedience and thus became slaves to sin, separated from God. We call this "the fall" and it's when everything in the world got really messed up. Man has been believing lies ever since that treasonous day, and we all experience the loss and alienation that came as a result of the rebellion. Man's relationship with God was destroyed and man's relationship with his fellow man was also seriously marred. The Bible teaches that Adam's sin infects everyone and the penalty for sinning against the righteous and Holy God of the universe is death.

After that God set in motion his plan of redemption, his plan to save people from slavery to sin, his plan to fix it all. Throughout history God has been working to gather a people for himself and that culminated in the life, death and resurrection of his son Jesus.

It was just over 2,000 years ago that Jesus came as a baby, born in a small town in the Middle east. His mom -Mary was just a teenager. He wasn't rich and his family wasn't important. He was born in a barn, and he grew up working in the trades with his step-dad Joseph.

Back then people called him Jesus of Nazareth, but we refer to him as Jesus Christ, the Lord. Jesus is easily the most popular, influential controversial and important person who has ever walked the face of the earth.

He lived on earth only 33 years. Thirty of those years were lived in relative obscurity –working, learning and growing up with his family in his village. Jesus had siblings, he ate, he drank, he laughed, he made friends. He was human just like you and me, except for one really big thing. He never did anything wrong, evil or "unrighteous". Jesus never sinned. Jesus was always good, in fact he was perfectly good.

That's because Jesus was more than just a man. We refer to Joseph as Jesus' step-dad because in reality, God is Jesus' father. The Bible states plainly that Jesus was the son of God and that he himself was also God. He is "one" with God. We can call Jesus the God/Man because he was 100% God and 100% man. How? That part is an amazing mystery.

At age 30 he began his brief public ministry. For 3 years he travelled around healing the sick, feeding the hungry, standing up for the poor and disenfranchised, and confronting the religious leaders of the day. He spent most of his time with people, going to parties and preaching the "good news of the Kingdom of God".

Jesus, was sent to earth by his father on the mission to make a way for mankind to be reunited in relationship with God. This was accomplished as Jesus lived a perfect and sinless life that we were meant to live and then died the death we deserved to die. He was killed on a cross as an innocent sacrifice to pay for the sins of humanity. He didn't deserve to die, but he was framed to take the hit for you and me. He rose from the dead after three days conquering sin, Satan and death. Those who put their faith in him and follow him get to live in fellowship with him for eternity.

And that's the good news that we call "The Gospel." John 3:16 captures the essence of the message well. It says "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." 1 Peter 3:18 says "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God."

We are invited to believe in him, to put our faith in him so that we can be freed from our sin, and united with him in a glorious and personal relationship. Putting your faith in Jesus means believing in him, and relying on him and his work on the cross in order to be saved from eternal separation from God in hell. The wages of sin is death, but joy filled, purposeful life is found in Jesus the Christ.